Harrietstown is drafting its first short-term rental law, and Airbnb and Vrbo hosts need to pay attention

Harrietstown, New York is moving toward its first short-term rental ordinance, with town officials scheduled to hold a public work session on August 27, 2026 to discuss the proposed regulations. The law, still in draft form, would block new residential developments built exclusively as vacation rentals and require all existing Airbnb and Vrbo hosts in town to pass a basic safety compliance check. No vote date has been set.

The proposal makes Harrietstown the last municipality in its immediate area to take up STR regulation, a distinction town officials are clearly trying to shed before the market grows further.

The proposed law targets investor-built rentals, not existing hosts

The central restriction in the draft ordinance is a ban on new construction built solely to operate as a short-term rental. Building a new accessory dwelling unit or a portion of a new home to be rented as a short-term rental for supplemental income would be allowed, but new development built exclusively to function as a vacation rental would not. New housing would have to be owner-occupied to be eligible for STR use.

The town's housing work group has also discussed regulating the purchase of an existing home to be converted into a non-owner-occupied short-term rental, though that piece of the proposal is still being worked through and would require separate council action if advanced.

Safety compliance checks would apply to all current STR operators

Existing vacation rentals would not be prohibited under the proposed law, but all units would be required to undergo a safety compliance check. Hosts could satisfy this requirement either by signing an affidavit confirming they meet the standards, or by having a code enforcement officer inspect the unit for smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, and emergency egress.

This is a relatively light-touch compliance requirement compared to STR laws in other Adirondack municipalities, but it signals that operating under the radar would no longer be an option for Harrietstown hosts.

The town currently has no reliable count of active STR units

One of the practical gaps driving this legislation is a basic lack of data. The number of STR units in Harrietstown is currently unknown. Franklin County levies a 5% occupancy tax on STR stays but does not yet have a complete list of units because data collected through Rentalscape, the vendor the county contracts with, is not yet live.

Councilman Doug Haney said the new law would also give the town better data on how many units are operating. Supervisor Jordanna Mallach confirmed the town does not plan to build its own registry, relying instead on the safety check process to surface untracked operators.

Harrietstown is the last holdout in a regulated region

The villages of Saranac Lake and Lake Placid and the towns of North Elba, St. Armand, and Santa Clara all have STR laws with varying levels of restriction. Harrietstown is the only municipality in this part of the Tri-Lakes area without one. To the west, the town and village of Tupper Lake also lack STR ordinances, but Harrietstown's push has renewed momentum in the local conversation.

The village of Saranac Lake's existing law illustrates the range of what's possible: it caps the number of hosted and unhosted STRs allowed, restricts permits to village residents, and limits how close STRs can be to each other. Harrietstown's proposed approach is considerably lighter.

Council sees the law as a housing tool, not a tourism restriction

Councilman Haney said STRs are not currently a problem in the town, but he wants to prevent them from becoming one. He said regulation is a tool to retain and encourage year-round residency. Councilman David Lynch framed it as one piece of a broader housing puzzle, noting that in just the past few weeks, four people had approached him looking for housing leads.

Lynch said the town's housing work group had discussed an STR law before, but when Haney joined the board in January 2026, he began actively advocating for the town to adopt one. The framing here is notable: rather than reacting to a STR crisis, Harrietstown is trying to get ahead of one.

What hosts should know about next steps

The August 27 work session will be open to the public, but there will be no public comment during that session. Public comment will be accepted at the start of the council's regular meeting at 6 p.m. on the same evening. Both meetings will take place in the basement board room of Harrietstown Town Hall and will be livestreamed on Zoom.

Haney said public comment gathered at the meeting will help shape the law in the weeks that follow. The ordinance would require a public hearing before any council vote, and Lynch noted that additional regulations could be added in the future, each requiring its own council vote. A final adoption timeline has not been announced.

Hosts currently operating in Harrietstown are not immediately affected, but the direction of travel is clear: some form of STR regulation is coming, and the public meeting on August 27 is the most direct opportunity to influence its shape.

Lodge Compliance tracks short-term rental regulations, licensing, permitting, zoning, and tax requirements across thousands of jurisdictions, helping hosts stay informed as local rules evolve.

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