Colonie board adopts stricter hotel licensing, limits on long stays and rules for housing registered sex offenders

The Town of Colonie on a unanimous vote adopted a rewritten town code chapter 119 that creates a new licensing requirement for all hotels and motels, tighter limits on how long guests may stay, and a permit-based system that restricts how many registered sex offenders a licensed hotel may house.

Tracy Connelly, senior attorney in the town attorney’s office, told the board the rewrite adds an introductory article with consolidated definitions, creates a new Article II establishing the licensing requirement, revises occupancy-duration rules in Article III and adds a permit regime in Article IV to control how many registered sex offenders a facility may house. "We now have an introduction . . . article two a brand new licensing requirement for all hotels and motel within the town of Colony," she said.

Town counsel and staff said the licensing requirement is intended to improve the town’s ability to track owners and responsible entities, including cases where ownership transfers through shell LLCs. Counsel said the register requirement will allow the town and police to identify who is operating a property and to review registers under lawful processes. The local law also sets rules limiting extended stays (counsel referenced 28 days and a 60-days-in-180-day period as the durations being enforced under the ordinance structure) and introduces an occupancy-point system: smaller hotels (under 50 rooms) would receive six points, larger hotels nine points, with points assigned to offenders by risk level so a hotel may not exceed its maximum points.

Chief of Police James presented policing data used to justify the measure, describing an outsized concentration of calls for service at a small group of motels. "A large majority of community harm calls for service where people are actually being harmed is happening at these motel," he said, and said place-based accountability and targeted enforcement had already reduced calls for service about 25 percent in the last year in areas where the department placed additional patrols.

Village of Colony Mayor Jim Rabino and Steve Murvy, the village’s chief of code enforcement, told the board the village supports the town law and would seek to adopt similar rules; Rabino said conversions of motel rooms into long-term residences have strained village resources. "The facilities in the hotel room are not really facilitated to do that," Rabino said, arguing the change would help neighborhoods and public safety.

Public speakers offered a mix of support and concerns. Susan Weber, a resident, said the heat maps showing police, EMS and fire calls at some hotels showed the need for action but worried that registration and ID requirements could disadvantage homeless people and immigrants: "I'm worried that this is aimed at the homeless and immigrants because I think the registration requirement requires a home address and an ID," she said. Talia Hotailing, speaking personally as a League of Women Voters observer, urged the town to coordinate with county services and to avoid using the local law as a substitute for housing policy.

After closing the public hearing, the board read Resolution 212 to adopt the proposed local law and voted to adopt it. The board also recorded that notice of the public hearing was published in the town’s official newspaper and posted in the clerk’s office.

What happens next: The adopted local law replaces Town Code chapter 119 as the town’s regulatory framework for hotels and motels. The law establishes a licensing and permit process that will require administrative implementation (forms, application fees, inspection/registration procedures) and coordination with police and code enforcement to operationalize registry access and the points system for permitted facilities. The board did not specify an implementation date in the hearing record.

Sources: Presentation by Tracy Connelly, senior attorney; statement from Chief James, Town Police; testimony from Mayor Jim Rabino and Steve Murvy (village code enforcement); public testimony from Susan Weber and Talia Hotailing.