ROCKLAND — Rockland city council members held a special public forum Monday, Aug. 3, in order to hear residents’ opinions on short-term housing rentals. The 5:30 p.m. forum — and subsequent workshop with Acting Fire Chief Adam Miceli and Code Enforcement Officer John Root — was intended to take up a short amount of time during the regularly scheduled agenda-setting meeting. At 9 p.m., however, the council voted to call a recess for the night, reconvening with the other municipal matters today at 5:30 p.m.

Though all residents who spoke at Monday’s forum stated an acceptance with the idea of Air BNB, the internationally-known business that links private occupants with travelers in need of housing, citizens provided different opinions on how restricted Rockland policies should be.

Based on various building and life codes, Root concluded: “that a typical house or apartment rentals are by the month. That’s all there is to it.... Anything else is a business providing temporary accommodations.”

Several residents inquired as to why rentals of less than a week were being policed differently than longer rentals.

The answer, according to Root, had to do with the effect of a constantly changing neighborhood. The other short-term impact, according to Miceli, has to do with people’s awareness of their surroundings during an emergency situation.

“Statistics, Life Safety Code, and to our common knowledge, people are injured or die where they sleep,” Miceli said.

One resident, in favor of clarifying the city ordinance, spoke of living next to a single-family establishment being used for short-term transient rentals. The resident referred to numerous problems with renters parking on their property. The rental house owner put up a no-parking sign on behalf of the speaker, who clarified his unease of living with a threatening sign. The speaker also made reference to a short-term renter entering his property and trying to get into his shed. Upon questioning, the renter asked, ‘if this was the sauna.’

The negative sides of the rental market — parking, allowing 10 renters to stay in one bedroom, allowing untaxed businesses to exist, were countered with the positive.

Unoccupied houses are being fixed up and utilized, new tourism precedes city growth, supplemental income is acquired, and, according to a property owner renting out one room, “it’s fun.”

The question remains, what procedures should be followed?