Colonie, NY Short-Term Rentals: Primary-Residence-Only Rule (2026)

Local Law No. 3-2021 added short-term rental standards to § 190-20F of the Town of Colonie zoning code, and the very first condition, subsection (1), states plainly that the short-term rental property or parcel must be the owner's primary residence. The Building Department treats this as a threshold eligibility test checked before it will consider issuing the permit required by subsection (2); an owner who lists a second home, an investment property, or a house they do not personally live in as a short-term rental is operating outside what the Town Code authorizes in any zoning district, independent of whether a permit application was ever filed.

The ordinance does not define a minimum number of days per year the owner must occupy the home to count as a "primary residence," leaving that determination, along with any supporting documentation, to the Building Department's review of each permit application. Because the primary-residence condition sits in the same subsection F as the permit cap of 50 units townwide (§ 190-20F(5)) and the ban on on-premises advertising (§ 190-20F(7)), losing primary-residence status, for example by moving out and keeping the house solely as a rental, ends eligibility for renewal even if the owner previously held a valid permit and passed every required annual inspection under subsection (6).