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Airbnb started when its founders rented air mattresses in the living room in their own apartment to strangers who needed a place to stay at a time when hotels were filled.  Since that time the idea has skyrocketed with Airbnb valued by Forbes magazine last year at $381 billion.  The profits are a lot more modest for local homeowners who want to make extra cash by renting their homes, or portions of them.  But for some people it is a lucrative business.  This is where business uses come head to head with residential zoning, and one such conflict has escalated in the Village of Lansing to the point where village officials are talking about changing their zoning ordinance to specifically regulate Airbnb-type situations.

The issue came to a head Tuesday when the Village Planning Board held a public hearing on a request for a special permit to allow Valerie and Amy Friend to rent their home for small group events.  The board had already heard complaints on at least two occasions from neighbors Sean Dolloway and Mary Hudson, who say that the home is already being used for events and that unruly guests have created hardships for them in their homes, and fear their property values will suffer if the Village allows events there.

"This has become a very big hardship for us," Dolloway said. "Not to mention what's going to happen to our property value.  I have six acres of property there.  Who's going to want to buy my house when we have an events center?"

The home is listed on Airbnb with the headline 'Near Cornell Social Space Sleeps 12'.  The house itself sleeps up to 10 guests, and a dining room table seats up to 20 people.  The Friends are listed as 'Super Hosts' which Airbnb defines as 'experienced, highly rated hosts who are committed to providing great stays for guests'.

The 'house rules' listed on Airbnb say "No smoking, parties, or events" but also say "Please discuss in advance if you plan to have a party with guests other than those staying at the house. There may be a security deposit for events."

Valerie Friend addressed the board after sending a written letter describing the kinds of uses she hopes to put the home to.  She spoke of the possibility of business retreats, saying the large dining room table would lend itself to that sort of client.  Friend said they list their house mainly between May and Labor Day, and that in the last year it was rented for 16 weekends.  She said no food is provided, but that guests bring their own.  Planning Board member Jim McCauley asked how the events were monitored.  When pressed Friend said they had not been in residence 12 of the 16 weekends, but said her daughter, who lives in the Town of Lansing, was on call to handle any problems that might come up.  McCauley also asked about plans to expand the business during tourist seasons after Labor Day.

"We would love to grow the business in that direction.  It's beautiful here in the fall and people need good places to stay," she said.

Friend said they spend a lot of time in the home, though they also have a residence in Corning.  She does tarot readings in the home, which board members conceded is an owner occupied use.

"We want to be good neighbors, and we always have wanted to be good neighbors," she said.  "We want to rectify these things so everybody's happy.  The 'events center' title is way more than what we're thinking about.  We would just like to change direction and have more family groups coming -- those are the ones we enjoy.  I like having my daughter's yoga students come in.  I would like to serve that population."

While Hudson, who had to move her privacy fence so that headlights from cars at events and from wine country and party buses wouldn't shine in her bedroom window late at night, was disposed to talk to Friend, she had questions for the Planning Board about the situation.  Dolloway was firmer in his objections.  He said other neighbors wanted to speak against the business use of the home had not had enough notice of the public hearing to be there Tuesday night.

"Their property sits almost directly in front of my house," he said. "Everything that's done or talked about comes inside of my house.  There are times I have to close my windows because i can hear them on the porch. And some of the conversations have been (inappropriate) for my daughter to hear.  Who is to monitor the events.  Is that the responsibility of Mary and I?  Because I can tell you the experience I've had has not been a pleasant one.  Just two or three weekends ago my (six year old) daughter... there was a big party with beer pong out in front... she said, "Daddy, I don't want to go outside.'  I can't have that at my house.  That's not what we bought our house for.  This is a family residence."

He said the Friends' house is an events center hosting large drinking parties, and that on at least one occasion a guest was threatening when Dolloway asked for the party at which he said guests had been drinking all day to quiet down at around 10:30 at night.

"I have called the police several times," he said. ".  They told me there's nothing written in (the Village of) Lansing's code for these violations.  They can't do anything."

Friend said she had only received one phone call from Dolloway, but he said that when problems occur and the owner is not on the premises, there is no moderation of the events.  He said he had put up 'posted' signs, but guests would appear and the signs were gone.

"At that point we just said 'no, we're done'.  We're just going to document everything to make sure that we cover ourselves," he said. "People (from your house) are running through my yard.  What happens if somebody hurts themselves on my property?  Now I'm liable to take care of their medical bills. They can sue me."

He said that he has logged each incident and taken pictures to document his log, which he has shared with Code Enforcement/Zoning Officer Mike Scott.

"It's not our responsibility to monitor it," Hudson added.

The discussion continued after the public hearing, with the topic broadening to consideration of an amendment to Village law which would regulate Airbnb and similar uses.  Scott said he sees no problem with the Airbnb piece, but said that events are a problem because they constitute a commercial use.

"As usual we're caught between words," summarized Alternate Planning Board member Anthony Ingraffea. "We've got the concept of Airbnb.  The 'bnb' stands for 'bed and breakfast', not 'bedlam and boisterousness'.  In our code we have something called 'home occupation'.  We have something else, I am presuming, having to do with 'commercial use' of a building -- not comercial use of a residence, because that's an oxymoron.  What Valerie is trying to do is shield herself behind Airbnb.  This is clearly not what we think of as an Airbnb condition, which is a person or a small group of persons has the use of a home that is occupied by its owner for a short period of time, for pay."

Ingraffea said that while the Village has no specific ordinance for Airbnb, it does have rules for home occupation, and definitions of commercial uses, which are not allowed in Low Density Residential zones.

"What she's describing is not home occupation," he continued. "If she's doing tarot card reading in her home, that's home occupation.  That's fine.  But what she's describing is not home occupation.  If it's not home occupation and we still don't have any mechanism to control Airbnb, what's to stop us from from just declaring what she's already said in her letter?  She used the word 'events' in her letter.  So that's commercial."

Two years ago the Village of Cayuga Heights struggled with a similar controversial change to their law.  While it allows Airbnb-type activity, it restricts the amount of time a home or part of a home may be rented, requires documentation, a permit that costs $125 per year, and imposes penalties for violations.

§ 5.3. Permitted accessory buildings and uses, section 2-a of the Cayuga Heights zoning law reads, "Rental of a residence or a portion of the residence, such as a secondary self-contained accessory apartment or a room contained in a residence, for a maximum of fourteen (14) days total in any calendar year, provided that the owner of the residence or his/her agent is available locally in order to respond in a timely manner to complaints regarding the condition of the residence or the property at which the residence is located or regarding the conduct of occupants of the residence."

That cap is less than half of the number of days fewer than the Friends are currently operating, and additional restrictions would apply if the same law were passed in the Village of Lansing.  It would likely impact other existing Airbnb listings in the Village, which Village Attorney William Troy surmised exist in the Village.  But he noted that this is the first one that has risen to a level of concern that it has come to the Planning Board.

Planning Board Active Chair Michael Baker said the public hearing would remain open and resumed at the September 24th meeting when Friend could be available again, and to give other neighbors enough notice to arrange to come, as well as to give planning board members a chance to bone up on the relevant portions of the Village zoning ordinance, as well as to research Cayuga Heights' ordinance.

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