Amanda Purcell reports for Columbia-Greene Media> that on Sept. 17 the Hudson Common Council voted to send a nine-month moratorium on new short-term lodging facilities to the Columbia County Planning Board for review. “As you know we are in the process of crafting a law that deals with short-term rentals but, in the meantime, because we want to do that correctly with a lot of public participation, we would like to propose this moratorium while we craft this law,” Common Council President Thomas DePietro, a WGXC volunteer programmer, said. Fourth Ward Alderperson John Rosenthal said of the moratorium, “It does have a hardship provision. If anyone is in the process is about be putting an airbnb online right now [after the law is passed] they can come before the council, plead their hardship and get an exemption.” The other Fourth Ward Alderperson, Rich Volo, said, “No one has seen it [a draft of the proposed law]. The public hasn’t seen this.” Fifth Ward Alderperson Dominic Merante, First Ward Alderperson Rob Bujan, Fifth Ward Alderperson Eileen Halloran, and Volo voted unsuccessfully to send the law back to the Legal Committee, with the rest of the council voting to send it to the county. The issue will be before the Hudson Legal Committee at 6:15 p.m. Sept. 25 at City Hall. Click here on the WGXC Newsroom to download or play the audio of the Sept. 17 Hudson Common Council meeting, recorded from a live webstream from WGXC volunteer Dan Udell. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.>