CAROGA — A Pennsylvania-based realtor will be required to follow new rules hundreds of miles away from home.
Chandra Robbins, who rents an A-frame cabin off Airbnb, is now subject to new regulations requiring rental owners to dole out $200 for a one-time inspection and $50 per year for a permit in Caroga.
“I don't want to upset anyone that's in the area, so I’m just trying to stay on top of the rules,” Robbins said.
So far, it’s not clear when the new short-term rental regulations will go into effect. Town officials sent the legislation to the state Department of State last week, which is responsible for filing local laws.
Supervisor Ralph Palcovic expects to begin the first round of inspections in May, based on conversations with code enforcement officer Anthony Fancher.
“We’re going to start with the ones that are registered,” Palcovic said. “Airbnb, we pretty much have a complete list of what is on there. Vrbo, not so much.”
More than three dozen short-term rentals are currently registered to pay Fulton County’s occupancy tax — far surpassing the adjacent Adirondack towns of Stratford (8) and Bleecker (3). However, Palcovic expects the full number of short-term rentals to be even higher.
Fancher has forged verbal agreements with other local code enforcers to support the town with extra help if necessary, according to the Republican town leader.
“[We] pretty much have an implementation plan in when it gets to the point where there is a stack of permits waiting for inspection,” Palcovic said. “We don't want to hold anybody up and we will bring another individual on board.”
Caroga is the latest among a growing number of municipalities in the southern Adirondacks to introduce short-term rental legislation out of concerns over safety, pollution, housing availability and neighborhood quality of life.
The town first proposed short-term regulations in 2019. At a public hearing that year, a vocal group of short-term rental owners opposed the legislation, arguing that it was far too strict for the Town Board’s then-lame duck majority to pass. It was permanently tabled.
Caroga Town Supervisor Ralph Palcovic at a meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of short-term rentals has increased even further in the lake town
This led Councilwoman Barbara DeLuca last March to form an ad-hoc short-term rental committee tasked with ironing out legislative recommendations.
Palcovic considers the new legislation to be a working document and expects the town will make some amendments over time.
“The public safety issues and the sanitary issues are most important,” Palcovic said. “We're not here to interrupt the business chain or tourism chain.”
Comparatively, the 2024 legislation caused less of a stir than the 2019 legislation. Over the last two public hearings, there were still questions raised about the timing of the law as well as provisions excluding rentals from the town’s waste pickup system and requiring owners to respond to code emergencies within a half-hour window.
Chris Simonds, a short-term rental owner near Caroga Lake, in a message called the new permit costs “ridiculous” given the county’s 4% occupancy tax. He expects to increase prices.
The owner, whose cabin lies inland, said that he can level with some of the administration's safety woes.
“I understand some of the [town’s] concerns in regards to excessive numbers of guests in a camp whose septic system can't support larger parties,” Simonds said.
Robbins said she is OK with the new law so be it the town doesn’t expand regulations.
She ran into Fancher at the Caroga Lake View Store in mid-February and caught up on some of the upcoming changes.
“I feel really good that we met because I think he's going to help me follow up on things when I'm not in town because I live kind of far away,” she said.
Between the town’s February and March meetings, there were only a few small language adjustments to the legislation, according to Palcovic.