By JAYATI RAMAKRISHMAN/The Oregonian/OregonLive
ASTORIA — The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners will consider two competing proposals this week, one of which would impose strict limits on where to allow vacation rental homes in unincorporated areas.
Commissioners will decide whether to restrict short-term rental licenses in residential zones to the unincorporated community of Arch Cape, at the south end of the county, and prohibit them in the county’s other unincorporated residential areas.
The board will also consider a separate proposal which would revise the county code regulate short-term rentals in all residential zones, a step toward formally recognizing rentals that aren’t explicitly permitted under the existing zoning code.
The issue of short-term rentals has become a lightning rod in coastal communities. Some year-round county residents have complained that vacationers create a nuisance and that the proliferation of vacation homes drives up home prices. The possibility of limiting vacation homes, meanwhile, has raised concerns among rental owners and some business owners who worry that the proposed ordinance would deter visitors and put a damper on the county’s lodging tax revenue.
Incorporated cities have their own rules for vacation rentals, so places like Astoria and Seaside would not be affected. But rental owners in other unincorporated parts of the county would lose their short-term rental licenses when they come up for renewal.
It’s not clear how the commission is inclined to vote on the proposals.
Clatsop discussion follows Lincoln issue
The seemingly contradictory proposals deal with slightly different rules, said county spokesperson Tom Bennett. He said one pertains to the county’s zoning code, which determines what types of buildings are allowed in different areas. The other sets operating standards for rental homes throughout the county, excluding Arch Cape, for which the county has separate rules.
Residents opposed to the proliferation of vacation rentals have argued that short-term rentals shouldn’t be allowed on rural lands, where the zoning code is silent on the subject. The county, though, has issued short-term rental licenses in those areas, said Dan Kearns, an attorney hired to advise some Clatsop County residents on the land use issues.
If the zoning ordinance restricting short-term rentals is passed, it would be the latest example of a coastal community restricting vacation rentals over concerns about livability and rising housing prices. In Lincoln County last November, voters passed a measure to phase out short-term rentals in unincorporated parts of the county over the next five years. That measure has been put on hold while it is being challenged in court and before the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.
Late last year, Clatsop county commissioners placed a temporary moratorium on new short-term rental permits. The moratorium, initially set to expire in December, is now extended through April 28.
In February, Bennett said, county commissioners directed staff to draft stricter rules but continue to allow short-term rentals in all residential zones.
After reviewing the proposal, though, the county’s planning commission recommended that the board should only allow short-term rentals in Arch Cape.
Bennett declined to say where the county’s vacation rentals are located, citing a county ordinance that prohibits disclosing information about individuals’ transient lodging tax income.
But county documents to be presented at next week’s meeting show that there are 186 licensed short-term rentals in unincorporated Clatsop County. If the county commission approves the new ordinance, just 77 of those permits could be renewed.
County staff estimated this would amount to a loss of nearly $500,000 annually in lodging tax revenue.
Residents, owners split on issue
Written public comments to the board over the past couple of years showed broad dissatisfaction with the way the county had thus far handled short-term rentals and worries about their spread.
Some complained of short-term renters driving across their property to get to the beach, littering in the area and making loud noise late into the night.
“The renters/vacationers have no idea about community or county rules, and it should not be up to me to police them by calling the hotline,” wrote county resident Terry Andrews, referencing a line residents can call to report violations. Andrews said that even with the presence of such a line, often the county does not enforce the rules.
Several homeowners, real estate agents and coastal visitors, however, wrote to the commission expressing concerns about the financial losses that might result from limiting vacation rentals.
Linda Needham wrote that she and her husband clean homes in Clatsop County and that the impact of banning short-term rentals would strain their finances even more as they try to recover from lost business during the pandemic.
Bobak Baradar, who owns a rental property in Clatsop County, said the proposal will effectively shut down his ability to rent out his home.
“From our point of view, business owners and vacation rental owners are getting no representation — they’re ignoring us all,” said Baradar, a Beaverton resident.
Some permanent coastal residents have also raised concerns that short-term rentals drive up housing costs and take away from the already limited supply of affordable homes for people who live there full-time.
“We hear weekly if not daily of valuable and talented and skilled locals and their families who can’t find housing, and it breaks our heart to see every house that sells converted into a (short-term rental), with out-of-area corporations and businesses outbidding locals who just need a place to live,” Beth Radich, a resident of unincorporated Clatsop County, wrote to the planning commission in March.
Baradar said he doesn’t buy the complaint that rental homes are eating into the housing supply for year-round residents.
“For the housing market in the entire U.S., prices are going through the roof, and homes are selling above asking price,” he said. “They’re trying to use vacation rentals as an excuse for that, but housing prices across the U.S. don’t make sense.”
The commission will discuss the ordinances on Wednesday, and likely vote on both April 27, according to a staff report.