On the Agenda for Tonight's Council Meeting
This morning, a new item appeared on the agenda for tonight's Common Council meeting: a proposed local law imposing a nine-month moratorium on "the registration or operation of any new short-term lodging facility in the City of Hudson."
The Common Council Legal Committee has been discussing ways to regulate short-term rental units, particularly the acquisition of houses to be marketed as short-term rentals on Airbnb, for some time, and the idea of a moratorium has been mentioned regularly in those discussions. After the Legal Committee's July meeting, Amanda Purcell reported on HudsonValley360: "A draft law creating a moratorium will be presented at the next Legal Committee meeting, [Alderman John] Rosenthal said." At the August meeting of the Legal Committee, that didn't happen. Now the law, presumably no longer a draft, is being presented to the full Council for consideration. The proposed law can be viewed here.
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Wow, countervailing development policy, who would have thunk it?
ReplyDeleteNext try a moratorium on "not for profits" who evade paying their fair share of taxes in this financially challenged "community."
ReplyDeleteI send below comment again. I'm not sure it reached you yesterday or this morning as I used my phone instead of my computer. I apologize if you got this 3 times.
ReplyDeleteI live in and own the white house in your picture and I would like to point out that not everyone renting vacation apartments here in Hudson is doing so for sole enriching purpose. Some of us, like me live here full time and are part of the neighborhood. To be able to live here after restoring a run down house in a area where constructions/renovations costs are higher than in most other parts of the state we have to make it work. I came here with the knowledge that after I buy and restore this house, which is not only my pride but also my home, I will have to creat an income in order to cover my living expenses. I have two apartments, I live in one of them full time. With property taxes way higher than I had anticipated from the taxes the previous owner paid when I bought it, and now even higher again, there is no other possibility that financially makes sense. I have complied with the laws for rentals, I’m paying the lodging tax.
I do understand the resentment of having investors buying up properties and renting them out short term without living here, I don’t like that either, it’s not good for the community, but please don’t put us all into the same pot. Creating a beautiful house for people to enjoy with me when visiting Hudson and bringing money to stores, restaurants and events helps the community. I don’t necessarily have to advertise on Airbnb (I don’t even like to be called an Airbnb) I have my own website and also used to advertise on Vrbo....it’s just a advertising platform for me.
I find it more disturbing that houses have been left abandoned for years, some of them acquired apparently by a “not for profit” organization (do they pay property taxes?) for sure they don’t add anything good to the neighborhood nor do they provide low income housing opportunities. Alone in my street are several empty, rundown looking houses since I bought my home at the beginning of 2014.
Please consider all the aspects, and don’t use the picture of my home for this purpose without permission.
Brigitte Gfeller