Gardiner may put rental law on the shelf

By Katherine Donlevy
Posted 4/21/21

Despite the multiple workshop sessions, public hearings and heated debates over the past several months, the Gardiner Town Board may be suspending its work on its short term rental law until its …

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Gardiner may put rental law on the shelf

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Despite the multiple workshop sessions, public hearings and heated debates over the past several months, the Gardiner Town Board may be suspending its work on its short term rental law until its mountain of other pressing responsibilities decreases.

“We’ve been over this issue for quite some time and I was thinking about the workload we have in front of us with updating the Comprehensive Plan … One of the components of [the Comprehensive Plan] is land use — it’s a rather large component of it,” Town Supervisor Marybeth Majestic said at the Town Board’s April 13 meeting. She said the “epiphany” came to her after she realized the Comprehensive Plan could influence the short term rental law if the board applied outreach efforts to both items.

“I feel that really hammering out the short term rental law to the degree that we’ve been dealing with it at this point in time — that maybe we should put the brakes on that while we gather the information and [update] our comp plan while we reach out to residents, boards, committees, commissions, fire department, businesses and get a better feel from the community,” she continued.

There were two public hearings on the draft short term rental law, which drew criticism from property owners who felt the new regulations were too strict and would hurt their ability to turn a profit. Dozens of community members spoke at the two hearings, as well as Gardiner property owners that live out of state, but Majestic said there was a large portion of the community that was not properly represented: non-short term rental owner Gardiner residents.

Deputy Supervisor Laura Walls, who has been spearheading the Comprehensive Plan update, relayed the prospective timeline to the rest of the Town Board — it is and will remain in phase one until the end of June, at which point the engagement component will be sewn up. At that point, the board and its consultant will conduct research of county records and other traditional data sources to develop the preliminary Comprehensive Plan through July and August. A second stage of engagement will follow in September, where community members will be asked to comment on the preliminary plan. A SEQR review is scheduled for November and an adoption should be reached by December.

Community members are asked to participate throughout the process by providing feedback and suggestions to their government leaders.

In the interim, Majestic suggested adopting a “simple licensing/ registration-type law” that would temporarily direct short term rentals. She circulated a law from Lakewood Village of Chautauqua County to her colleagues and asked that the other board members mark it up with suggestions to bring its mission closer to Gardiner’s and could be replicated.

Councilman David Dukler disagreed with Majestic’s suggestion, believing that Lakewood’s law was “really bare bones” and would require more than simple modifications.

“I appreciate that we’re all a little tired and have an agenda, but this is more of what we said we didn’t want to do, which is go back, do a law and then go back and have to redo it,” he said.

Dukler submitted his own proposal, which he said maintains the standards of the Town of Gardiner and incentivizes short term rental programs. He compiled the proposal from his own research and after speaking with other area community leaders.

The Town Board decided to evaluate both proposals over the next two weeks and discuss which would be the best route to follow at its May 4 meeting.

In other board business, the Town Board anticipates a public hearing on the proposed Kennel law to take place in June, which would coincide with the end of the six month moratorium on kennel applications within Gardiner.