Town considers enacting rules for Airbnb rentals
A growing number of Airbnb advertisements for properties in the town of Esopus has led town officials to consider including language about short-term rentals in updated zoning regulations.
Town Supervisor Diane McCord said the Esopus Comprehensive Plan Committee should review the short-term rentals issue.
“We had talked about it last year, and we had just decided that it didn’t have meaning for our town, so we just kind of passed it along,” McCord said. “Now we find that there are several Airbnbs in the town, especially in the Rifton area. So I think that we should ask the comprehensive board if they will include and changes to the Comprehensive Plan — some kind of zoning that will make the buildings safe.”
A search Tuesday on Airbnb.com found listings for 10 short-term rental properties in Esopus.
McCord said there needs to be a requirement that town officials can inspect the properties.
“We have to be able to go in and make sure that building is safe for the renters,” she said. “That’s the scary part. We would be held responsible if something happened in one of those Airbnbs.” “I think if our ordinance specifically talks about these and allows for an inspection of them, we’d need to have them registered,” Councilman Wayne Freer said.
“People are coming in from all over the country to rent these places via emails and sight unseen, except for pictures, and they get here and it may or may not be safe to live in,” Freer said.
Recommendations from the New York State Association of Towns include restrictions on the amount of time that a property owner can have rooms or houses available to the public.
“There was a suggestion to limit the number of days in a year that an Airbnb could be used or rented out,” Esopus Councilwoman Gloria VanVliet said.
Free agreed. “If it’s a vacation-type spot ... there should be a limit to the amount of days that an individual can stay,” he said.
Other issues to be considered when developing rules for the properties should include the availability of parking, town officials said.