At the Sep. 24 Rochester town board meeting, Alana Blum, a member of the Housing Advisory Committee, read a letter regarding short-term rental (STR) permits during the public comment portion of the meeting.

“This is the only limitation permissible under current law that will help bring the town closer to the 2% target,” Blum said. “Until more long-term rental units become available in our town, we recommend that no new non-owner-occupied permits be issued.”

Blum’s letter recommended that the board renew only those non-owner-occupied STR permits that are required to be renewed under law, stating that the town has already exceeded the county guideline of 2 percent total housing stock with its total number of permits, and that no new permits be issued or waitlisted should a permit expire.

Blum referenced Ulster County Comptroller March Gallagher’s, September 2025 report that Rochester currently has 238 active short-term rentals (STRs) and 4,240 total households, meaning that approximately 5% of households are used as short-term rentals. Of those STRs, 124 have active permits issued by the Code Enforcement Officer, including 69 non-owner-occupied STRs. An additional 114 STRs are registered with the county but are not registered with the town. The vast majority of STRs are located on the town’s 3,382 residentially zoned parcels.

“We anticipate additional solid data enumerating how many STRs are operating without all of the required permits and oversight,” Blum said. “We have begun review of the STR local laws in other Ulster County towns, and in early 2027, we will present to the board our recommendation of amendments to our current local law.”

At the end of the statement to the board, Blum said two members of the Housing Advisory Committee are STR permit holders – one non-owner occupied, another owner-occupied – and their perspectives contributed to the committee’s determination.

Charlotte Smiseth, a town board member and liaison for the Housing Advisory Committee, said, “I wholeheartedly agree with the committee's very data-backed information.”

Board Member Zali Win said he was “very surprised” that 114 STRs are registered with the county but not the town.

“I feel like every year we thought there was a possibility that 40% to 50% of STRs were operating illegally, but we just never had the numbers from the comptroller’s office and taxation to verify it,” Smiseth said.

Town Supervisor Erin Enouen said the state law and county law have changed to require enforcement on the registry, and the county will no longer issue approvals for STR permits unless the town the STR would be located in signs off on it.

Enouen said the county previously had a contract with Granicus as a registry portal, which Enouen said was “not the best.” The county did not renew this contract and have entered a new one with a different company.

The town board unanimously voted to set the cap for non-owner occupied STR permits at zero for the 2027 year, meaning that no new permits will be granted for the 2027 year.

“Years ago, the Housing Oversight Committee from the county released a report or statement that confirmed after they audited the occupancy tax that first year in 2024 that short-term rentals are affecting our housing market severely in Ulster County and also the rental market,” Smiseth said. “So, I fully support us seeing what we can do and seeing if that [impact] has grown or not.”