Case Study: Town of North Elba achieves higher STR compliance and $90K+ in permit revenue with GovOS STR

How the Town of North Elba, NY Works With Short-Term Rentals on the Shores of Lake Placid C

The Town of North Elba, home to Lake Placid, faced a rapid rise in short-term rentals after 2020 that strained local services and community quality of life. The town enacted a permit and bed-tax program with mandatory 24‑hour local contacts, but struggled to efficiently track rental days, process permits, and manage complaints with its prior vendor.

North Elba implemented GovOS Business Licensing and GovOS STR to provide an online permitting portal, a searchable owner/contact database, calendar scraping to monitor advertised rental days, and a centralized complaint intake workflow. The system streamlined enforcement and outreach, generating about $90,200 in annual permit fees, achieving a 76% compliance rate, issuing 275 permits since launch, and reducing serious complaints to only one enforcement fine.

Town of North Elba

Michael Orticelle

Code Enforcement Officer/Building Inspector