Amanda Purcell reports for Columbia-Greene Media that Hudson officials are taking up sidewalk repair and short-term rentals. At a Legal Committee meeting this week, Common Council President Thomas DePietro introduced draft bills on each subject. The current version of the short-term rental law allows non-owner occupied short-term renters to operate one short-term rental in most of the city’s zoning districts, with current renters grandfathered into the new law. If a homeowner wants to rent, they'll need a city license from the city Code Enforcement office. And renters would be required to have someone nearby to respond to any incidents within 15 minutes of receiving a complaint. Two sidewalk laws are also in the draft stage. One allows the city to repair sidewalks if the homeowner does not, and then bill the owner for the work. The second would create a Sidewalk Improvement District, modeled after Ithaca's 2014 law. It, “moves away from burdening individual property owners with the entire cost of sidewalk installation and maintenance for sidewalks adjoining their property, towards the creation of five Sidewalk Improvement Districts funded by an annual sidewalk assessment fee,” according to Ithaca's website. All these draft laws could change at at next month’s Legal Committee meeting at 6:15 p.m. July 24 at City Hall, 520 Warren St. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.