SARANAC LAKE — The village board unanimously passed a law regulating short-term vacation rentals on Monday after years of debate and deliberation, but the law will not take effect quite yet.

The law has been sent to the state Department of State. It cannot be enacted until the state has notified the village that it has received the law and has it on the books.

The law will require all STR owners to get permits from the village to operate an STR, create new restrictions on who can open a new unit, cap the number of STRs allowed in the village, “grandfather in” existing rentals, allow exceptions to the cap and other regulations for developers looking to rehabilitate or build new structures, create several safety rules and regulations designed to preserve neighborhoods.

Mayor Jimmy Williams said that after the state notifies the village, the village will notify the community — and especially STR owners, who will need to start submitting applications for preexisting permits. He said the village will put notices in the Enterprise and on social media.

Village Community Development Director Jamie Konkoski said she was an “STR hotline” on Tuesday, with STR owners and realtors calling her all day asking about what they need to do to comply with the law now.

Konkoski said she’ll contact STR owners directly when the law takes effect, for those whose units are included in the Rentalscape data the village pays for.

On Tuesday, Konkoski said Rentalcape showed that 83 properties were being used as STRs in the village. There were a total 209 active listings, but some of those may be a single unit rented on multiple platforms.

Some of the more specific numbers on types of STRs from Rentalscape have always come with the caveat that they may not be fully accurate.

Passage of this law means more exact data on STRs in the village should be available soon.

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Moratorium coming

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Trustee Rich Shapiro wanted to table the vote for another two weeks because the board has not voted on a moratorium on the issuance of new STR permits yet. But his motion to table it did not get a second motion from the board, so it was not voted on.

The board is expected to vote on the temporary moratorium at its next meeting in two weeks. It will hold a public hearing on this moratorium then, and at 1 p.m. this Thursday, trustees will meet in the village board room to call for this public hearing.

Shapiro felt passing the two simultaneously would be the safer way for the village to do it from a legal standpoint. If someone applies for an STR permit between passage of the law and the moratorium, he feels it creates a bit of a gray zone. He said the village would have 60 days to grant or deny that permit, but it will be working on grandfathering in existing ones first.

“There’s no way that the development board is going to be able to get through all the preexistings to get to that point … to do a brand new one,” Shapiro said.

If the village can’t respond in 60 days, he felt that could open the village up to a lawsuit for damages.

Village Manager Erik Stender said they could have had this moratorium on the agenda Monday, but when he sent an email to the board about it, he got no responses. Trustee Kelly Brunette said she did respond, but only said she wanted to pass the law on Monday.

The rest of the board members felt there was not a problem. The current law allows for 10 new STR permits to be added to the total number this year, and Brunette said it is unlikely they will get those in the next two weeks. Trustees Matt Scollin and Tom Catillaz also said they wanted to move ahead with the law after a long crafting period.

Williams said the village could create a waiting list for these applicants.

Shapiro said a moratorium in neighboring Lake Placid and North Elba stood the test in court after being challenged, so he felt they should base theirs on that one.

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Compromise and progress

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Williams said there’s not a single person in town who is “100% satisfied” with the law. It took a lot of compromise to get done. But he said he feels it accomplishes their goals and he thinks the “pillars of the law” are good.

“It was lengthy but I really do thing that anyone who wanted to be involved in the conversation was involved in the conversation,” he said.

At a board meeting last month, people on both sides of this debate told the board they felt heard and respected through the process. Williams said this was a “nice gesture” from the public and meant a lot to him.

Williams owns STRs in the village, including one above the T.F. Finnigan’s clothing store, which he co-owns.

Residents who advocated for STR regulations in public meetings said they hope the law will help mitigate the affordable housing crisis. The key parts of the law they like are the cap on the number of new STR permits that the village can issue and a ban on people who live outside of the village from getting permits for new STRs. They believe these two rules will decrease Saranac Lake’s potential of being bought up by investors, which would reduce an already small housing stock and potentially increase property prices.

The village board is assuming they will be sued by STR owners after passing this law and that portions of the law will be brought to court. A proposed residency requirement in the law, which would bar those who live outside of the village from being able to get a permit for a new STR unit, is one of the major pieces looked at as a potential lawsuit risk.

Now, the village’s volunteer-run development board will begin grappling with the massive workload of public hearings this law sets them up for.

All permit applications — whether for a new unit or a preexisting one — must go through the village development board. This will create an immediate backlog of permit applications for preexisting STRs for the development board to clear up, which could take a long time.

Board members are discussing possibly meeting twice a month rather than once per month, settling in for long meetings and doing this work for months and months. Even hearing several permit applications each meeting — on top of their current work — the board has estimated that it could take at least a year and a half to clear the backlog of preexisting STR units.