Halt put on Cooperstown B&Bs

The measure, which took effect Friday, is meant to allow officials to review this aspect of the village's thriving tourism business, Mayor Carol Waller said Tuesday.

"During this time, we're not going to sit still," Waller said. "Our planning board will be examining our laws to see how we can control the development of B&Bs more closely."

The moratorium, adopted Wednesday, may be extended for another 90 days but probably not any longer, Waller said.

"What we're finding is the number of visitors we get is putting a tremendous strain on us," she said.

The village is continually upgrading its infrastructure, including Main Street, and now the village board may opt to construct a new, much larger reservoir, because at times during the busy summer, the current one is barely able to keep up with demand, she said.

The reason for much of this costly renovation and expansion is that while Cooperstown is home to fewer than 2,500 people, hundreds of thousands flock here every year, she said. They take showers, drive cars and more and more are staying here several days, often at bed and breakfasts.

According to Polly Renckens, executive director of the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce, the number of overnight facilities registered with the chamber has jumped from 23 to 42 in the last 10 years.

"In 1992, we had seven hotels, 15 B&Bs and one guest house," Renckens said. "Now we have the same number of hotels, 10 guest houses, apartments or cottages, and 25 B&Bs. Those are the ones on our list, and I'm sure there are others out there."

Renckens said there are many reasons to support a moratorium. Village officials need a chance to find out which houses are being operated as B&Bs and other types of accommodations, and to assure they are safe and meet state codes, she said.

"Another aspect of this is some B&Bs are not collecting the bed tax or paying their sales tax, and we need to find out who they are," Renckens said.

She said that not too many years ago, the goal of tourism planners was to have visitors spend three days in Cooperstown, "so they'd have time to see what we have, enjoy themselves and move on to make room for others."

However, since the opening of the Cooperstown Dreams Park a few years ago, the village is receiving many more visitors who stay about a week, while their children play at the youth baseball camp. These people are looking for bedrooms and sometimes kitchen facilities to cut down their food expenses, she said.

"People will fly into Albany, rent a car, and you should see how crowded the P&C is on Saturday when they stock up on food," she said.

Many guests of this youth baseball camp, which draws about 700 teams a summer, are renting houses and apartments by the week, or staying at B&Bs.

"Another concern we have is occupancy," Renckens said. "They may book a place for Mom, Dad, Tim and Sally — but then Grandpa, Grandma and two friends come too."

Al Keck, the village's zoning official, said he's glad to see the moratorium.

"We're just getting too crowded in the summer," said Keck, who is also president of the village fire department. "One part of this most people overlook is public safety. Chestnut Street and other streets are clogged with traffic all summer long, and if we had an emergency at the wrong time, it would take a while for most of our crew to even get to the station."

Keck said the expanding accommodations in the village are adding to the problem.

"It used to be that someone would rent out a room or two in their house and that was one thing," he said. "Now, we have people renting entire houses, wanting to add on to houses for renting out, even to build houses just to rent them out.

"This village can only hold so many people at one time, and something's got to give."

During summers, Waller said, the village has at times barely been able to meet the demand for water, and trustees are exploring the idea of building a larger reservoir on the former Rathbun property near Glen Avenue. The property is owned by Jane Forbes Clark, she said.