A hot-button topic will be discussed in Greenport tomorrow, as Village Trustee Doug Roberts invites residents to an informal roundtable to share their thoughts on short-term rentals.
The meeting will focus on rental housing in Greenport “today and in the future,” Roberts said, and will be held tomorrow morning from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at The Loft, above the Harborfront Deli on Front Street; owner Perry Angelson has agreed to let residents use the space for the gathering.
“The conversation will be open-ended and informal,” facilitated by Roberts, he said. “As one of the five people elected to decide the village’s policy on short-term rentals, I am interested to gather some folks to kick around some ideas. I hope we’ll all share, listen, and learn.”
Those attending should bring their own coffee.
At last week’s work session, Roberts said not much has been done over the past year to address the issue and he said he’d like to get a group together to exchange ideas with the hope of eventually creating some draft legislation.
Short-term rentals is an issue that’s sharply divided the Southold Town community. On Tuesday, after months of heated debate, the Southold Town board voted to enact short-term rental legislation with a minimum of 14 nights.
Last October, the Greenport village board said they planned to take a hard look at the issue. In August, 2014 tempers flared as at least one village resident demanded answers about rental properties in Greenport.
Resident Bill Swiskey asked about recent rental activity in the village that he said is not regulated.
“One guy is advertising 12 beds above a restaurant and no sprinkler system,” he said.
Swiskey said he’d read the new village rental code and it’s “quite strict. Does this board intend to take action?”
Former Greenport Village Mayor David Nyce said he’d already taken action but added that the rental code applied to year-round, not transient rentals. He said he’d asked Village Administrator Paul Pallas to look into airbnb.com and other vacation rental sites to see “exactly what we can and cannot regulate, and when our code does and does not apply.”
Last fall, Nyce said the village would start rolling out the new rental permit law on November 1, by quadrant; however, the code does not address the proliferation of short-term, transient rentals advertised online.
At a 2014 village board meeting, 5th Avenue resident Robert Kehl brought up the subject of short-term rentals, saying you can usually “spot” the properties rented out on sites such as airbnb.com or VRBO.com; the properties are vacation rentals offered by owners for short periods of time.
“The people that rent these apartments and houses bring a lot of money to our area,” he said. “They eat in our restaurants, shop in our stores, and visit our nightspots, farmstands, and vineyards. Most of these tenants are well behaved. No matter how well you screen them, you’ll always get a couple of bad apples. This goes for any type of rental. The only good thing is that they’re only here for a short period of time. They themselves will get a bad review on rental websites, and others will be reluctant to rent to them in the future.”
Kehl added that, if managed well, the rental homes could be a “great asset” to the villages “as most hotels, motels and B&Bs are booked solid.”
But, Kehl said, the properties must be inspected and registered with a yearly permit and certified for number of occupants. If the properties are not in a commercial zone, he said, they should be owner occupied; and, he added, accessory apartments should not exceed 800 square feet in the R-2, or one-and-two-family home, district.
Short term rentals, he said, are not “loading our school with children at $18,000 per child per year.” Kehl said the property owners pay more in taxes due to improvements made on properties.
Short term rentals, he concluded, “keep our property values up, where most two-family and Section 8 housing in R-2 drop property values.”
Trustee Julia Robins pointed out that Kehl operates a property advertised on an internet website.
Kehl responded that his property is commercial.
At the time, Nyce said the discussion had come up several times during summer, 2014. Pallas, he said, has been reviewing both the positive and negative comments and also, watching what New York State will do, in terms of regulations. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had questioned the legality of the rooms. Meanwhile, he said Greenport would continue to look to address the issue locally.
Last year, Roberts said the board should not “take away anybody’s ability to earn an income,” but also does not “want to take away taxpayers’” rights. The key, he said, is to regulate the rentals while still allowing property owners to earn revenue. Neighbors of such properties, he added, should be notified.
“These are not the people who are ruining the fiber of the community,” he said. “They bring in money.” Roberts said some don’t want different people coming to their neighborhoods every few days but said those who are “partying, or being abusive” could be reported and fined. On the whole, he said, “It’s not the worst thing for people” to earn income from short term guests.
Trustee Mary Bess Phillips asked that the attorney general’s opinion be printed out for review and passed on to the village attorney.
Nyce said due to the proliferation of short-term rentals, the number of available properties for Section 8 individuals “have dwindled. People are earning more money doing” online rentals. “We’re having the same issue as New York City, where they are trying to push people out of rent stabilized apartments. It’s a multifaceted issue,” the mayor said.
Robins said the “relatively new” internet rental phenomenon could have “profound affect on the village.”
