The City of Kingston received 16 applications for five available short-term rental (STR) full permits last week, a number city officials said was about what they had been expecting.
The single-day online registration was open on Thursday, September 26, to interested property owners who had established an interest with the city. According to director of housing initiatives Bartek Starodaj, the total short-term-rental full-permit allowance is currently 106 units citywide, a number based on the new form-based zoning code limit of one percent of the total housing units. The code was established in August 2023 in the midst of the housing crisis.
“I think this is a balanced approach,” said Starodaj. “It still allows short-term rentals to operate within Kingston, but sets some basic parameters and caps around that to make sure that it doesn’t take up too much of our housing stock. I’ve seen some parameters or guidelines from NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and the county that you shouldn’t let more than two percent of the city’s housing stock or every county’s housing stock to be taken up by short-term rentals. We’re well within that — within the one percent cap — but we’re still allowing short-term rentals in Kingston.”
Non-permanent guests
What does the City of Kingston consider a short-term rental? According to its fact sheet, a short-term rental is “a residential living space rented to transient non-permanent guests for terms shorter than 30 days, without staff on the premises.”
Permits are only given in the T5 or T4 zoning transects. Property owners can check to see whether their location could qualify by visiting: https://zoning.gridics.com/us/ny/kingston.
Starodaj said permits are not required for all short-term-rental situations. “We do have the resident-occupied option, if you’re renting out of a room or a portion of your home,” he explained. “There are a lot citywide and there’s no cap on those.”
There is also no cap on the number of what the city identifies as a short-term rental limited unit, which is one dwelling unit rented for fewer than 30 days per year.
Beyond that, the city rules don’t allow for favoritism. Starodaj said that as long as all 16 applicants meet the requirements of the program, the five granted permits will be chosen at random, with the remaining eleven on a waiting list.
“You could own a duplex, and you could be living in one and renting out the other as a short-term rental,” he said. “Or you could be an out-of-town owner and you could be renting out one of them long term and the other one of them short-term rentals. If you have the permit, there’s no preference.”
The permit limit was previously reached in March of this year, but five spaces became available because some property owners didn’t renew their license. “You have to renew it annually,” said Starodaj. “And then if you don’t renew it, then you lose it.”
Fees and penalties
Part of the renewal process includes paying an annual fee, which for short-term rental full properties is $650. Short-term rental limited, and short-term rental resident occupied licenses cost $125 per year.
The city also advises against renting on a short-term basis outside the official registration system. Violations are $1000 for the first instance, $5000 for the second instance, and $7500 for the third or any subsequent instance.
Starodaj termed the short-term rental system a collaboration between the Office of Housing Initiatives and the Building Safety & Zoning Enforcement Department.
“These are new rules that the city adopted last year to kind of take a comprehensive approach on the issue of short-term rentals,” he said. “At the same time, we also introduced a new online platform to help us with registration and compliance.”
And so far, he said, so good.
“The whole thing has been very positive,” Starodaj said.
Join the family! 
