Letter from Chip Northrup

STR Loophole a Real Concern

We greatly appreciate the Zoning Board’s unanimous rejection of the absentee owner’s attempt to turn 40 Lake Street into a transient rooming house. Transient housing would have ruined the neighbors’ quiet enjoyment of their homes. Susan Snell has proven to be an excellent chairman of the zoning board.

Unfortunately, after the permit was denied, one of the board members had the temerity of coaching the applicant to resubmit an application to turn one (1) interior bedroom of the five-bedroom house into transient housing. Since the village zoning officer has no way to monitor who’s in a house, such a ruse could turn the house into the transient equivalent of a clown car.

When an absentee landlord attempts to convert the 200-year-old centerpiece of the Residential Riparian Protection District into transient housing, they don’t need to be arbitrarily encouraged by capricious board members via a loophole. They have already signaled their true intentions.

Chip Northrup
Cooperstown