Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
The City of Glens Falls is looking to change its zoning law to establish rules and limits on short-term rentals throughout the city.
One provision would prohibit unhosted Short Term Rental properties in all residential districts. It would allow hosted short term rentals with site plan review and approval by the City Planning Board.
A “Sunset Clause” would allow current short-term rentals to continue for five years under certain circumstances.
The proposals culminate a several-year process by the City’s Building and Codes committee, chaired by Ward 3 Common Council Member Diana Palmer.
“My whole goal as chair of that committee was, I wanted to start with public input” — from a community forum at Crandall Public Library and a survey that she said was returned by about 160 people.
“The voices of the community who chose to respond were very strongly opposed to having short term rentals in our residential neighborhoods,” she said.
“Some people wanted them to be done away with completely. There were maybe a couple of people who said, ‘Don’t do anything. This is government overreach.’ But that was a very, very small minority. So, that’s where we started.”
Dr. Palmer said, “We need to protect our housing stock for people who need to live here and work here. We’re concerned with not just home ownership, but also long term renters who are having difficulty finding a place….It also impacts neighborhood cohesion and quality of life.”
“We looked at where our current Short Term Rentals are in the City. The trend we saw is the opposite of what we would like to see: There were more in our residential neighborhoods than in the Commercial or Cultural Professional districts.
“That’s that’s not what we think the community wants, based on the feedback we’ve gotten.”
The amended law defines “hosted” and “unhosted.” Hosted is where the property owner or a long-term resident lives on the property during the rental period.
Dr. Palmer said, “I think if you own your home and you’re just trying to make some extra money to pay your mortgage by renting out a room, that’s a very different thing than if you buy a property and have no intention to live there and are running a business in a residential neighborhood.”
It’s proposed that Commercial Districts would allow both hosted and unhosted Short Term Rentals — with site plan review and Planning Board approval, including zones described as “Cultural Professional Office,” “Local Neighborhood Commercial,” “General Commercial,” “Central Commercial” and “Light Industrial” Districts.
No short term rentals of any kind would be allowed in Heavy Industrial Districts.
Current Short Term Rental properties in districts where they would be prohibited under the new zoning law could remain for a five year period only.
They must have been operating legally and registered with Warren County prior to adoption of the new zoning regulations.
Short Term Rental property owners would have six months to apply for a certificate of “pre-existing non-conformity.”
After five years, “the property must comply with current zoning regulations.”
Glens Falls is starting work on creating a Comprehensive Plan for its future — also at Dr. Palmer’s insistence, but she says the Short Term Rental issue is too pressing to wait for that
.
“We’re concerned that the longer we wait, there’ll be a larger amount of pre-existing, non-conforming Short Term Rentals. When we go through the Comprehensive Planning process, if something needs to be adjusted, we can do that.”
Dr. Palmer said the City still hopes they, along with Lake George, Queensbury and other municipalities might share services of the Granicus short term rental consultant company hired by Warren County to track such properties, register them, and help assure owners are making the required Occupancy Tax payments.
She said Warren County Planning provided “some really helpful information…on their housing needs study and how Short Term Rentals are affecting that.”
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