By KENNETH LIPP/YachatsNews
Vacation rental owners in unincorporated Lincoln County have a new set of rules to follow next year, as county commissioners prepare for the most controversial aspect of a 2021 ordinance — determining limits on the number of short-term rental licenses allowed in seven areas.
Lincoln County commissioners held a brief workshop Monday to discuss staff work and developments on Ordinance 523, which was adopted a week before voters in November 2021 approved a ballot measure phasing out vacation rentals in residential zones. But the ballot measure was struck down by the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals in August, putting the county’s ordinance back in play.
After LUBA’s ruling, commissioners announced they would move forward with implementation of Ordinance 523 as well as extend for six months a moratorium on new licenses that has been in place since March 2020. Commissioners extended the moratorium until Feb. 22, 2023 to give staff time to prepare several pieces of the ordinance not yet ready for implementation, as well as to give licensees time to adjust their operations for compliance.
During the nearly three years the moratorium has been in effect, the number of licenses has dropped from more than 600 to 505, commissioners were told Monday.
Ordinance 523 and the moratorium still face lawsuits in Lincoln County Circuit Court by vacation rental owners organized by the industry-advocacy group ViaOregon.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees licensing and enforcement of vacation rental code, sent an email to license holders Oct. 31 informing them of impending enforcement deadlines.
Under the new rules, if a license renewal application is not submitted within 30 days of its annual expiration, the license will be revoked. Lisa Combs, support services director for the sheriff’s office, said the email gave delinquent owners an additional 30 days to renew. She later said the number of licensees who fail to renew in that timeframe has been substantial.
Owners have a grace period until May 1, 2023, for the ordinance’s new occupancy limits — a reduction to two people per bedroom plus an additional two per house — to allow for reservations already on the books, Combs said. Owners were asked to update their advertising to reflect the new limits.
Occupancy limits could potentially be reduced in connection to another impending deadline. By Dec. 31, 2023, vacation rental owners whose properties are on septic systems must submit a report detailing the system’s capacity and condition. If less than the occupancy under the two-per-bedroom rule, the septic capacity will be used for occupancy enforcement.
Septic issues
A letter to licensees from the county Planning Department said they’ll have 120 days to correct any system deficiencies listed in septic reports or face losing their license.
Planning director Onno Husing noted that few unincorporated areas, with the exception of Gleneden Beach, were connected to a sewer. He said the geology near the beach, where vacation rentals were likely to be located, was inhospitable to septic systems. Some were built prior to the existence of standards and might consist of just a barrel or rock field, Husing said.
County planners have said previously that the pattern of use of vacation rentals, with periods of inactivity between shorter periods of heavy use, can also contribute to failures.
“As you recall, one of the first manifestations of this new industry as it started happening was an unusual number of failures of septic systems,” Husing said. He said septic occupancy emerged as an “obvious nexus” to control other problems stemming from overcrowding.
“I need to say this for probably the 15th time, and some people don’t want to hear it, but the failure rate for septic systems for vacation rentals is astronomically high,” he said. Asked later by commission chair Claire Hall to be more specific, Husing put the failure rate at 50 percent.
Brian Crawford, the planning department’s senior environmental health specialist, later told YachatsNews the 50 percent figure was based on a sample of system reports for about 35 vacation rental properties, half of which failed, requiring tank replacement or some other major repair. The county does not typically receive system reports for homes not licensed as vacation rentals.
Under the county’s proposed new rules, the septic report must be completed by an Oregon Department of Environmental Quality-certified inspector at a cost of several hundred dollars. According to a list of DEQ-certified inspectors, there are four in Lincoln County and about 80 such technicians statewide.
Vacation rental owners are not required to obtain a new inspection if they have a report from within the past three years.
On to caps
Commissioners briefly discussed what will be the primary subject of a Jan. 11 workshop — limits on the number of vacation rental licenses within seven geographic areas, especially the five areas west of U.S. Highway 101.
County Counsel Kristin Yuille said the number of areas, but not their specific boundaries, was built into the ordinance. Commissioners must decide whether and how to tailor individual area caps or a flat limit on the number of licenses allowed. The board has previously indicated a preference for the former approach, setting a maximum percentage of total addresses in an area that can be vacation rentals.
According to a map prepared for Monday’s workshop, 90 of 381 physical addresses in region five, which stretches from the Alsea Bay Bridge south to the county line west of Highway 101, are licensed vacation rentals. That’s the highest concentration among the seven areas, at 23.6 percent.
Concentrations in smaller regions can be much higher, such as the Bayshore neighborhood in area four, where the percentage of vacation rentals is as high as almost twice that of area five and four times the area from the Alsea Bay Bridge north to Beaver Creek Bridge that contains it.
Setting caps will not result in the revocation of licenses. The county will rely on gradual reduction through sale, surrender or revocation. Rental licenses cannot be transferred to new owners after a sale of the property.
The total number of licenses in the county could even rise if commissioners set caps in regions six and seven, which are north and south of U.S. Highway 20 east of Highway 101, at higher than existing low concentrations of 0.8 and 0.7 percent, respectively.
Commissioner Doug Hunt was excused from Monday’s meeting to attend the Oregon Leadership Summit in Portland, and the retiring commissioner won’t be around to craft area limits next year. County public information officer Casey Miller was elected in November to replace him and drew campaign support from 15neighborhoods, the community organization behind Measure 21-203.
- Correction: An earlier version of this story said the septic failure rate was 15 percent. The corrected 50 percent figure is from a sample of 35 septic systems.
- Kenneth Lipp is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at KenLipp@YachatsNews.com