Village Trustees Cathy Cruver, seated left, and Cindy Flaherty, right, listen to resident Kim Collins detail the questions she had with a short-term rental property special use permit application. P-J photo by Braden Carmen

CASSADAGA — In a way, Kim Collins has become the unofficial face of short-term rentals in the village of Cassadaga. Going back well over a year, Collins — the owner of the Blue Oar Lakehouse and the Blue Canoe Lake Cottage — has been demanding answers and cooperation from the Village Board to keep her short-term rental properties in compliance as the village looked for a way to regulate such properties.

After the continuous debates on the topic died down in the following months once a moratorium was enacted a year ago, Collins did what the rest of the village residents did: stayed home and waited for a resolution.

Now that a resolution came and the short-term rental property law — Local Law 2 of 2023 — has been filed with the state, Collins returned with her application in hand. Collins attended a recent Board of Trustees meeting with not only her application, but also a list of detailed questions for the Board to address.

“You guys know who I am, I’m Kim Collins. So, I’m just here to get down to business,” she said.

Collins created a tutorial for rental property owners to use as a guide while filling out their application for a special use permit. In doing so, she highlighted points in the process that needed clarity. Among the highlights were fire safety requirements, septic tank information to be included, and appropriate signage guidelines.

Village Attorney Joe Calimeri explained that much of what Collins included in her application was not required for initial review. More detailed information, such as septic tank test results or signage requirements, could potentially be requested by the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) at the time of a special use permit hearing.

“We took out a lot of the specific requirements in the law to give discretion to the ZBA,” Calimeri said. “… They don’t want to judge every application with one broad brush.”

Regarding fire inspections, Code Enforcement Officer Jason Luce will be required to evaluate each applicant’s property. It is up to Luce, not the Village Board, to determine if an application meets the fire safety requirements.

After members of the board discussed the research they did on the matter, Calimeri stated, “You five are not expected to be versed in the fire protection laws. … You hope, not just with (short-term rentals) but with every business that gets their annual check, you have a Code Enforcement Officer that knows what he’s doing and is going to enforce it. That’s their job.”

Village Trustee Cathy Cruver, who spoke at a public hearing regarding the short-term rental moratorium over a year ago as a resident before she later became a Village Trustee, stated she believes the reason for “nervousness” on the process is the uncertainty of the steps.

“(We need to) alleviate this feeling that they are going to come in and it’s going to be a surprise,” Cruver said.

Collins responded, “I think that’s a good point, because I think it needs to be stated, if there is a short-term rental operating, and they are going through this effort … that person wants to do what is required to do this right and get everything done that you need them to do.”

Once an application is completed, it is submitted to the Village Clerk’s office, where it is dated and sent to the Code Enforcement Officer for review and to schedule an inspection. The application will then be sent to the Zoning Board of Appeals to schedule a hearing for a special use permit. At that point, the ZBA will decide on approval or denial, with conditions that could be attached to approval if the ZBA sees fit.

Regarding the cap of 20 short-term rental properties in the village’s residential district, Calimeri clarified that the cap can be exceeded only by preexisting short-term rental properties in the village. The cap does not apply to residences in the business district.

Collins claimed there were 30 properties registered as short-term rentals with Chautauqua County. If more than 20 preexisting short-term rental property owners were to submit an application within 30 days of the law taking effect, the cap would not apply. However, if fewer than 20 were to apply within 30 days, the cap would be set at 20, with priority given to the properties in order of when their application is submitted.

By the end of the meeting, which in its entirety lasted 105 minutes, Collins was satisfied with the answers she was provided.

Village Trustee Cindy Flaherty filled out her own sample special use permit application for a short-term rental property as a test to see the difficulty of the requirements set forth by the Board. Flaherty stated her application took roughly an hour to complete.

Collins, founder of the Cassadaga Property Alliance, posted a tutorial to detail the process of a short-term rental special use permit application on the Cassadaga Property Alliance Facebook page and on YouTube.