By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
Lincoln County commissioners are considering a 300 percent increase in fees for property owners wanting to renew their vacation rental licenses to $500 a year.
Commissioners last week said they were comfortable with the yearly renewal fee rising from the current $125 – and that maybe it should increase to $525 to fully cover costs of administering short-term rental regulations in unincorporated areas of the county.
The fee to apply for a new vacation rental license would double from $350 to $750. But with a new limit on licenses, few new license applications are expected.
The increase in short-term rental license fees would be the first since 2019, the county said, three years after it began regulating vacation rentals. The county has been embroiled in vacation rental regulation issues for four years, most recently setting limits on their number in unincorporated areas west of U.S. Highway 101.
A Lincoln County circuit judge has scheduled two days of hearings in early August to hear oral arguments by attorneys for 20 vacation rental owners who filed suit against the county last fall objecting to a new ordinance restricting their use. The county has spent $246,000 so far on outside legal help fighting legal challenges to the new regulations.
The proposed increase caught vacation rental owners by surprise as it was included in a 32-page list of fees commissioners routinely discuss and approve with little notice each June before taking effect at the start of a new fiscal year July 1. The other fees under consideration range from everything from copying costs, to building permits, to dog adoptions to concealed handgun licenses.
Commissioners gave their general approval of the vacation rental license fee increase last Wednesday and license holders got word of it the same day via an email from the sheriff’s office, which administers the program. Commissioners are scheduled to approve the new rates at their next meeting, June 21.
“I am comfortable with the overall increase,” commissioner Casey Miller said when the commission brought up the significant jump in vacation rental license fees.
But commission chair Kaety Jacobson asked “if it is appropriate to be even higher” to cover all the costs of administering the licensing program. Commissioner Claire Hall agreed, saying she had no objection of increasing them even more.
Lincoln County’s current yearly renewal fee of $125 is on the lowest end of fees charged by coastal cities and counties. Clatsop County charges $550 for yearly licenses and Tillamook County charges $75 per person based on a rental’s occupancy limits. Yachats charges $200 to $350, based on the number of bedrooms, Lincoln City $590, Newport $249 and Waldport will decide this week if its fees should increase to $500 from the current $200.
Vacation rentals in unincorporated Lincoln County generated more than $4 million in 2021-22 for the county – revenue that under state law is split to support the county’s general operations and to also promote tourism.
A spreadsheet provided to YachatsNews by the sheriff’s office said that it costs $247,000 to administer vacation rental oversight programs in the county – including one clerk, a community services deputy, portion of an administrator’s time, software and general expenses. Based on the current 507 licenses, an increase to $500 in yearly renewal fees would generate $253,500.
The county said that with few new licenses expected to be issued in the next several years due to area license caps, the county will largely rely on renewal fees from licensed short-term rentals to cover costs.
The commissioners asked Lisa Combs, the sheriff’s support services coordinator, to further analyze personnel costs to review during their June 21 meeting. They’ll use this information to determine if the proposed license fee increases are sufficient.
Written public comment can be submitted online at https://tinyurl.com/LCPublicInput. In-person or virtual public comment can be made during the commission’s meeting at 10 a.m. June 21.
This fee needs to cover total costs of vacation rentals.
Yes, the fee should at least cover costs. The traffic, beach fires and mess tourists leaves behind should also be considered. Increasing is necessary and good business practice.
It is about time that the cost of services be spread to those who come to visit here in Lincoln City. I am surprised it wasn’t more.
They should increase it far more. The disturbance created by the vacation rental properties in our local communities will never be fully covered no matter what the cost of licenses. Too many tourists in a small town make living here as a full-time resident unpleasant. This was not always the case. The eruption of the vacation rental industry within the communities’ neighborhoods makes one dread the summer. How sad.
While they are at it, perhaps the state should look into the impact that short-term rentals have on long-term rental availability. Homes should be for providing housing fist and foremost. Unfortunately greedy investors have created a monster with house flipping, and STRs which affect affordable housing availability. The State could provide homestead property tax exemptions for low income seniors/ disabled, while tripling property tax rates for all properties that are not providing long term housing. This is a solution to a problem throughout our state.