OBSERVER Photo by Anthony Dolce Pictured, from left, are, Dunkirk town Councilman Henry Walldorf, Councilman Juan Pagan, town Supervisor Richard Purol, town Clerk Rebecca Yacklon and Councilwoman Priscilla Penfold.

Dunkirk Town Board members continue to work on town zoning laws, with a focus on the language concerning short term rentals.

The board recently had a workshop meeting with Justin Steinbach from Clark Patterson Lee to help with the definition of what a short-term rental is so it can be more clearly defined in the town’s zoning code.

Ultimately, the town board decided to define a short term rental as a “legally permitted dwelling in which the owner rents any area of the dwelling to one or more individuals with compensation or fee, including offer of exchange in kind of any type, whether or not involving combinations from separate, single borders for less than 30 consecutive days.” The definition applies to all residential dwellings, including single-family residential, multi-family residential, and other residential properties.

One thing discussed between Steinbach and the board to assist the community with short term rentals was a noise ordinance, though Steinbach said those can be somewhat difficult to regulate at times.

“The question comes up of how you enforce it,” Steinbach said. “Does the community have to go out and buy equipment to measure noise?”

Town Board member Priscilla Penfold proposed that each short term rental have a local contact person should there be an emergency. As some short term rentals are not owned by people in the town or even county, Penfold believes this could help should an incident arise.

“If it’s a house that is already owned by someone and they live there, that would be the key person,” Steinbach said. “But if it’s a home bought for the sake of being a rental home, then yes, you would want to have some kind of contact person. I have seen that in other codes, so it’s not unreasonable to include that.”

They also discussed what locations short term rentals would be allowed at within the town, which concluded with them not being in districts that are zoned R-1.

Town Supervisor Richard Purol said although he wants people to be able to use their properties as they desire, that doesn’t always work out.

“For as much as I’d like to see people be able to use the property they own, where they are right now does not seem feasible,” Purol said. “You can’t get a fire truck down there. It’s hard enough getting more cars down there you can’t get by. … They’re so close to each other.”

Enforcing rules related to short term rentals is difficult in general, Purol noted, which is part of the reason they’re scheduling meetings to help define it further. Board members said they will likely schedule another workshop with Steinbach sometime in the future.

The Dunkirk Town Board will hold its regular meeting tonight, July 19, at 6 p.m.