ITHACA, N.Y. — The City of Ithaca released a draft ordinance establishing new rules for operating a short-term rental unit, which is typically done through companies like Airbnb, Vrbo or a similar online service.
Municipalities all over the county are grappling with short-term rental regulation, led by the Town of Ithaca, which introduced its regulations early last year.
The city’s proposed ordinance states three primary points:
- Permits would only be issued to a primary resident of the property, meaning LLCs, corporations or other third-party owners would not be allowed.
- Any single- and two-family dwelling unit is eligible to be a short-term rental
- Any owner-occupied dwelling unit within a multiple dwelling or mixed-use building would be eligible to be a short-term rental
The ordinance would only apply to dwelling units being rented “in whole or in part for less than 30 days.” Anything being rented for longer than 30 consecutive days is considered a long-term rental. Owners would have to apply for and receive a short-term rental operating permit issued by the City of Ithaca Planning Department.
There is no limit on the total number of days a unit can be rented per year, as long as the host remains a primary resident on the property. “Primary residence” is defined as where the “owner or long-term leaseholder resides for a minimum of 184 days per calendar year.”
City officials spent the last several months formulating a regulation policy, though the ordinance introduced Monday differs significantly from the policy that was floated in November for public feedback.
Proponents of the regulations say the new rules will help mitigate the impact of short-term rentals on the overall housing market, while opponents, many of whom run their own short-term rentals, say the money they make helps them remain in their homes amid steeply rising local property costs.
The proposal abandons the city’s initial establishment of three different categories of short-term rental properties that would be allowed to host visitors for certain amounts of time, depending on how a property was categorized.
“The proposed ordinance does not allow non-primary residence to be used as short-term rentals,” states the draft. “This is based on the determination that limiting short-term rentals by season or by a specific number of days per year would be difficult to enforce and that this type of short-term rental does not meet the city’s two primary short-term rental objectives.”
Changes were made to the initial proposal after city officials determined it was “not feasible to monitor and was very complex.” The city’s draft also states that other approaches would not have met the objectives of preserving housing and the homeownership market long-term, while also “supporting residences in earning additional income from their primary residence.”
The proposed ordinance, which is available for review below, will be considered by the Common Council at its next meeting on April 10, where there will also be a public hearing. The city is asking for comments to be submitted before then.
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