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Old Forge & Inlet Short-Term Rental Permits: Webb's Conditional-Use Process, Inlet's Registry, and the New Village-Zone Rule to Watch

Inlet, NY

If you own — or are shopping for — a short-term rental anywhere around Old Forge or Inlet, New York, the single most important thing to understand is that "Old Forge area" is not one regulatory zone. It's two, and they don't talk to each other. The hamlet of Old Forge sits inside the Town of Webb, which runs a townwide conditional-use permit system through its Code Enforcement Office. Inlet, a few miles east on Fourth Lake, runs its own separate short-term rental law with its own registry — a distinction that matters enormously in Hamilton County, where only two towns bother to register short-term rentals at all. Get the wrong regime, or miss a renewal window, and you're not looking at a warning letter. You're looking at civil penalties that can run hundreds of dollars per day.


This guide walks through the actual mechanics of both towns' rules — who issues the permit, what it costs, what happens if you skip it — plus a newer wrinkle coming out of Webb's village zones that every Old Forge-area owner should have on their radar heading into the 2026 season. Where the public record answers a question cleanly, we say so. Where it doesn't, we say that too, because guessing about local code enforcement is a bad way to run a rental business.


Two Towns, Two Systems: Why Your Property Line Decides Everything

Old Forge is a hamlet, not an incorporated village with its own government — it's part of the Town of Webb, and Webb's Short-Term Residential Rental Law (Chapter 387 of the town code) governs every short-term rental inside town limits, whether the property mails to "Old Forge, NY" or not. Inlet, by contrast, is its own town with its own government, its own zoning code, and — since October 2023 — its own separate short-term rental local law layered onto Chapter 160 of its zoning ordinance.


That means the line that actually controls which set of rules applies to your property is the Webb/Inlet town boundary, not the ZIP code or the name people casually use for the area. A cabin on the Inlet side of that line answers to Inlet's registry and Inlet's Code Enforcement Officer. A cabin technically in Webb — even one that feels like "Inlet country" because of its lake or its address — answers to Webb's conditional-use permit system, its fee schedule, and now, potentially, its village-zone rule. Before you assume either set of requirements applies to a specific parcel, confirm which town it's actually in. Webb's and Inlet's code enforcement offices, or a title search, can settle it in minutes; assuming based on mailing address is how owners end up unpermitted without realizing it.


The Town of Webb: Conditional-Use Permits, Not Just Registration

Webb's approach is stricter than a simple registry. The Town Board originally adopted the Short-Term Residential Rental Law as Local Law No. 2 of 2022 on September 13, 2022, with an effective date of October 11, 2022, and it has been amended since. The core mechanism: any lawfully existing dwelling rented to someone other than the owner for more than 14 cumulative days in a calendar year (and less than six consecutive months) needs a current rental permit issued by the Town of Webb Code Enforcement Officer before it can legally operate as a short-term rental. This isn't a form you file and forget — it's a conditional-use permit, meaning the property has to demonstrate it meets the town's standards for the use, not merely register that the use exists.


Who issues it. The Code Enforcement Officer, operating out of the Town of Webb's Office of Code Enforcement, handles short-term rental permits alongside building permits, septic permits, and sign permits. This is the same office and the same person(s) who inspect for building and zoning code compliance generally — short-term rental oversight isn't a separate department.


What the inspection covers. Before issuing a permit or a renewal, the Code Enforcement Officer inspects the rental unit to verify compliance with local law, the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, proper sanitary (septic) disposal, and the availability of sufficient lawful on-site parking. In practice, that means an owner should expect a walkthrough that checks smoke and CO detectors, egress from bedrooms, the condition and capacity of the septic system, and whether the parking the listing advertises actually exists and is legal under the property's zoning.


Fees. The confirmed fee structure is $800 per 24-month permit term (roughly $400/year) for a rental unit with one to three bedrooms, and $1,600 per 24-month term (roughly $800/year) for a unit with four or more bedrooms. This is a meaningfully higher cost structure than a simple annual registration fee, and it scales with bedroom count — a real consideration for anyone buying a larger property in Webb specifically to run as a short-term rental, since the carrying cost of compliance rises with the size of the house.


Renewal cycle. Permits are valid for 24 months from the date of issue and must be renewed for each successive 24-month period in which the property continues to operate as a rental. As of May 2023, the town has been processing registration and payment through an online system (GovOS), which is the mechanism most current owners will use for renewal rather than an in-person paper filing — though owners should confirm with Code Enforcement whether the underlying inspection requirement still requires an in-person visit at renewal, since inspection and online payment are two different steps.


What we could not fully confirm — and what to verify directly. The public code text and available reporting confirm the permit type, the inspection scope, the fee schedule, and the 24-month renewal term. Three practical questions an owner or buyer will actually need answered are less clearly documented in public sources, and Crest & Cove could not independently verify specifics for all of them:

  • The full application document checklist. Chapter 387 and the town's public materials establish that inspection covers fire/building code, septic, and parking, but a complete, itemized list of every document the Code Enforcement Office wants submitted with a conditional-use application (proof of ownership, septic system permit or certification, floor plan showing bedroom count and egress, parking plan, liability insurance, local contact/property manager designation, etc.) was not available in the sources reviewed for this guide. Call or visit the Office of Code Enforcement at Town Hall to get the current intake checklist before you apply — requirements have been revised more than once since 2022 and the office is the only reliable source for the current version.

  • Current processing timelines. How long an application takes from submission to inspection to permit issuance was not documented in the sources available. Given that the office also handles building, septic, and sign permits, timelines likely vary by season (expect it to be slower heading into peak summer rental demand). Ask Code Enforcement directly for a current estimate before you plan a rental launch date around it.

  • Whether a permit transfers on sale. This is the single biggest practical question for a buyer, and it was not clearly answered in the public code excerpts or reporting reviewed for this guide. Conditional-use permits in many municipalities are tied to the specific owner-operator and do not automatically pass to a new owner at closing, which would mean a buyer purchasing a property with an existing rental history would still need to file a fresh application and pass a new inspection before renting it out. Do not assume an active listing history or an existing permit on file transfers with the deed. Confirm directly with the Code Enforcement Officer before closing on any property in Webb that you intend to operate as a short-term rental, and get the answer in writing if you're relying on it to size the deal.


Penalties for operating without a permit. This part of the code is well-documented and worth taking seriously. A first violation carries a fine of not more than $350. A second violation within the twelve months following a prior violation carries a fine of $350 to $700. A third violation carries a fine of $700 to $1,000. Separately, the law also allows a civil penalty of up to $200 per day of violation — which is the provision that turns a summer of unpermitted renting into real money fast, since it's calculated per day rather than per incident. On a third or subsequent violation, the Code Enforcement Officer may administratively suspend an existing short-term rental permit until the property demonstrates full compliance, with the suspension running at least one year from the date of that violation. In short: this is not a "pay a small fine and carry on" system for repeat offenders — it's structured to escalate quickly and to take the right to rent away from a property that keeps violating.


Inlet: Its Own Law, Its Own Registry, and Rare Company in Hamilton County

Inlet sits in Hamilton County, one of the least-regulated corners of the Adirondacks for short-term rentals — and that makes Inlet's choice to run its own program notable. The Town Board adopted Inlet's short-term rental local law on October 10, 2023, as an amendment to Chapter 160 ("Zoning") of the town code, establishing both use standards for short-term rentals and a registration requirement administered locally.

What makes this worth calling out on its own, rather than treating Inlet as a footnote to Webb: across all of Hamilton County, only two towns have built their own short-term rental registries — Inlet and Lake Pleasant. Every other town in the county either has no local STR-specific registration system or relies on whatever the county eventually decides to do (more on that below). If you own or are evaluating a property in Inlet, you are in one of the few pockets of Hamilton County where a town-level registry, not just an honor system or a county placeholder, actually governs the day-to-day mechanics of renting.


The practical upshot for owners is similar in spirit to Webb's system even though the underlying law is separate: an application process routed through the town's Code Enforcement Officer, a registration record the town maintains, and compliance obligations tied to occupying and operating the property as a short-term rental rather than a full-time residence. Because Inlet's law is younger and less exhaustively covered in public reporting than Webb's, owners should treat the specific application form, current fee schedule, and renewal cadence as items to confirm directly with Inlet's town offices or Code Enforcement Officer rather than assuming parity with Webb's $800/$1,600 fee structure — Inlet set its own numbers independently, and this guide could not independently verify Inlet's current fee schedule against a primary source at the time of writing. What is clear is that Inlet chose deliberately to build a registry rather than leave the question to the county, which puts it in a different posture than most of its Hamilton County neighbors.


The New Wrinkle: Village-Zone Limits Under Supervisor Tom Greco

Here's the development every Old Forge-area owner should be tracking heading into 2026, and it's the one where we want to be most careful about precision versus speculation.


Tom Greco, previously a Town of Webb councilman, won the November 2025 election for Town of Webb supervisor and was sworn in on January 2, 2026 — a genuine changeover in town leadership after the incumbent's defeat. Early reporting on his tenure indicates that one of the first substantive actions coming out of his administration was a law limiting short-term rental permits within the town's residential village zones, specifically framed around preserving housing stock for year-round residents rather than expanding it further toward transient rental use.


That is as far as the public record we could confirm actually goes. We were not able to independently verify the exact adoption date of this village-zone measure, its precise legal mechanism (whether it functions as a hard numerical cap on permits within the district, a moratorium on new conditional-use applications in village-zoned parcels, or a zoning-map change that removes short-term rental as a permitted or conditional use in some village-zoned areas), or how it interacts procedurally with the existing townwide conditional-use permit system under Chapter 387. Given that Greco was only sworn in at the start of January 2026, a village-zone action moving through the town's zoning update process this early in his term is plausible, but "plausible and reported" is different from "confirmed in the adopted local law text," and we don't have the latter in hand.


The honest framing for owners and buyers: a further tightening is reported — but not yet independently confirmed from primary town documents — to be taking shape in Webb's village zones as of early 2026, on top of the existing townwide conditional-use system, and it appears aimed at limiting rather than expanding rental permits inside village-zoned residential areas of Old Forge. Owners in or near Old Forge's village area — which covers a meaningful share of the hamlet's residential housing stock — should not treat their existing conditional-use permit or renewal history as protection against this new layer. Call the Town of Webb's Office of Code Enforcement, or check the current text of the town's zoning ordinance directly, before you buy, before you convert a full-time residence to a rental, and before you assume a routine 24-month renewal will proceed exactly as it did in 2024. This is a fast-moving, recently changed area of local law under new leadership, and it is exactly the kind of thing that's stale within months rather than years.


Zooming Out: What New York State Actually Requires (and Doesn't)

It helps to understand where Webb's and Inlet's town-level rules sit inside the state's broader approach, because it explains why Hamilton County and Herkimer County look so different from each other on this issue.


New York's 2025 short-term rental legislation — Chapter 99 of the Laws of 2025 (originating as S.820/A.5686), signed in February 2025 — gives counties the option, not the obligation, to establish a countywide short-term rental registry. Counties can opt in and build a registry, or opt out and leave regulation to individual towns and villages (or to nothing at all). The law is also structured around tax collection: registry platforms are required to collect and remit both state and local sales tax on short-term rental transactions, with the state Department of Taxation and Finance distributing local shares back to counties through the normal sales tax process.


Herkimer County, which contains the Town of Webb and Old Forge, has not adopted its own countywide registry. That leaves Webb's Chapter 387 conditional-use system as the operative layer of regulation for Old Forge-area rentals — there's no county registry sitting on top of it or replacing it. Hamilton County, which contains Inlet, is described by at least one neighboring town supervisor as internally divided on whether to build a county-level registry at all, with individual towns like Inlet and Lake Pleasant having gotten out ahead of the county by building their own systems rather than waiting for a countywide answer. Practically, that means owners on both sides of the Webb/Inlet line are dealing with town-level rules as the real, binding layer of compliance for now — but it also means the landscape could shift again if either county eventually opts into a registry of its own. Owners with rentals in Herkimer or Hamilton County should treat "what does the county require" as a live question to recheck periodically, not a settled fact to file away.


Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Old Forge and Inlet owners are navigating two different rental regimes on the same lake system — and now a village-zone rule still taking shape. Getting your listing's compliance story right matters, but so does making sure the right guests find your property in the first place. Crest & Cove Creative builds direct-booking brands and market-specific content strategies for independent short-term rental operators, including owners working through exactly this kind of fragmented regulatory landscape. Get in touch at crestcove.co, email info@crestcove.co, or call (256) 998-7502.


Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a permit to rent my Old Forge property short-term? If your property sits inside the Town of Webb — which includes the hamlet of Old Forge — yes. Any dwelling rented to someone other than the owner for more than 14 cumulative days in a calendar year, for stays of less than six consecutive months, requires a current conditional-use rental permit issued by the Town of Webb Code Enforcement Officer before you can legally operate it as a short-term rental.


How much does a Town of Webb short-term rental permit cost? The confirmed fee is $800 for a 24-month permit term (about $400/year) for units with one to three bedrooms, and $1,600 for a 24-month term (about $800/year) for units with four or more bedrooms. Fees are paid per permit cycle, not annually, and the current renewal cycle runs through the town's GovOS online registration system.


Is Inlet's short-term rental law the same as Webb's? No. Inlet adopted its own separate short-term rental local law on October 10, 2023, amending its zoning code, with its own registry administered by the town rather than participating in Webb's system or waiting on a county-level program. Inlet is one of only two towns in Hamilton County — alongside Lake Pleasant — that maintain their own STR registry.


My property's mailing address says Old Forge — how do I know which town's rules apply? The town boundary controls, not the mailing address or the informal name locals use for the area. Confirm with a title search or by contacting Webb's or Inlet's Code Enforcement office directly which town your parcel actually sits in before assuming either set of rules applies.


What happens if I operate a short-term rental in Webb without a permit? Penalties escalate with repeat violations: a first offense carries a fine of up to $350, a second violation within twelve months carries $350 to $700, and a third carries $700 to $1,000. Separately, the law allows a civil penalty of up to $200 per day of violation, and a third or subsequent violation can result in the Code Enforcement Officer administratively suspending an existing permit for at least one year.


Does an existing Webb rental permit transfer to me if I buy a property that already operates as a short-term rental? This isn't clearly settled in the public code materials we reviewed, and it's a critical question for any buyer. Conditional-use permits in many towns are tied to the specific owner rather than the property, meaning a sale could require the new owner to file a fresh application and pass inspection before renting. Confirm this directly with the Town of Webb Code Enforcement Officer before closing, and don't rely on the seller's existing permit or rental history as a substitute for your own verified approval.


What's this new village-zone rule in Webb, and does it affect my property? Newly elected Town of Webb supervisor Tom Greco, sworn in January 2, 2026, is reported to have enacted a further restriction limiting short-term rental permits specifically within the town's residential village zones, on top of the existing townwide conditional-use system, aimed at preserving year-round housing stock. The exact adoption date and whether it functions as a cap or a zoning-district restriction were not independently confirmable at the time of writing. If your property is in or near Old Forge's village area, contact Webb's Code Enforcement Office directly to confirm current terms before buying, converting a property to rental use, or relying on a routine permit renewal.


Does Herkimer or Hamilton County run its own short-term rental registry on top of the town rules? Not currently. New York's 2025 short-term rental law (Chapter 99, S.820/A.5686) lets counties opt into running their own registry but doesn't require it. Herkimer County, which contains Webb and Old Forge, has not adopted one. Hamilton County, which contains Inlet, is reportedly divided internally on the question, and individual towns like Inlet have built their own registries rather than waiting for a county decision.


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.


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