Bulletin: Ulster County, NY News Today
A draft permit law reviewed August 6 sets first-violation penalties at $350 to $1,000 and $3,000 for a repeat within five years; neighbors told the board the numbers will not change absentee owner behavior
Town of Ulster Weighs $350 to $1,000 Short-Term Rental Fines as Residents Say They Are Too Low
A draft permit law reviewed August 6 sets first-violation penalties at $350 to $1,000 and $3,000 for a repeat within five years; neighbors told the board the numbers will not change absentee owner behavior
Photo from https://visitulstercountyny.com/
The Town of Ulster Town Board is reviewing a draft short-term rental law that would fine a first violation between $350 and $1,000 and raise a second offense within five years to $3,000.
Residents who spoke after the August 6 workshop meeting told officials the amounts fall short of what repeat violators actually feel. The town currently has no short-term rental rules at all so this draft would be its first.
What the draft does
Anyone renting a home on a short-term basis would need a town permit valid for one year. The town could pull that permit for littering, unattended fires or overnight noise breaches. Annual expiry matters more than it sounds: an operator with a complaint file does not simply keep operating by default, they have to ask the town for another year.
Why residents want more
One resident argued that penalties have to inflict real financial hardship because court cases drag on while an owner keeps taking bookings. That is the practical complaint, and it is a timing problem more than a dollar problem. A citation written in July may not convert into a paid fine until the season is over and the listing stays live on Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com the whole time it is contested.
How the town got here
The effort started in May 2026 when Forest Hill Drive residents described late-night arrivals, cars parked across lawns, fire pits and absentee out-of-area owners at a board meeting.
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Supervisor James E. Quigley 3rd said the town's codes were written roughly 40 years ago and predate Airbnb and Vrbo, and that most of the addresses generating complaints were unregistered. He directed staff to develop registration rules and the record supports him. The Zoning Law dates to 1991 and recognizes only bed and breakfast establishments and hotels or motels, while the Town Code which is last amended July 15, 2026 still contains no short-term rental chapter.
Scale of the market
Ulster County tracking data collected between May and October 2023 counted 27 short-term rentals in the Town of Ulster against 5,714 housing units, roughly 0.5%, per the county's short-term rental dashboard. Countywide the number was 2,587 units in 2022, about 3% of housing stock and 12% of the rental pool.
Justin Feldstein
⦾ Status: Draft under board review. Not yet formally introduced or adopted.
⦾ Registration required: Yes, a one-year town permit under the draft
⦾ First violation: $350 to $1,000
⦾ Second violation within five years: $3,000
⦾ Revocation grounds: Littering, unattended fires, overnight noise breaches
⦾ Night cap: None specified in the draft as reported
⦾ Existing obligations regardless: Ulster County occupancy tax at 4%, Certificate of Authority required within three days of commencing business
⦾ Effective date: Not set; under the town's local law adoption policy, a law takes effect 20 days after adoption and filing unless it states otherwise.
Town of Ulster residents have asked the Town Board to include stronger noise and nuisance penalties in its short-term rental rules. https://t.co/aYTl7sjaF1
— Daily Freeman (@DailyFreeman) August 10, 2026
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