By Staff Reporter
Update, Oct. 20: The Hamburg Town Board adopted the short-term rental law Monday night by voice vote, along with the $500 application fee, the $1,500 two-year permit fee and the amended schedule of fines, according to the town’s video of the Oct. 19 meeting. This story has been updated with the vote and with what board members and residents said Monday.
HAMBURG — For years, the Town of Hamburg has had no rules for Airbnb-style rentals, which the town’s planner has said meant they were not allowed at all. By the town planner’s count, more than 100 listings turned up anyway.
That changed Monday night. The Town Board adopted the town’s first short-term rental law and set what hosts will pay: a $500 nonrefundable application fee and a $1,500 permit fee for each two-year permit.
The final law also differs from the version residents saw at a hearing two weeks earlier. It lists the town’s single-family R-1 district, where many of Hamburg’s older subdivisions sit, among the zones where short-term rentals are allowed.
The vote
According to the town’s video of the Oct. 19 meeting, the board first approved the amended 2026 schedule of fines and penalties, then a SEQR resolution finding the law would have no significant adverse environmental impact, then the fees. It voted last on the adoption resolution, which amends Chapter 280 of the town code, the zoning chapter. Each passed on a voice vote, and the video’s automated transcript records no “no” votes. Minutes of the meeting had not been posted as of late Tuesday morning.
Shortly before the adoption vote, an audience member objected that they had not been told about the Oct. 5 hearing. A board member answered that the law is meant to give the town a way to act. “Currently, there is no recourse for the town in terms of enforcement,” the board member said. “By putting a law in place, it means that people actually have to follow very stringent, strict rules, and it gives us the ability to enforce those through our code enforcement department and our police department.”
Another board member, who said they had practiced law before joining the board, said the town prosecutor had told them there was no law on the subject, so the town could not stop such rentals. Board members said later that police or code enforcement can now ticket an operator without a permit. Another member said the vote “was not a vote to allow Airbnbs either,” arguing that rentals had been effectively legal for lack of any rule and “are now allowed with restrictions.” That differs from Mr. Rogers’ description on Oct. 5, below, of rentals as “not allowed.”
Several Crestwood Drive residents used the public comment period to object. A resident called on as Christine said a house across the street had become an Airbnb, owned by someone living in New York City and advertised as sleeping 12 people near the stadium. “No one here wants it on my street,” the resident said. Asked whether anyone had applied for a permit, a board member answered, “We just enacted it tonight.” Board members said existing operators have a period of time to apply and that residents who suspect an unpermitted rental can call code enforcement.
One board member told residents that, as the member understood the law, a short-term rental in a single-family home requires a special use permit. Another acknowledged residents had “raised some really good issues,” adding that “laws can be amended. They’re amended all the time.” Mr. Rogers was not at the meeting; a board member said he was on another job.
“Not allowed” but everywhere
The quotes in this section and the next come from the town’s automated transcript of the Oct. 5 meeting video, which does not label speakers, and appear as transcribed. Speakers are named only where they were introduced or named at the meeting.
At that Oct. 5 public hearing, Joshua Rogers, the Wendel planning consultant who works with the town’s Code Review Committee, was blunt. Short-term rentals, he said, “are actually not allowed in the Town of Hamburg,” because the town has no code for them.
Asked how many Hamburg properties are listed on sites like Airbnb and VRBO, he answered, “Easily over 100.”
He said the committee has worked on the law for about a year and a half, because writing one set of rules for a town of more than 60,000 people with “urban, suburban and rural elements all in one town” is harder than it is for a small village.
“We don’t want it to be a free for all,” Mr. Rogers said. “I’m usually somebody that would rather have something on the books, even if it’s not 100% fully ironed out, than having nothing on the books right now.”
He added that “almost every other municipality in Erie County has one. I think it’s time for the Town of Hamburg to add one to the books as well.”
What the law requires
Under the final text attached to Monday’s agenda, anyone renting a home or part of one for less than 30 consecutive days needs a revocable permit from the town’s Code Enforcement Department. Each permit is good for two years and does not carry over if the property is sold.
Before a permit is issued, a code enforcement officer inspects for working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, an escape window or exterior door for every sleeping room, safe electrical and heating systems, and fire extinguishers on every floor with bedrooms. Hosts also need one off-street parking space for every two guests.
A listing on Airbnb, VRBO or Zillow for stays under 30 days creates a presumption that a property is a short-term rental. The police chief can recommend revoking the permit of a rental that becomes a nuisance or draws frequent police calls; owners can appeal to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Operating without a permit brings a fine of $500 to $2,000 and up to 15 days in jail under the amended schedule of fines the board approved the same night, rising to $1,000 to $4,000 for a second offense within a year. Each week an owner ignores a violation order counts as a separate violation.
The R-1 question
On Oct. 5, Mr. Rogers told the board the hearing draft allowed short-term rentals in the R-2, R-3 and R-4 districts but that in R-1, the single-family district, they are “just totally not allowed right now.” He said committee members “went back and forth” on it.
Several speakers pushed back. A resident the supervisor called on as Donna asked the board to “reconsider the proposed categorical prohibition against short term rentals in R-1 districts” and to allow them there by special use permit instead. She also asked that existing rentals be grandfathered, saying the current rules are “confusing to residents and made more so by the historical lack of enforcement.”
A Manor Lane homeowner who gave his first name as Ryan told the board he is a master electrician who runs an Airbnb and had learned only that day, after a complaint, that it was not allowed. “There’s 130 active in Hamburg right now,” he said. “So the longer the board politely waits, the more it’s going to happen.”
One Town Board member worried about pushing rentals underground. “When you make something illegal, then people do it on the — I wouldn’t say black market, but openly illegal. Then you have a public safety issue,” the board member said, adding that “the advantage of legalizing something is you allow for that safety inspection.”
The adopted text permits rentals in R-1, as well as in the agricultural, estate, waterfront commercial and stadium-area districts, among others.
The supervisor responds
Supervisor Elizabeth Farrell Lorentz confirmed the vote on Tuesday. “The town did pass the local law on short term rental last night,” she said in an email to The Buffalo Chronicle. “The fines and fees were passed in separate resolutions last night.”
Asked what led the town to add the R-1 district, she said, “R-1 had been part of discussions throughout the process. Comments received supported including.”
Asked how rentals already operating will be treated, Ms. Farrell Lorentz said, “All need to apply for the permit to operate.” She added, “Permits are for two years and will need to be renewed as per the local law.” She did not say whether the town plans to cap the number of rentals or when the renewal fee will be set.
Questions still open
Some details remain unsettled. The Chronicle is asking the town whether rentals in R-1 neighborhoods need a special use permit, as one board member described on Monday. The law says properties that “lawfully operate” as short-term rentals when it takes effect may continue if they apply for a permit within 60 days. It does not say how that applies to the many rentals the town’s own planner described as not allowed. The law also lets the board cap the number of rentals townwide, but sets no cap, and the renewal fee has not been set.
The town’s fees also run well above the village next door. In the Village of Hamburg, which has its own rules, the village’s FAQ lists a $250 first-year fee and a $150 yearly renewal. Its single-family residential district is listed as not permitted, with rentals allowed by special permit in its traditional village residential district.
The law takes effect when it is filed with the New York Secretary of State; the Chronicle has not confirmed whether that filing has been made. The Chronicle has also asked Mr. Rogers how the town will treat rentals already operating, and will update this story with his answer.
Quotes are from the town’s automated transcripts of the Oct. 5 and Oct. 19 meeting videos and appear as transcribed, with punctuation added and repeated words dropped; the transcripts do not identify speakers. Featured image: Hamburg Town Hall. Photo by BuffaLutheran via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).
Updated Oct. 20, 2026: This story was updated to include comment from Hamburg Town Supervisor Elizabeth Farrell Lorentz.
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