By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The speakers were nearly unanimous – the city of Yachats’ 2-year-old vacation rental ordinance needs some tweaks – and muscle.
All but one of 20 people who testified to the Yachats City Council Tuesday night said a “pilot” vacation rental ordinance that caps the number of licenses at 125 needs some changes.
There was only a little debate on the number of licenses allowed. The city has 138 licensed rentals now, down from 145 when the ordinance went into effect in October 2017. Unless the limit is changed, the city can issue new licenses only when the number drops below 125.
Most of the audience jammed into council chambers argued that the city should “grandfather” people owning licenses before the ordinance went into effect and allow transfer of licenses when the property is sold, especially when the buyer is a family member. The ordinance currently does not allow licenses to transfer when the property changes hand.
But everyone who spoke said Yachats had fallen down by not enforcing the current regulations, policing licenses, holding property owners responsible for transgressions and making sure on-line agents like Airbnb pay all their lodging taxes.
“There’s always been a (vacation rental) code and you’ve never enforced it,” said Paul Thompson, who has frequently used the city’s complaint system. “All the regulations are a waste of time if there’s no enforcement. Enforcement is the only way to maintain a quality of life.”
Yachats has had sporadic, contracted code enforcement the past two years. It’s currently handled by a contracted city planner who works one day a week.
“What is essential and what we don’t have is enforcement,” said Lance Bloch, a member of the Planning Commission. “Someone who only works Tuesday – and does a fine job with planning — cannot also enforce vacation rental codes.”
City Manager Shannon Beaucaire has $80,000 for a code enforcement officer in her proposed 2019-20 budget. But there was also $80,000 in the 2018-19 budget to hire an employee to handle planning and code enforcement and she was unable to find someone to do it.
On Wednesday, during the city’s once-a-year Budget Committee hearing, Beaucaire said she was looking at a variety of options to enforce codes, including partnering with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and exploring computer software to monitor tax compliance.
“There’s lots of moving parts,” she said. “Code enforcement is huge issue to the community. When I have a good, solid recommendation to bring to the council I will do so.”
Yachats currently collects about $1 million a year through the city’s 9 percent tax on short-term rentals and motels. Vacation rentals are 25 percent of that total.
The ability to transfer
Speaker after speaker Tuesday night told the council how they had hoped to be able to pass their property to their children once they grew too old to care for it or died.
Candy Neville of Eugene said her family bought a 3,500-square-foot, eight-bedroom house on 1.3 acres of land in 1998 as an investment. It’s not suitable for any but the largest of families – not likely in a town with no school, she said.
She wants to be able to sell the house with its rental license to her heirs, who have been using the property for decades, or to someone else as part of their retirement planning.
“The seemingly innocent pilot program has turned into a nightmare for us,” Neville said. “It didn’t take into account businesses which have been here for decades.”
Two owners of large properties up for sale said the inability to transfer their licenses was making their houses nearly impossible to sell.
Ron Spisso of Alsea owns a three-story, six-bedroom house with an elevator overlooking the ocean on Lemwick Lane. He built it as a rental 15 years ago, catering to large groups who need a house built for people with disabilities.
“You can’t have a family experience for 14 people in a motel,” he said.
Spisso also wants to be able to pass the house along to his daughter, Allison Albrecht of Eugene.
“The house is for sale,” he said. “There is no way my children can afford it without it being a vacation rental.”
Albrecht later told YachatsNews.com that vacation rental owners are organizing to present a unified front to the council. She did not rule out seeking the help of an attorney to challenge the ordinance.
“We support this town,” she told the council. “The rental people keep this town vibrant. You talk about losing banks, gas stations, health clinics, schools … you have to support them.”
Other views and suggestions
Two people who testified said vacation rentals were not always about protecting their owner’s investment. Craig Berdie, who served as an interim council member last year, contended the numerous vacation rentals near his home lower his property values.
“Traffic affects neighborhoods,” he said. “To simply have a house only to rent it out and not contribute to the community … is not helping the quality of life.”
Other suggestions that surfaced Tuesday night included:
- Allowing new licenses in parts of the city zoned for commercial or multi-family residential use.
- Establishing a two-tied licensing system, a simple license for 10-30 nights a year and requiring a conditional-use permit for licensees operating as a business in residential zones.
- Requiring license holders to prove that their property’s deed allows the house to be used as a vacation rental. Tom Lauritzen, who lives on Shell Street, said there are two vacation rentals in his neighborhood despite deed restrictions against that.
- Freeing up more licenses by preventing “license hoarding” by requiring owners to show some collection of lodging taxes. Weeks before the limit went into effect in 2017, an estimated 10-12 people took out licenses but apparently are not using them.
Mayor John Moore said the council plans to discuss the testimony at its June 5 workshop meeting, see what direction it wants to go and probably hold another meeting on it in July.
“There is time to debate, study and to look at this issue,” he said before the pilot program expires Oct. 1.
I’m Candy Neville and just to clarify, I and other want to be grandfathered into the right to transfer our license with the property whether we sell or leave it to our heirs. Some vacation rental owners have had the home for generations. This is a core part of Yachats. At the meeting I mentioned that all or most of us are retirees and rely on pensions or retirement income. I asked people to picture what it is like for us to have a group of people meet and discuss if they are going to make our investment obsolete or vastly diminish in value. Or to make our children’s inheritance go from an asset to a liability of mortgage, insurance, taxes, upkeep or to sell at a loss if at all. Most of us rental owners are an established part of this community. To not grandfather us in does not reduce the number of rentals, but rather just blocks those of us who have been here for years from full benefit of the property we have worked on and built up for years. After we are grandfathered in, the remainder of the residents can decide what restrictions if any they want on their property. It should be two separate issues.