Lincoln County commissioners extend freeze on new vacation rental licenses until Dec. 31

 

For the third time this year, Lincoln County commissioners have voted to extend a freeze on issuing new vacation rental licenses – this time until the end of the year.

The freeze applies to new license requests in unincorporated areas of the county outside of its seven cities.

Commissioners first issued the moratorium in March after the coronavirus struck and county staff were focused on that issue. In early May it was extended a second time to Sept. 30 for the same reason.

On Monday, commissioners voted unanimously to extend the freeze until Dec. 31 because of the pandemic and now its response to the wildfires that destroyed much of the Otis community last week.

The freeze was originally intended to give county staff time – and citizens to comment on – to buy and implement a new computer program to track rental licenses and issues, to finalize rules on septic systems and occupancy rates, to get a new code enforcement deputy in place, and suggest ideas for a new complaint system. The computer system has since been purchased and the deputy hired and trained.

The short-term rental discussion started more than a year ago as the county began getting complaints and pressure because of the growing number of neighborhood homes turning into short-term rentals. There were 428 in January 2019; that number grew to 600 by the time the freeze was implemented in March.

But the political landscape is also changing. A Depoe Bay-based group called “15neighborhoods” is collecting 1,454 signatures to have county residents vote next May on a 5-year rental phase out. A coalition of vacation rental managers and owners has formed its own group, ViaOregon to fight the effort.

When county commissioners resume their short-term rental discussion, they expect to also debate whether to cap the number on vacation rental licenses in unincorporated communities.

The prohibition on new licenses applies only to unincorporated areas of the county, outside cities like Yachats, Lincoln City or Newport, which have their own restrictions on vacation rentals.