SARANAC LAKE — With the village of Saranac Lake’s moratorium on issuing new short-term vacation rental permits ending at the end of 2024, property owners looking to list homes as STRs are now able to apply for permits — but there are only 10 available, and only in certain zones of the village.

In November, the village capped the number of allowable STRs in the village at however many preexisting permits are renewed, plus 10 more.

There are 116 preexisting rental permits which were grandfathered into the law. These preexisting STRs must renew their permits by Jan. 15. If they do not, their spot will not be refilled. Community Development Director Katrina Glynn said she knows of two permits that are not expected to be renewed currently.

The board capped the number of allowable STRs in each district, too, meaning most of the 35 districts do not have an availability for an STR permit, and the nine that do, mostly have only one slot. District F-2 is the only district with two slots.

There are exemptions to both the 10-permit villagewide cap and the individual zone caps, but these exemptions are limited to cases where STR owner hopefuls are rehabilitating a dilapidated building or doing new construction to create their planned STRs.

Glynn said applications are considered on a first-come, first-served basis, so she wants to let people know the window to apply is now open, because slots are limited. She has received two STR permit applications so far — one in zone K-2 and one in zone J-1. Both of these zones have an STR permit cap of one, so if both of these permits are issued, if anyone in these zones want an STR permit this year, they’ll need to get a cap exemption.

A brand-new interactive online map showing the village’s different districts and their boundaries can be found at tinyurl.com/ct5fwsmx. This can be used to determine which district a property is in.

Village trustees developed a formula for determining which districts can get new STRs.

If a district does not already have an STR, or if it has fewer than 50 residential properties, no new STR permits are allowed. Of the village’s 35 districts, half have STRs in them currently.

If a district has between 51 and 200 residential properties, it can have one more STR. If it has more than 200 residential properties, it can have two more STR units.

A chart showing each village district, how many residential properties it has, how many STR units it has and how many new STR permits would be allowed in its boundaries can be found on the meeting agenda at tinyurl.com/4827z3p2 starting on page 13.

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How to apply

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To start the process, people will need to fill out a $300 special use permit application and file it with the Community Development Director, Glynn. This application will go to the village development board for a public hearing — the main reason for the special use permit is to give neighbors the chance to speak in approval or opposition to the plan.

If the development board approves, then they can file an STR permit application with the village. There will be fees for obtaining a new STR permit, with sharply increasing rates for larger and larger operations — ranging from $25 to $1,600. New STR permits will also have stricter residency requirements than preexisting ones.

If the STR application would exceed the villagewide or district cap, it would need an exemption. These exemptions are only for new construction or rehabilitation of a dilapidated building and would be decided on by the village board. An exemption is not an automatic approval of the STR. It just allows the STR application to be heard by the development board, which has its own, separate criteria for approving projects.

The village board had a fair bit of contention over how wide-ranging the exemptions should be.

Preexisting STR owners are currently being asked to renew their licenses. The window for these renewals lasts through Jan. 15. Glynn said the village has renewal applications from around half of the existing STRs and is working on getting the other half filed soon. STR owners were notified of the renewal by email in November, and this week, Glynn said she’s calling around to anyone they haven’t heard from yet again.

“I don’t want anybody to miss it,” she said. “There’s a lot riding on this for them.”

If any of these permits are not renewed, they will not be refilled. The total number of STR permits in the village will be assessed annually.

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Exemption contention

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The board was split on what sort of cases should be eligible for exemption from the cap when it discussed the topic last month.

Trustee Sean Ryan and Mayor Jimmy Williams felt strongly that the board should have the flexibility to assist villagers in need by granting them STR cap exemptions.

Trustees Kelly Brunette, Matt Scollin and Aurora White felt strongly that the village should limit exemptions to people doing rehabilitation or new construction to create their planned STRs, since the intent of the law is long-term community enhancement through improving the housing stock.

The 3-2 vote on this policy was debated among the board for a long time with no consensus as board members disagreed strongly on how to set requirements for granting exemptions to this cap.

The three trustees who passed the policy said they could add owner occupied criteria for exemptions in the future if they need to add flexibility, but were uncertain and uncomfortable with how that process would work.

There was also questions of the legality of this policy the board passed, but that issue has not been resolved yet.

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Enforcement

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At this time, anyone renting out a property as an STR without one of those preexisting permits would be in violation of the village law and subject to fines — $500 per day of violation.

The village currently counts 16 active, unlicensed STRs. These units may not all be violating the law because an “active” unit might not actually be renting stays and violating the law. It could just have a profile on an STR platform but have no open bookings at this time.

Glynn’s office sent sent certified letters to these property owners in early December, but some have come back as undeliverable. Others were just old listings from previous property owners after the house had sold, and were not actively being rented as STRs. Glynn said they’ve worked to delist these properties.

For the undeliverable letters, Glynn said it is hard to tell if these are bona fide illegal STRs or not. Because the recipient needs to sign for a certified letters, and some of these properties might be second homes, there might have been no one there to sign. Her next step is trying other methods to get in touch with the property owners. If they are able to determine if an STR is operating without a permit, the village will give them a time frame to remove the listings and start issuing fines, if they do not.

These 85 properties account for 116 units, representing 254 bedrooms and a total of 606 occupants.

A village report last year found that STRs make up around 5.3% of the village residential housing stock — which is made of 1,527 properties.

The majority of existing STRs are second homes. Half of these second homes are owned by Saranac Lake residents. A quarter are owned by New York state residents and another quarter are owned by out-of-state residents.