By Katy Savage
Woodstock town and Woodstock village came to different decisions over a change to short-term rental rules in separate votes on Tuesday, July 30.
The town voted in favor of overturning the new ordinance 316-284 by Australian ballot. The village voted against it 68-36 at an in-person meeting.
Now, the town and village wil have separate short-term ordinances. The village will start enforcing the new ordinance immediately, limiting the number of vacation rentals to 55 homes, while the town will keep its former ordinance, allowing anyone to rent their home.
The vote happened after a group of residents filed a petition in opposition to the new ordinance. The town and the village have had separate short-term rental ordinances since 2021, but the new ordinance would have unified rules, making it easier to manage. The ordinance change was also partially driven by the housing crisis and it attempted to limit the number of rentals to about 5% of the housing stock. It would have allowed up to 55 short-term rentals in the town and 55 in the village.
“I think we probably could have done a better job of communicating what we were going for with this ordinance,” Municipal Manager Eric Duffy said. “At the end of the day, this is what the people want.”
Under the new rules in the village, no homeowner can have more than one short-term rental. The 55-unit limit is a change from the previous ordinance, which let anybody rent their home up to six times per year.
In the town, anybody can rent their home, with some limitations depending on what zoning district the home is in.
Short-term rental owners in both the town and village have to register their homes annually. A fine of up to $800 can be imposed for each violation.
Duffy said enforcement has been an issue since the ordinances went into effect in 2021.There were 27 registered short-term rentals in the village in early August, but many more homes were available for rent. Duffy estimated there were 150 to 180 short-term rentals operating in Woodstock.
Woodstock will start enforcing the ordinances with a software company called GovOS, which costs about $26,000 a year.
“The software will be scanning through the websites and let us know who’s in violation,” Duffy said.
