BLOOMINGDALE — St. Armand’s town board is considering adopting a law that would regulate short-term vacation rentals with a permit system, require inspections from the town code enforcement officer and impose several safety and “good neighbor” policies.

St. Armand town Supervisor Davina Winemiller said St. Armand is looking into regulating STRs primarily for the safety of renters and the community. The town currently has a second draft of the law, but Winemiller said they are taking their time and may make several more revisions before they get to a final draft to send to the town attorney for review.

“We’re not going to rush this,” she said. “We want to do it right the first time.”

She said she has “no idea” how long it will take. It’s a work in progress, she added, and there’s still lots to do. The draft law is based on the town of Wilmington’s law.

A town board meeting on the draft law will be held on April 20 at 5:30 p.m. at the St. Armand Town Hall at 1702 state Route 3.

The meeting will also be streamed via GoTo Meeting at https://bit.ly/41qTsO8. To call into the meeting by phone, dial 224-501-3412 and use the access code 785-844-541.

A copy of the draft law can be read at https://bit.ly/3zWTTDX. Drafts of application forms, permits, complaint forms and letters to neighbors are expected to be uploaded to the town website ahead of Thursday’s meeting.

Other STR laws in the area have been controversial, but Winemiller said she does not anticipate much push-back to St. Armand’s law and said it was hard to wrap her mind around why anyone would.

“I know that there are a lot of people who have STRs and they are very concerned that we are going to do something that prohibits them from doing what they want to do with their property. That’s not the case,” Winemiller said. “We are not in the business of making life hard for our residents. That’s not what this is about.”

The law is relatively simple for an STR law — it’s only eight pages long — because it doesn’t have many of the more restrictive and controversial provisions others do, like a cap on the number of permits or limits on who can get those permits.

“We have no intentions at this point in time of limiting the number of STRs or where they can be located,” Winemiller said. “It’s just a very simple law. … We’re just trying to make sure that everybody is safe.”

While some local lawmakers have discussed passing these laws because of concerns that STRs are reducing the number of long-term apartments in the housing market, Winemiller said she’s sure they have some impact on the housing market in St. Armand, but it’s “not crazy detrimental” and not something the board is looking to get into with this law.

The vacation rental tracking platform AirDNA showed 14 active STR rentals in the Bloomingdale 12913 zip code on Thursday. All but one of these were whole home rentals. Over half were listed on Airbnb only, around 14% were listed on VRBO only and around 36% were listed on both.

Quarterly data from AirDNA showed gradual growth in the number of STRs in the area from eight in the first quarter of 2021 to 15 in the last quarter of 2022.

Winemiller said they have no interest in capping the number of STRs in the town or saying where they can be.

The town, after all, does not even have a zoning code.

The board wants to “get ahead” of any future issues with STRs, Winemiller said.

She said she’s gotten calls from neighbors complaining about STRs before, but always after the fact. She said people have told her they don’t want to live next to party houses.

“The neighbors of these properties, they have their right to enjoy their own property,” Winemiller said. “They should be able to enjoy their yards without being assailed by rowdy party-goers at STRs. Not that all of them are … but we want to be able to put our hands on a phone number very quickly if a problem arises.”

The law carries several “good neighbor” policies, including quiet hours between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.; weekly garbage removal and adequate numbers of parking spots.

“Extensive short-term rentals endanger the residential character of the community and may cause disruption to the peace, quiet and enjoyment of neighboring homeowners,” the law states.

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Safety first

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This is the latest in a recent string of legislation across the majority of Tri-Lakes area towns and villages seeking to regulate STRs. As online vacation rental platforms have become more popular in recent years, renting to vacationers has become more accessible to homeowners, a profitable revenue source and investment opportunity.

But vacation rentals have also brought some ire from local residents and now, towns are regulating them for a variety of reasons — safety concerns, concerns of changing the character of neighborhoods and concerns that STRs take long-term apartments and affordable housing off the market amid a housing crisis.

The law currently states that the reason for its existence is “to safeguard the public health, safety and welfare” of the community.

Winemiller said if someone can’t meet the safety guidelines in the law, they shouldn’t be an STR host to begin with.

These are things like requiring smoke and carbon monoxide detectors; fire extinguishers; clear exit routes and doors; safe electrical systems; emergency phone numbers and fire escape maps visibly displayed for renters; visible house numbers; having bedroom be at least 70 square feet large and having a maximum occupancy of two times the number of bedrooms, plus two.

The law mostly relies on the town building code and state fire prevention and building codes.

The law would require STR owners to give the town a list of all property owners with contact information — addresses, phone numbers and email addresses — for town officials to be able to resolve issues quickly.

For owners who do not live in the area, they’d be required to give the town the name and contact info for a local property manager who lives within a 60 minute drive of the unit and would be on-call 24/7, as well as a secondary contact person.

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Permits and inspections

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Permits would carry a $100 registration fee and would last for three years but could not be transferred to a new property owner.

The town Code Enforcement Officer, Rodger Tompkins, would be responsible for issuing these permits.

The law would mandate that every STR owner applying for a permit get a physical inspection from the CEO, and the application would include a consent waiver for the inspection of the unit. The officer would have the authority to set “reasonable” conditions on a permit.

The CEO could deny a permit if the application was incomplete, if the unit is not up to code or does not have the required number of off-street parking spots.

Winemiller said the physical inspection is needed because the town can’t make sure STRs are operated safely without seeing for themselves. She said Tompkins also inspects long-term rentals physically.

STR owners would have 60 days from the adoption of the law to apply for a permit.

The CEO would mail a hard copy of the STR’s permit to all adjoining neighbors, it would be available for public inspection at the town hall and would be required to be displayed in the unit.

There would be penalties for operating without a permit.

STR operators running without a permit or with unresolved violations could be fined between $150 and $1,000 for a first unresolved offense; between $500 and $2,500 for a second unresolved offense and continued fines at an assessed level for each week the violation continues after that.

These permits would also be revocable by the CEO if the property is in violation of the law and does not fix it.

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Complaints and fines

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If there is a complaint of a violation, people are asked to contact the STR contact person listed on the permit, law enforcement or the CEO. The contact person would be required to respond within 60 minutes of receiving the complaint and remedy the issue as soon as possible.

The CEO could issue verbal warning for first offenses.

If the person making the complaint if not satisfied, then they could file a complaint to the CEO. If the issue continues to not be resolved, the CEO could fine the owner or suspend and revoke the permit.

Either party would have 30 days to appeal the CEO’s decision, in which case, it would go to the town board to be discussed at a special board meeting. The town board could impose fines with a majority vote.

“Any property owner found in violation to the provisions of this local law shall be required to reimburse the town of St. Armand for its reasonable costs of enforcement, including reimbursement for staff time and reasonable attorney fees and any related court costs,” the law states.

The law defines an STR as a unit that is rented for less than 30 consecutive nights. It would require all STRs to be registered with the Essex County treasurer’s office and collect occupancy taxes.

The nearby village of Lake Placid and town of North Elba imposed short-term vacation rental regulations in 2020, after several years of discussion and many public forums and hearings. The village and town’s joint law was recently revised. Saranac Lake ramped up discussions of STR regulations recently. The village is in the midst of marking up and changing its proposed law. Tupper Lake has been discussing the potential of imposing an STR law over the past few months, too.