The Town of Marlborough Short Term Rental law could be adopted as soon as March 29, Town Supervisor Al Lanzetta revealed Monday.

At the Planning Board meeting, Lanzetta said that little discourse regarding the legislation was left between the councilmembers.

“The only thing we’re really hung up on is the fees,” he said March 15, referring specifically to application and escrow fees. “Some of the board members think it’s too high, some of them don’t think it’s high enough so we’ll come to a conclusion on that. Basically the code is ready to go … I think at the next meeting we’ll probably adopt the law.”

The Town Supervisor also said the panel was waiting for referrals from Ulster County, which is expected to arrive any day.

Lanzetta hopped onto the call as the Planning Board was discussing its Site Plan modifications, which the members have been working on for several months. Board member James Garofalo has been leading the effort to consolidate land use application checklists and updating key information, which would ultimately lead to speedier processes.

As part of his crusade, Garofalo had been evaluating Planning Board granted waivers for applications. The board has the authority to waive some application requirements that have no bearing on the final site plan approval. An example town attorney Jeff Battistoni provided was a board’s decision to waive site maps including the number of trees on the property and the diameter for each one. Because that requirement is irrelevant to most applications, the Planning Board has the power to exclude it in an application, this saving the application time and money.

In researching Section 155-31, Marlborough’s code on site plan waivers, Garofalo and Battistoni discovered an error that would require a Town Board approved local law to correct.

“That section of the code was updated years ago and they added a new section D and that caused all the following sections to be relettered. When that happened, there was a section that referred back to subsection D, which then became E, [but] that update did not occur back then. So that technical correction needs to be made that would require, quite frankly, a local law to amend the code,” Battistoni explained.

The code could affect the power the Planning Board possesses to grant waivers, thus affecting its goal of crafting a streamlined checklist.
“If we’re going to ask for a change from the Town Board then we should do it as quickly as possible because of the nature and the importance of this particular item,” said Garofalo.

Lanzetta appeared to agree that the Town Board should have no issue in making the change, though it would have to be discussed at a full meeting. Battistoni asserted that he would send a thorough email on the issue to Lanzetta the following day.

Planning Board member Cindy Lanzetta suggested the board wait to make changes to its draft checklist until the Town Board finalized the Short Term Rental law in the event the legislation would force the Planning Board to make further changes. She also mentioned that there had been talk about creating an expedited site plan for bed and breakfasts, home occupations and short term rentals, though Supervisor Lanzetta did not confirm.

Garofalo pushed for the Town Board to make the local law change as soon as possible regardless of the other uncertainties to ensure the Planning Board retains its ability to grant applicants.