To the editor:

It’s interesting to me that the culture that the village board allowed to exist in Saranac Lake has driven at least four building contractors that I know of to seek work elsewhere. Now I see they want to blame a housing crisis on STRs, with seemingly no data or indication that they are actually the problem. Are STRs the cause for the 19% vacant building factor that continues to go unaddressed in Saranac Lake? How many of the 3.5% of the STR housing have legitimate complaints? My street has long term, short term and residential housing. We work together to solve problems as they arise. Personally, I would rather deal with the few times a bad short term rental happens than have to live next to a toxic neighbor for the rest of time.

I personally tried to elicit help from previous code enforcement officials in an effort to purchase a lot and build a three-family modular in the village. They would not answer any questions unless I filed for a building permit. I was trying to buy a lot to build a building to address the housing shortage. I brought their denial to help me to board members and was ignored. I personally called the hospital and asked to speak with someone about leasing a property, and never received a call back. Twice. Yet I hear the hospital can’t find housing for temporary doctors. I haven’t heard the board address that. I heard it’s the hospital’s problem.

When we spend all this taxpayer money on software, and create more complexity by creating registrations for a problem that is not identified, what happens if we find out STRs actually weren’t the problem? We found out from a pandemic that people could work from home. People are buying properties and using them part time. It may be a sign of the times, and adjusting to the new reality may be better than pretending we have a handle on it with a plan that has no merit.

I vote for more discussion and a committee of rental property owners to be included in the discussion, before the Kangaroo Court does all our thinking for us.

William N. Martin

Saranac Lake