FLY CREEK - The Otsego town board last week continued to debate details of a proposed local law that would regulate short-term rentals, but failed to reach agreement about whether non-residents would be able to operate them.

The board remains split, three-to-two, over the issue of limiting short-term rental operations to town residents only.

"I would like to see it for residents only. If you open it up then I think we will have problems with absentee owners who don't care how they're run," said board member Nancy Iversen.

"It's a non-residential use in a residential district," said supervisor Tom Breiten. "I think if we don't have some kind of residency requirement, we will have problems."

By limiting it to town residents, Brieten said, the economic benefit stays with residents.

But board members Bill Michaels, George Tucker and Les Weir were unconvinced.

Michaels said he doesn't see overwhelming support in the town for the short-term rental regulations.

Iversen replied that she was concerned that it may get out of control with property management companies renting out properties.

Michaels said that rising property values would not allow people to purchase homes just to rent for 12 weeks each summer.

"Some guy won't buy a $400,000 home. He'll buy a home that needs to be fixed up," he said.

Town attorney Margaret McGown said that limiting short-term rental licenses to residents only could be a constitutional issue that she would want to research.

There had been a vote by the town board earlier about including a residency requirement and McGown had believed the issue had been settled so she did not look into any further.

"It just looks incredibly short-sighted to me," Breiten said about not including the residency requirement. "I think in five to ten years you'll wish you had it in there."

Board members also discussed including a provision in the law that would prohibit sub-leasing short-term rental property. Otherwise, they reasoned, someone could rental a property for longer than 30 days from the owner and then sub-lease it for weekly stays to avoid the conditions of licensing.

Breiten said the board plans to continue to fine tune the latest draft of the regulations while McGown researches the residency issue. If requiring licensees to be town residents is allowed and no compromise can be reached, the board may have to write the regulations one way or the other and hold a public hearing.

"If people want residency, maybe someone will change their vote," he said.

"Part of the purpose of having the law is to protest people in the neighborhood. I'd like to make it more restrictive in the beginning. We can loosen it later," Iversen said.