Five Adirondack Towns, Five Different STR Rulebooks: A Host's Permit Guide to Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Keene, and Lake George

Jacob Mishalanie
Jul 30
15 min read

Updated: Aug 7

Drive twenty-five minutes from downtown Lake Placid to downtown Saranac Lake and you haven't just changed zip codes — you've changed regulatory universes. The Central and Eastern Adirondacks pack six distinct short-term rental jurisdictions into a stretch of the Park you can cross in under an hour: the Village of Lake Placid and Town of North Elba (which share one permit system), the Village of Saranac Lake, the surrounding Town of Harrietstown, the Town of Keene, the Town of Bolton, and the Town of Lake George. Each one wrote its own rules, on its own timeline, for its own reasons. None of them defer to the others.

That's the trap hosts and investors keep falling into. A cap-and-waitlist system that governs a listing in Lake Placid tells you almost nothing about what's legal three towns over in Bolton Landing. A permit that's grandfathered and transferable in one municipality is void the moment the deed changes hands in another. This guide walks through all six jurisdictions individually, plus the statewide sales-tax layer that now sits on top of every one of them. If you already read our Adirondack Park market report or the Lake Placid market report and Lake George market report in this series, treat this as the compliance companion — the piece you check before you buy, not after.

1. Village of Lake Placid / Town of North Elba: The Permit-Cap Framework

North Elba and the Village of Lake Placid share a single land-use code and a single short-term rental system, built around Local Law No. 1 of 2023. It splits every STR into one of two categories, and which one your property falls into determines almost everything else about your compliance path.

Hosted permits require the owner to be on-site for at least 184 nights per year — essentially, it has to be your primary or substantial secondary residence, not a pure investment unit. In exchange, Hosted permits are allowed in every zoning district in both the town and the village, residential included.

Unhosted permits are the opposite trade: no owner-occupancy requirement, but the property has to sit outside any town or village residential zoning district. If a parcel is zoned residential, an Unhosted permit simply is not available for it, full stop — no variance path around the zoning restriction, only the option to apply for a Hosted permit instead if the ownership situation allows it.

Current permit availability and the Lake Placid STR permit waitlist

Both permit types are capped, and the town publishes a running count on its own Short Term Rental page. Independently re-checking that page directly found a posted status of roughly 3 available Unhosted permits and 15 available Hosted permits townwide — in the same range as figures cited in an earlier pass on this market — but the page's own "as of" date lagged well behind the present, which tells you this status page is not reliably refreshed in real time. Treat any specific number, including the ones in this guide, as a starting point rather than a current fact. Because the count changes as applications are approved, confirm the live number directly with the department (518-523-9518, bwaite@northelba.org) before you write an offer contingent on getting a permit.

When the relevant category is full, North Elba runs a formal email waitlist rather than a first-come lottery or open registration. To get on it, applicants email strcompliance@northelba.org with the subject line reading either "Hosted STR Permit Waitlist" or "Unhosted STR Permit Waitlist" (matching the category you're applying for), attach a copy of the property deed, and include all required information in that single email — incomplete submissions or split emails can knock you back in line. Treat the Lake Placid STR permit waitlist as a real planning variable, not a formality: in a capped, high-demand market like this one, being third or fourth on an Unhosted waitlist can mean a wait measured in months, not days.

Fees, renewal, and the non-transferable catch on Unhosted permits

Permit fees are set by resolution of the Village and Town Boards and have moved before — reporting from 2024 put the annual STR permit fee around $650, adopted in part to fund compliance monitoring — but this research pass could not independently confirm a specific fee increase effective June 1, 2026; the fee schedule referenced on the town's own site was still dated 2023 at last check. Before applying, pull the current fee schedule PDF from the Building and Planning page or call the office directly, since the dollar figures are subject to board resolution and shouldn't be assumed from a prior year's rate. Permits renew annually, which means compliance (occupancy limits, parking, life-safety inspection items, and hosted-night thresholds where applicable) gets re-checked every twelve months, not once at initial approval.

The detail that catches unprepared buyers off guard: grandfathered Unhosted permits in residential zoning districts are explicitly non-transferable on sale. A seller's existing Unhosted permit does not convey to you as the buyer. Once that property changes hands, the new owner cannot obtain a new Unhosted permit for a residentially zoned parcel — the grandfathering dies with the sale, even if the rental has operated legally and continuously for years. If you're underwriting a Lake Placid-area purchase on the assumption you'll simply inherit the seller's Unhosted status, verify that assumption with the town before closing, because in the residential districts it is very likely false.

2. Village of Saranac Lake: A Residency Requirement, Not a North Elba Extension

This is the single most common mistake we see hosts make in this cluster: assuming that because Saranac Lake sits just up the road from Lake Placid, it operates under some version of North Elba's Hosted/Unhosted permit-cap system. It doesn't. The Village of Saranac Lake wrote its own, separate short-term rental law — introduced in 2023 and substantially amended on May 28, 2025 — and it solves a different problem with a different tool.

Saranac Lake's housing stock is smaller and its full-time population denser than North Elba's resort-town footprint, and the village board built its law explicitly around housing-affordability concerns rather than tourism capacity management. The mechanism is a Saranac Lake short-term rental residency requirement: to qualify for a new STR permit, the applicant must be a "Host Resident-Owner" — someone whose legal primary residence is inside the Village of Saranac Lake, who can document that residency, and who owns the property where the rental operates (an LLC applicant can qualify only with at least 25% local ownership). In practice, that makes new permits de facto owner-occupied, hosted-only arrangements. There is no Unhosted permit category here comparable to North Elba's — an absentee owner buying purely as a pure short-term rental investment, with no intention of establishing residency in the village, is not the buyer this law was written for.

The May 2025 amendments added a second constraint on top of the residency rule: a 200-foot minimum spacing requirement between short-term rentals, measured from parcel boundary to parcel boundary in most districts (several commercial and mixed-use districts are carved out of the spacing rule). The stated goal was to stop STR clusters from concentrating in specific residential blocks. The same amendments also moved the permit cap from a district-by-district count to a single villagewide cap for Hosted and Unhosted units combined — for 2025, only 10 new permits were released villagewide on top of roughly 116 preexisting ones, which tells you how tight this market already is before you factor in the residency test.

Bottom line: if you own or are evaluating a listing in Lake Placid and are tempted to assume Saranac Lake's permit categories, caps, or waitlist mechanics mirror North Elba's — don't. Pull the village's own code (Village of Saranac Lake municipal code, short-term rental supplemental standards) and confirm current cap status with the Village Community Development Department before you assume anything.

3. Town of Harrietstown: Watch This One, Don't Assume It Yet

Here's where the map gets genuinely confusing for hosts who aren't from the area: the Village of Saranac Lake is a small incorporated village that sits *inside* the much larger Town of Harrietstown, but the two are legally distinct municipalities with separate governing boards and, so far, separate regulatory postures on short-term rentals.

As of this research pass, Harrietstown has not adopted its own short-term rental law. Town officials have discussed drafting rules and regulations covering the areas of the town outside the village line, but nothing has been finalized or adopted. That means a property just outside the Saranac Lake village boundary — same school district, same ZIP code, same lake views — currently operates in a regulatory gap: it's not subject to the village's residency requirement or 200-foot spacing rule (because it's outside the village), and it's not yet subject to a town-specific STR law (because Harrietstown hasn't passed one).

That gap is very likely temporary. Given the trajectory of surrounding towns and the statewide pressure created by New York's 2024–2025 short-term rental legislation (more on that below), treat a Harrietstown short-term rental law as a matter of "in progress, watch closely" rather than "won't happen." Any host or buyer looking at a property in unincorporated Harrietstown should check the town board's current agenda and minutes before assuming today's lighter-touch environment persists through a multi-year hold period.

4. Town of Keene (Keene Valley): Adopted Under Home Rule, Details Still Worth Confirming Directly

The Town of Keene — which covers the hamlets of Keene, Keene Valley, and St. Huberts along the Route 73 corridor into the High Peaks — has an adopted local short-term rental law enacted under New York's Municipal Home Rule Law. The town began drafting the measure in early 2023, and it establishes a permitting structure with real teeth: violations carry fines reported in the range of $1,000 to $3,000, with the possibility of permit revocation for repeat or serious noncompliance.

What we were not able to independently re-verify in this research pass, beyond what earlier work on this market already established, is the fully granular detail on Keene's permit-cap structure per tax parcel and the step-by-step application workflow — the town's own published draft materials reference a restriction tied to the number of rentals allowed per tax map, but the current, fully adopted procedural detail (exact caps, current application forms, and fee schedule) should be pulled directly from the Town of Keene clerk's office or the town's Documents & Forms page rather than assumed from the original 2023 draft language, since Adirondack towns in this cluster have shown a consistent pattern of amending STR rules after initial adoption. Treat Keene as adopted-and-enforceable, but confirm the current cap and fee numbers before advising a specific host or buyer.

5. Town of Bolton (Bolton Landing): Amended Ordinance 47

Bolton Landing's short-term rental rules run through Bolton Landing Ordinance 47, "Regulating Short-Term Rentals" — originally adopted September 7, 2021, amended October 1, 2024, and amended again after a June 3, 2025 public hearing. That most recent round of amendments was driven in large part by changes at the state level under New York Real Property Law Article 12-D, the statewide framework that pushes counties toward operating or joining STR registries (with county registry participation required as of September 22, 2025).

The ordinance's enforcement structure runs through what the town's code labels Article 8, Enforcement and Penalties: a Short-Term Rental Permit can be suspended or conditioned by the Town Planning Office, or revoked outright by the Zoning Board of Appeals, for violations. We were able to confirm the ordinance's existence, its amendment history, and its enforcement pathway directly from the town's own posted legal notices and ordinance text, but the full line-item application fee schedule and the complete penalty dollar figures were not reliably extractable from the town's published PDF in this pass — hosts should request the current, complete text of Amended Ordinance 47 from the Bolton Town Clerk's office (or the Planning Office) rather than rely on a prior year's summary, given how recently and how often this ordinance has been revised.

6. Town of Lake George: Zoning, County Tax, and the Park Commission Layer

The Town of Lake George takes a different structural approach than any of the towns above: instead of a townwide hosted/unhosted permit-cap system, its STR rule lives inside the zoning code itself, at § 175-52(B), in place since 2018. Owners apply for a "Residential Rental" permit through the Planning and Zoning Office for a modest fee (historically $50), and the rule prohibits short-term residential rentals outright in several districts — RM-1, RM-2, RH, RR, and LC. Getting the permit also requires a property maintenance inspection through the Warren County Building Codes and Fire Prevention Office, which sets the property's allowable occupancy based on bedroom count and livable square footage — a detail that matters directly for anyone marketing sleeping capacity in a listing.

Layered on top of the town's zoning permit is the Warren County occupancy tax registry, which has required STR property owners countywide to register with the County Treasurer since September 2020 (commonly referenced as being fully in effect by 2021, once enforcement ramped up). This is a genuinely separate registration from the town permit — registering with the Town of Lake George does not satisfy the county requirement, and vice versa. The county imposes a 4% occupancy tax on rental revenue, remitted through the Treasurer's Office, independent of the state sales tax discussed below.

The third layer, and one unique to this town in the cluster, is the Lake George Park Commission, which holds jurisdiction over the lake itself rather than the shoreline parcels. The Commission doesn't regulate STR permits directly, but its rules on boat launches, moorings, and dock construction indirectly shape what waterfront rental listings can advertise and offer — a host planning to market private dock access or boat storage as part of a Lake George listing should confirm those amenities are Park Commission-compliant separately from the town's rental permit.

The Statewide Layer: New York's Platform Sales Tax Law

Every jurisdiction above sits underneath one more layer that applies regardless of which of the six local rulebooks governs your property: New York's short-term rental sales tax framework. Governor Hochul signed the core legislation on December 21, 2024, with a chapter amendment in February 2025 finalizing the county implementation framework. The tax-collection provisions took effect March 1, 2025, and platform collection specifically began March 25, 2025 — Airbnb and Vrbo, both registered as marketplace facilitators in New York, have been collecting and remitting the state's 4% sales tax plus applicable local tax directly on bookings made through their platforms since that date.

That platform-side collection does not let every host off the hook. Anyone who takes direct bookings outside a registered platform — through a personal website, repeat-guest phone bookings, or referrals — for more than three days in a calendar year must register as a New York sales tax vendor with the Department of Taxation and Finance and handle collection and quarterly filing themselves for those bookings. Hosts are also required to retain records of guest stays for at least two years following the end of the calendar year in which the rental occurred, and to produce those records to local enforcement agencies on lawful request. As of this research pass, the framework is fully operational: platform collection is live, quarterly platform reporting to the state has been underway since 2025, and county registries under Real Property Law Article 12-D are rolling into effect on their own separate timeline (relevant directly to Bolton, above).

A Host's Compliance Checklist Across All Six Jurisdictions

1. Confirm which of the six jurisdictions your parcel actually sits in — village line, town line, and county line don't always match what a listing address implies.
2. Identify whether your property qualifies as Hosted, Unhosted, or neither, based on owner-occupancy and zoning district, before assuming a permit category is available.
3. Check the current permit cap and waitlist status directly with the municipal office — cap counts move, and none of the figures above should be treated as static.
4. Verify transferability before closing on any Adirondack STR purchase, since grandfathered permits (particularly North Elba's Unhosted category) frequently do not convey with the sale.
5. Register for the Warren County occupancy tax separately from any town permit, if your property is in Bolton or Lake George.
6. Register as a New York sales tax vendor if you take any direct bookings outside Airbnb or Vrbo, and keep at least two years of stay records on file.

If you're evaluating a purchase in this cluster, our Lake Placid investment guide and Saranac Lake investment guide go deeper on how these regulatory realities affect underwriting and cap-rate assumptions in each specific market.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Six rulebooks, one booking calendar — you shouldn't have to become a zoning attorney to run a compliant Adirondack rental. Crest & Cove Creative builds direct-booking brands and listing strategies for STR owners navigating exactly this kind of fragmented regulatory landscape, so your marketing keeps working while the compliance side stays airtight. Visit crestcove.co or call (256) 998-7502 to talk through your specific property and jurisdiction.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does a Lake Placid short-term rental permit let me operate in Saranac Lake too?

No. North Elba/Lake Placid's Hosted and Unhosted permit system under Local Law 1 of 2023 has no legal standing in the Village of Saranac Lake, which runs its own separate law with its own residency requirement and cap. A permit in one does not carry over to the other, even though the two downtowns are a short drive apart.

2. How many Unhosted STR permits are currently available in North Elba/Lake Placid?

At last independent check, the town's posted status page showed roughly 3 Unhosted permits and 15 Hosted permits available townwide, but this figure moves as applications are processed and the status page itself is not always promptly updated — confirm the current count directly with the North Elba Building and Planning Department before relying on it.

3. What is the Saranac Lake short-term rental residency requirement?

New STR permit applicants in the Village of Saranac Lake must be a "Host Resident-Owner" — their legal primary residence must be inside the village, documented, and they must own the rental property. An LLC applicant needs at least 25% local ownership. This effectively makes new permits hosted-only.

4. Can I buy a property in the Town of Harrietstown, outside the Saranac Lake village line, and rent it short-term without a permit right now?

As of this research, Harrietstown has not adopted its own short-term rental law, so properties outside the village boundary aren't currently subject to a town-specific STR permit system. That is very likely to change — the town has discussed drafting one — so this should not be treated as a long-term safe harbor.

5. What is Bolton Landing Ordinance 47?

It's the Town of Bolton's short-term rental ordinance, originally adopted in 2021 and most recently amended following a June 3, 2025 public hearing, in part to align with New York's Real Property Law Article 12-D. It sets permit and enforcement requirements, including suspension by the Planning Office or revocation by the Zoning Board of Appeals for violations.

6. Is the Warren County occupancy tax registry separate from my town's rental permit?

Yes. If your property is in Bolton or the Town of Lake George, registering with the Warren County Treasurer for the 4% occupancy tax is a separate obligation from your town or village rental permit — completing one does not satisfy the other.

7. Do I need to register as a New York sales tax vendor if I only list on Airbnb?

Generally no, for bookings made through Airbnb or Vrbo — both are registered marketplace facilitators that collect and remit the state's 4% sales tax plus local tax on your behalf as of March 25, 2025. Vendor registration becomes necessary if you take direct bookings (your own site, phone, referrals) beyond three days a year.

8. What happens to a grandfathered Unhosted STR permit in North Elba when the property sells?

It does not transfer. Grandfathered Unhosted permits in residential zoning districts are explicitly non-transferable — once the property changes hands, the new owner cannot obtain a new Unhosted permit for that residentially-zoned parcel, even if the rental operated legally under the prior owner.

About the Authors

Crest & Cove Creative is a short-term rental marketing agency founded by Thomas Garner and Jacob Mishalanie. We build direct-booking brands, listing optimization systems, and market-specific content strategies for independent STR operators nationwide, including emerging corridors like New York.