The Roslyn Estates Board of Trustees has introduced a new law that regulates short-term home rentals.
“This is about preventing Airbnb rentals of homes so we don’t have people moving in and out from day to day,” Mayor Paul Leone Peters said at Monday evening’s board meeting.
The law would create penalties for homeowners who rent their home for less than four months. Each penalty would be imposed as soon as the village learned about an offense in which a home was rented for fewer than 120 consecutive days.
The fine for a first penalty would be $7,500, followed by $15,000 for a second and $30,000 for a third, continuing to increase for ongoing penalties.
“If you rent the house for five grand a month and your guilty is 1,000, it’s not doing anything,” said Trustee Brett Auerbach, explaining the steep fines.
The board will hold a public hearing about the law at its next meeting on Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
The board is also drafting a law that would include dead trees in private property tree regulations, subjecting them to permits for removal and requiring that that they be replaced.
It would also allow the village to require removal of trees if it deems them a safety hazard.
“If a dangerous tree on private property can impact the public right of way – pedestrians, vehicles, property – the village may then step in and say ‘hey, take down that tree,’” said village Attorney Chris Prior.
The law is in its final stages of drafting, and the board hopes to introduce it at its next meeting.
Roslyn Estates is experiencing an increased police presence to combat drivers disobeying traffic signs while they use the area as a traffic shortcut.
Peters met with Inspector Greg Abruzzo, commanding officer of the Nassau County Police Department’s 3rd Precinct, to discuss the issue. Since then, police have been more frequently stationed in the village to ticket drivers.
“We’ve had no right turns, no left turns stuff like that during certain periods of time, and people ignore it,” Peters said. “And they ignore stop signs because they’re in a rush, so we have police just looking out for that.”
