Woodstock councilmember Anula Courtis has proposed additional tiered permit fees for short-term rentals. Fees would start at $250 per year for owner-occupied rentals, $350 for owner-occupied units with an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), and $450 per year for non-owner-occupied rentals.
In January, the board voted to raise the fee from $100 ($50 for the first bedroom plus $50 application fee) to $400 for the first bedroom plus a $50 application fee with no differentiation between owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied. Additional bedrooms are $50.
Those fees sparked expressions of outrage from STR owners, who felt the increase was too steep and without warning.
“It is something I could get behind in theory with maybe some jiggling,” supervisor Bill McKenna said at the September 17 meeting of the town board. “But one thing I would bring up, though, is that sitting on the governor’s desk is a law that [state senator] Michelle Hinchey has championed — just waiting for the governor’s signature — which would allow us as towns to have a what I guess amounts to a sales tax.”
McKenna said he wanted to hold off for a few weeks to see whether that law is enacted. Currently the county has a four percent tax on hotels, motels and short-term rentals.
The money from the increased fees was proposed to pay for the services of Granicus, a company that compares tax records to the various listings on some 70-plus platforms and determines if a rental is legal. The company provides enforcement resources to local building departments.
The Granicus contract still needs to be enacted.
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