The Harrietstown Town Board is considering a law to permanently ban new homes from becoming short-term rentals. Learn how this impacts local housing supply.
HARRIETSTOWN — The Harrietstown Town Board is considering a local law that would permanently prohibit newly built homes from being used as short-term rentals and would require periodic safety inspections of existing STR properties, according to a draft bill included in the board's Sept. 24, 2026 meeting packet.
The measure — titled the "Short-Term Rental Construction and Safety Compliance Law of the Town of Harrietstown" — has not yet been assigned a local law number. Key provisions also remain blank in the version before the board, including the frequency of required re-inspections and the civil penalty amounts for violations.
Under the draft, anyone building a new home in Harrietstown would have to sign a sworn affidavit when applying for a Certificate of Occupancy, affirming that the home is not being built for short-term rental use and that the owner has no present intent to use it that way.
Once that affidavit is filed, the dwelling could never legally be used as a short-term rental — including by a future owner, property manager or through a rental platform. The bill treats a later conversion to STR use as a "material misrepresentation" to the town.
The packet includes a letter from a local real estate agent with more than 40 years in the local market, submitted ahead of the board's consideration.
The letter argues that restricting short-term rentals will not meaningfully solve the town's housing shortage. It also contends that barring newly constructed homes from STR use could discourage some construction in Harrietstown, including construction by second-home buyers who may eventually become year-round residents.
The author proposes a more quantitative test of the policy:
"How many attainable, year-round housing units does the Town reasonably expect these restrictions to create?"
The letter also points to Franklin County's development of a countywide STR registration and data system, with more complete numbers expected by the beginning of next year.
The letter argues that Harrietstown should also examine its own landholdings as a potential way to increase housing supply.
The author says they spent roughly four years helping market the original Dewey Mountain Village development beginning in 2002.
According to the letter, the original development was planned across approximately 40 acres and included 39 lots, with one lot serving as a required drainage area and roughly 12 acres set aside for a future Phase III.
Portions of the property have since been incorporated into Dewey Mountain's recreational trail system. The letter estimates that approximately 19 acres remain that could be evaluated for housing, potentially supporting roughly 30 additional homesites based on the original development's lot sizes.
Those figures are estimates presented in the letter, not a determination by the town that the land is currently developable. Any future development would still be subject to zoning, engineering and environmental review.
Because Dewey Mountain Village is within the Village of Saranac Lake, the letter also raises the possibility of coordination between Harrietstown and the village over land availability and infrastructure.
Separately, the packet includes a Sept. 9, 2026 letter from New York State Homes and Community Renewal notifying Harrietstown that it has retained its Pro-Housing Community certification for 2026.
The designation preserves the town's eligibility for a share of a $750 million pool of state discretionary funding available to certified Pro-Housing municipalities.
That designation provides additional context as the town considers policies affecting both housing use and potential housing development.
The STR bill remains a draft, with several provisions still blank before any final vote.
The proposal would create a permanent restriction on short-term-rental use for newly constructed homes while establishing a separate inspection and compliance system for existing STR properties.
TownSquare will follow the proposal as the board considers the legislation and any revisions to the draft.
This story was prepared from the Town of Harrietstown's
Sept. 24, 2026 board packet
, including the scanned proposed local law and public correspondence submitted for the meeting.