The Southold town board will discuss the hot button topic of short term rentals again tomorrow as they debate changes to the draft that would call for a 14-night minimum.
“Overall, the law is largely intact as originally proposed with only some minor changes to provide clarity. The obvious significant change is the change from a required seven-night minimum to a 14-night minimum,” Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said this week. “Some on the board believed that the originally proposed seven-night minimum didn’t adequately address the challenge that these operations presented to the town. A seven-night minimum would have still left a ‘turnover’ of new guests every weekend. The turnover rate is one of the essential components not only of the business model but of community complaints as well. Reducing the turnover rate reduces the impact these operations will have on all of the concerns that were raised.”
He added that the board plans to discuss the issue at tomorrow’s work session, with the goal of having the new draft ready to be noticed at the regular meeting tomorrow night. “It’s not clear that we have the four votes necessary to notice the proposed new code but we will see how the conversation unfolds,” he said.
Councilman Jim Dinizio says enforcement is key: “I think before we start making new laws we should actively enforce the laws we have on the books already. The current proposed law would have given our code enforcer the tools to do that. But it seems that we will likely pass a 14-day law and only enforce it on a complaint driven basis. Isn’t that how we got 300 of these things on our town in the first place?”
Councilwoman Jill Doherty agreed and said she liked the initially proposed seven-night minimum. “We need to hire more code enforcement. I dont want to approve any new code with out giving it support to be able to work.”
After last week’s code committee meeting, where the proposal for the short term rental law was reassessed, Councilman Bob Ghosio said the discussion focused primarily on the length of stay needed to define the short term rental.
“The board decided to look at it again because the overwhelming reaction from the public was that seven days was not enough to affect any kind of a real change from the current situation that allows for frequent turnover of renters in residential neighborhoods, primarily every weekend. While not universally approved, some wanting 30 days, others content with trying the seven days, and others wanting no regulations, the greater number of responses we received at the hearing and via letters, was for 14 or 30 days,” he said.
The code committee decided to move forward with the 14 day minimum, and Ghosio agreed. “This will essentially allow for short term rentals for no less than 14 days at a time, decreasing the turnover of neighbors one might have living next to them. Of course, the landlord can choose to have the renters stay for shorter periods, but would not be able to rent again until the 14 days was passed. Some people argue that they cannot stay for two weeks but this law won’t stop them from taking shorter stays, just that the landlord can’t re-rent it until after 14 days from the beginning of the first rental period. Also, the way the law is constructed, subletting would not be an option that could be used to skirt the law.”
Ghosio added that in his opinion, the 14 days minimum is the best option at this point to help mitigate what has become a growing problem in town.
“I recognize that folks love to visit and enjoy everything that our town has to offer, however, allowing the proliferation of a new business model that allows for such a high frequency of visitor turnover in our residential neighborhoods, only profits the investor and, in my view, lends to decreasing the value of, and enjoyment of, the full time resident’s home. I have always maintained that when people look for a home in a residential zone, they do so with a realistic expectation of being in a ‘neighborhood’ —that is, with other full-time, or at least long-term, neighbors. It is a security we all appreciate and is certainly a large part of the value of living in a residential atmosphere as opposed to living in a more commercial area where transient rentals are more consistent to the zone.”
Enforcement is critical, Ghosio agreed. “We are discussing hiring another code enforcer so that we can be more proactive as this law comes into play. We will also be embarking on a potentially more comprehensive rental law in the future,” he said.
In late June, after months of discussion and a sharply divided public, the Southold Town board voted down draft short term rental legislation.
The draft legislation read that short term rentals could be no less than seven nights.
“I think we can do better with legislation to address the problem,” Russell said.
After a marathon public hearing on the short-term rental issue, those for and against sites such as airbnb.com weighed in, with a major source of contention being the requirement regarding the number of nights for short-term rentals.
