Lincoln County commissioners have scheduled the first of two planned workshops to hear comments on proposals to change regulations on nearly 600 vacation rentals in unincorporated county.
The online meeting will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20, via the online Zoom platform. People who want to testify Wednesday evening have to register via the short-term rental area of the county’s website.
Public comment must be submitted 24 hours in advance of the meeting via an application called SmartSheet. Comments will be compiled on the short-term rental section of the county’s website.
The workshop will be broadcast live on the county’s YouTube channel.
The workshop is the first since last February when the county held two sessions to hear comments and proposals on regulation of short-term rentals in unincorporated areas. But the sudden onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic delayed more significant progress on the revised regulations – and a discussion of a possible cap on the number of licenses.
In response to a growing number of vacation rentals, county commissioners also put a moratorium on new licenses and three times extend it as the pandemic raged and then after the Otis area was hit by wildfires in September. Commissioners recently extended the moratorium until June 1.
The lack of progress has also spurred formation of a group of neighborhood organizations to undertake signature collecting to possibly put an initiative on the May or November ballot to phase out all vacation rentals in single-family zoned areas of unincorporated Lincoln County over five years. An industry group has formed to fight the effort.
Among other things, county staff is now proposing to:
- Require all septic systems serving short-term rentals to be inspected to see if they are working properly, and for inspectors to determine the capacity of each system. Such inspections would help establish an occupant capacity for each rental “no matter what is authorized under the code.”
- Limit a rental’s maximum occupancy – with a few grandfathered exceptions — to two people per bedroom. The proposal would also have occupancy limits in effect day and night, which would stop the rental from being used for large gatherings or events. The county currently bases capacity on a total of three overnight guests per bedroom plus two others, one of the most lenient in Oregon.
- Develop new or refine the current “three strikes” rule under which rental owners lose their license if they get three verified complaints not addressed or responded to in a timely manner.
- Develop a permanent cap on the number of licenses, determine if there should be geographic areas in unincorporated Lincoln County with their own caps, and if or how to allow licenses to be transferred to a new property owner.
Where I have lived on Highway 101 for the past eight years is totally surrounded by vacation rentals. What was once a community is now just neighbors for a day. There are so many reasons to limit the nightly vacation rentals but here are a few more. I worry about the increased strain on our water supply in Seal Rock having taken a moment to think about the use for laundry, hot tubs, and overuse/waste. 2020 was a census year. Can you tell me how much funding Lincoln County will lose because in 2010 people actually lived here? I know the census was doomed to covid, but seriously. Oh, and vacation rental owners do not observe lockdowns during pandemics. They are not homes anymore, they are businesses.