On May 8 the Roslyn Times published my letter about an unneighborly anti-rental sign on a road in Old Westbury.
A few days after the letter was published, the sign was removed. In June, at the very next Trustees meeting, a punitive, overreaching Local Law was introduced.
The proposed new law calls for intrusive annual inspections of homes for rent and a fee of $2,500 per year whether or not the property is rented.
Strangely, the law seems to be based on one in Westbury, including language applying to multifamily dwellings (which are already illegal in Old Westbury).
One major difference is that the permit fee in Westbury is $50 for two years, while the proposed Old Westbury fee is 50 times that amount, for a single year.
It is interesting to note that other Gold Coast villages require neither a permit nor a fee for a homeowner to rent out their home.
The proposed Local Law 5 of 2020 will be the subject of a public hearing at the next Trustees meeting on July 20th. A copy of the proposed Local Law is attached.
It seems that the intent of the original anti-rental sign on a single road is about to be written into the laws affecting every Old Westbury homeowner.
Myron St. Wecker
Old Westbury
