Codger column: Chill the hot takes

Codger’s antique brain has been spinning these past few weeks trying to understand the roiling controversy between those who believe that unrestricted outsiders will take down our quality of life and those who believe they will contribute fresh energy and money.

We’re talking about short-term renters here.

This reached a peak for Codger in late January at a town meeting that almost filled the school auditorium.

More than two dozen fellow citizens told the assembled Town Board, which seemed eager to listen, that short-term renters were either the life blood of Shelter Island or the leeches that would drain it dry.

Last week, in response to democracy in action, the board seemed ready to return to earlier draft legislation that would make time-limit and frequency restrictions on rentals. But Codger, still struggling to come to an opinion of his own, found that he now had more questions than answers.

Over the past 40 years or so, Codger has been a recurring weekend guest on the Island, a short-term renter, a seasonal renter, a second-home owner and a full-time resident. In that time, he doesn’t think his behavior, whatever you may think of it, changed with his status. He has been annoyed by residents and renters alike and children of any genre who begin screaming in the pool at 7 a.m.

He knows there are people who buy houses, renovate them with local contractors and put in pools for the sole purpose of renting to whoever may come through social media. Long-time residents have also put in pools to help them rent, which they say they must do to sustain their lives here or to take longer off-Island vacations. We also know there are so-called party houses. Maybe Codger would feel more kindly disposed toward them if he were invited to the parties.

Depending on whom you are listening to or reading lately, short-term rentals will turn the Island into the East End’s floating flop house or keep it afloat as a place where your salt-of-the-earth neighbor can depend on income in hard times. Codger senses that flop-house fears are greater in wealthier neighborhoods. Because of short-term rentals, say various people, Island taxes will stay low, there will be even less affordable housing, residential areas will become commercialized or over-regulation will violate our rights. Pick your take.

Codger has also heard that it’s all a plot to pit neighbors against each other in a Town Board coup attempt or that it’s a plot to protect established hotels and bed-and-breakfasts.

In place of this cacophony of opinions, Codger would appreciate some hard information. For starters, assuming that noise is the first symptom of the apocalypse, how many noise complaints were made to the police last summer, from where did they originate, how many were repeats, how were they resolved? How many short-term renters, long-term renters or homeowners were involved? (If the police don’t keep or divulge such statistics, they should.)

Would the board be willing and able to defend and enforce ordinances limiting the rental of houses for big events or for the number of unrelated people who can occupy a house? Does buying a house primarily for renting violate any code against using residentially-zoned property for commercial use? Should there be such a code? How can we spot such stealth buyers? Is it enough to observe how quickly a new sale appears online for rentals?

Codger is grateful that our elected officials are working hard on this issue and aware that they are not helped by the loud, emotional, self-interested opinions of those on all sides, some of whom seem to be trying to make the process so difficult that nothing much will happen.

But there does seem to be a common-sense starting point emerging from all the work that has been done and the commentary around it.

Codger thinks that anyone who rents should have to register with the town for a nominal fee that would pay for a seasonal code enforcer (think of a traffic control officer crossed with a bay constable) to log complaints about disturbances, check them out and then ticket violators — the owners or their mandatory 24/7 managers. Beyond progressively higher fines, frequent offenders would be penalized by losing the right to rent.

It’s simple enough and the current working draft law is getting there. Since everyone has skin in the game, don’t count on everything being solved in one shot; revisiting the law in a year must be part of the new deal. Then, if this modest start doesn’t pan out, the town can always get tougher and further limit short-term rental.

Or give up entirely and rename us Shelhampton.