Part-time residents and out-of-town property owners who operate short-term rental units in the town, outside the village, may soon have the ability to rent their properties for longer periods of time each year.

The town council last week agreed to part ways with the village Board of Trustees on one detail of the municipalities’ new joint short-term rental regulations. The council decided to let part-time residents and non-resident hosts who own property in the town, outside of the village lines, host guests for up to 120 days per calendar year. Within the village, where there is a greater concentration of rental properties, the occupancy cap remains at 90 days per year for property owners who don’t live on-site full-time.

The decision by the town council at its June 9 meeting follows months of discussion about the occupancy cap, and it was later deemed substantial enough to be subject to a public hearing before the proposal is formally adopted. The town had not set a hearing as of press time, but a date is expected to be published soon.

Prior to adopting short-term vacation rental rules in March, the town council had informally resolved to let rental owners outside the village rent their properties for more than 90 days per year. Ninety days per calendar year is the original maximum occupancy cap outlined in the law and is still in place within the village.

Before the short-term rental law passed, the town council and village board couldn’t unilaterally make changes to the joint land use code that both municipalities share. But the adopted law has a provision allowing each municipality to make changes without the other’s approval, which lets the town council relax restrictions on short-term rental properties owned by part-time and non-residents.

The decision wasn’t unanimous. Town Councilor Emily Politi was the lone dissenting vote. She has extensive experience with affordable housing and real estate as a board member of Housing Assistance of Essex County and former leader of a first-time homebuyers program through the Adirondack Housing Trust.

She argued that the point of the restriction was to curb the impact of the industry on the local housing market. Although she wasn’t necessarily opposed to extending the occupancy cap, she said she wants other restrictions in place — such as a cap on the number of rental permits issued — if the occupancy cap is to be extended. She added that to place a cap on permits would be a lengthy process and would require a lot of public input and research.

“The two negative externalities of short-term rentals are nuisance, and then the unintended or intended consequence of driving up housing prices and essentially pushing local families out,” Politi said. “Any increase you make that makes short-term rentals more profitable, you’re contributing to that second negative externality, and so I think that’s something that we need to keep in mind.”

Ultimately, the other members of the council voted to expand the occupancy cap from 90 days to 120 days without implementing other restrictions first.

“I don’t want to be part of knocking down a part of the economy that this area needs,” Councilor Derek Doty said. He added that implementing the change would result in more data that the town could use when crafting future changes to the law.

The town and village have both paused the short-term vacation rental permit application process temporarily as the municipalities work on launching an online portal to streamline the application process and give the Building and Planning Department more tools to enforce the law.

That software is still in the works, according to Code Enforcement Officer Michael Orticelle.

The deadline to apply for a short-term rental permit has been extended to July 31.