There's a large dispute in a small corner of central New York and the issue is how much tourism is too much.
The village of Fair Haven in Cayuga County wraps around Little Sodus Bay, which connects to Lake Ontario. About 1,000 people live in the village, though some leave for warmer and less windblown winters in the south and southwest, while the community swells with activity between Memorial Day and Labor Day as tourists and seasonal residents return to the water's edge.
About 6% of the village's residences are rented through services like Airbnb and VRBO to weekly or seasonal campers. The short-term rental industry data analysis company AirDNA reports that 42 homes were rented on a short-term basis through one or more rental firms. Local short-term rental owners say that the overwhelming majority of those homes are owned by people who live in the village or very close by. At least a couple of local families are in the process of preparing a home to become a short-term rental property.
In recent years, the village has required permits for short-term rental properties but has imposed a moratorium on new permits while considering whether to place a limit on the number of permits at about the current level, which would lock out one or more local owners in the midst of conversion. New permits would be issued only when an existing permit was turned in or revoked.
Village Planning Board chair Heidi Schlegel said that the village's status as a tourism community is "starting to shift. We're starting to see more people come here for year-round living." She said that in the past, she could look across the bay in winter and every home would be dark, but now, more and more have their lights on and are staying through the winter.
Mayor Brian DiBernardo said that Fair Haven, like many attractive tourism communities, gets calls from investors in distant cities looking to snap up large numbers of properties, "but as soon as they hear now that we have a short-term rental law, the phone clicks. They're not interested anymore."
Local operators, however, are outraged. They believe the proposed cap on permits is too low and will hurt the village's growth. "That's a way to just plain deter growth," said Daniel Fey, who owns three homes in Fair Haven. He lives in one and rents the other two. "I feel firmly that if their opinion is to get rid of all of them (short-term rentals) would be great."
Short-term rental owners and their supporters packed a recent public hearing, giving village leaders an earful. "This isn't about avoiding regulation," said Jamie Leszczynski, who said she was assured by the village that the home she and her husband were renovating into a short-term rental would not be affected by the moratorium, but has been denied a permit since then. "It's about fairness, consistency and trust. We are not outsiders. We are your neighbors. We didn't ask for special treatment. We asked for fair treatment."
Village officials say the proposed 6% cap comes from a study conducted by Cayuga County of other communities with tourism-related short-term rentals. Rental owners say the data brings the number down by lumping less attractive places in with places such as Fair Haven.
AirDNA analyst Bram Gallagher said that he believes a cap of between 6-8% is about right. "Having that registration and permitting process in place, I think, will ensure that we don't see sort of alarming increases here," said Gallagher. "I would say that after you get about 10% (saturation of short-term rentals), then you could be considered a highly touristic place.
AirDNA is not owned by any of the rental industry companies and provides independent data analysis to investors and short-term rental owners.
The village board next meets Monday, May 4, to set a date for a final public hearing on May 11 and the possible adoption of its new short-term rental rules.
