For years, residents have rented rooms, or their entire home, to visitors during special events like the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction. This year’s induction of Tony Gywnn and Cal Ripken Jr., is already being viewed as one the largest in a number of years and demand for lodging is running far ahead of supply.

Planning board chairwoman Teresa Drerup said the issue came up when the Chamber of Commerce announced it was seeking as many as 1,000 rooms for visitors coming for the induction weekend.

Drerup explained that in 1990, the zoning board of appeals formulated a policy which would allow residents who are not in the tourism business to rent a room or rooms to visitors occasionally under special circumstances, including Hall of Fame weekend.

``These residents should not, therefore, fall into the zoning regulations for special permit, tourist accommodations,’’ the policy stated. ``This board does not wish to discourage this hospitality, although it is recommended that these homes obtain a fire inspection.’’

The policy was never formally adopted by the village board and the practice has continued.

Village attorney John Lambert has reviewed the situation and said that because the policy was not formally adopted, it has no force of law and that the zoning law will likely have to be amended to legalize the occasional renting of homes or rooms.

Tuesday afternoon the planning board was seeking public input on rentals, but received little comment.

Village trustee Jeff Katz said he believes the key to the rentals is their incidental nature.

Neighbors, he said, would realize if it became more than that and questioned if there needs to be an amendment to the law.

``It’s not necessarily something to have a law about,’’ he said.

Planning board member Bill Rigby said he believed the board was addressing something that could be monumental because of the cumulative affect of a large number of rentals.

Eric Hill commented that he was involved in the 1990 policy decision by the ZBA.

``We must keep in mind we can not legislate every individual event that may happen once in 20 years,’’ he said. ``I think we’ll have to live through this weekend and move forward.’’

Katz added that any law governing the rentals would be ``virtually unenforceable.’’

``If we’re going to think of it in terms of a law, we have to consider how to enforce it,’’ he said.

Rigby said the board did not formulate a recommendation to the board of trustees.

``There was not enough input to draw any conclusions,’’ he said.

He anticipates the planning board will discuss incidental rentals during its next meeting Jan. 23.