SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Springs commissioner of accounts Dillon Moran hosted a fourth public workshop on Tuesday, continuing a discussion on short-term rentals within the city.
Moran said the workshops are intended to focus on the “preservation of housing accessibility and affordability in the long-term rental and home ownership markets, and preservation of Saratoga Springs’ longstanding owner-occupied summertime rental market.”
“We want to protect the health and safety of guests and first responders, we want to allow city residents the ability to generate additional income from their properties, we want to ensure the feasibility of administration and enforcement, and we want to limit the negative impacts on our neighborhoods and neighbors,” said Moran at the meeting.
Moran acknowledged that Saratoga Springs is a host community, saying it “is a part of who we are.”
“We are a host community, and so really, the discussion is around, with these new technologies, with the prevalence of what’s happening in the short-term market, how do we apply guardrails?” said Moran.
Moran said the city’s large amount of short-term rentals is affecting the affordability and accessibility of the housing market.
“Our biggest employer is Saratoga Hospital. ... 18% of the people who work at the hospital live in Saratoga Springs, out of 3,000,” Moran said at the meeting.
Moran said Granicus, a software company, provided a review of short-term rental properties in Saratoga Springs, and found 968 listings for 853 unique units within the city limits. The review was conducted cross-platform for sites including AirBNB and Expedia, but does not include local person-to-person rentals or ones conducted through a local realtor.
“We’ve seen a 26% net growth in rental units over the past year, and a 41% (increase) of the STRs currently online that were not live a year ago,” said Moran. “Meaning year over year, we almost doubled the amount of properties that are in this market. That is really aggressive.”
Moran said that rentals within the city for a period of less than 28 days are currently not allowed, but said the city lacks the resources to respond to every violation, with three code enforcement officers.
Moran had previously stated that rentals for less than 28 days were allowed only during track season, but said on Tuesday he discovered this was not true, saying that all rentals for a duration of less than 28 days are not allowed in the city.
“I’m going to have to correct what I’ve said, and again, it shows us the importance of being accurate,” said Moran.
He also made note of potential safety concerns, saying that hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts in the city are subject to Department of Health standards, while short-term rentals are not.
“To not have that same modicum of safety, both for the people who are going into the buildings as guests, but also our first responders, to me is a problem that needs to be addressed,” Moran said.
Moran made note of Senate Bill S885, sponsored by New York Senator Michelle Hinchey, which would regulate short-term residential rentals at the state level. Moran said the bill would create a state registry of short-term rentals, and said Saratoga Springs could create their own local registry.
The registry would “enforce common sense,” by ensuring every rental has insurance, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, an emergency contact number and evacuation diagram, Moran said.
“It’s really important that we have the ability to understand, boots on the ground, what’s happening?” said Moran. “So the idea of having a registry with an emergency contact number is really important, just within that paradigm of safety.”
The Senate bill defines short-term rentals as “an entire dwelling unit, or a room, group of rooms, other living or sleeping space, or any other space within a dwelling, made available for rent by guests for less than thirty consecutive days, where the unit is offered for tourist or transient use by the short-term rental host of the residential unit.”
The bill would require both hosts and booking companies to maintain two years’ worth of guest information, and would not allow booking services to collect a fee if the unit is not registered. There would be a $200 penalty per day for both booking services and hosts for not registering a unit.
Moran said he expects the bill to pass, and said he hopes to maintain local control of city-specific issues while defaulting to the state on larger issues.
“From there, there’s very clearly areas they still have to build out. I told people, they’re going to be adding something in these sections about taxation,” said Moran. “They haven’t defined what a violation is. I think those are very important, and I wouldn’t want to walk down that path without knowing kind of where they’re going.”
Moran said future meetings would be “much more formal,” saying they will likely be held at City Hall, and that his intent is to walk through the process of drafting legislation with community members who attend.
