The Yachats City Council has finished work on its vacation rental ordinances by establishing a general procedure for creating a waiting list for licenses.
The council set a 125-license limit on vacation rentals in 2017 and re-affirmed that number late last year. But after tinkering with other parts of the ordinance council members initially could not agree on if, when or how to establish a waiting list for property owners who wanted to get a license once the number drops below 125.
Finally, at the end of 2019 it agreed to establish a waiting list after license renewals were finished Jan. 31.
By the end of January 129 people had renewed their licenses for 2020 – nine fewer than in 2019.
“We’re close to the cap,” Mayor John Moore said during the council’s meeting last week.
The council decided to give people without licenses until May 1 to sign up via the city’s website for a random drawing to determine the waiting list’s initial order. People signing up later in the year would follow in the order they signed up.
The random drawing to determine the order of the waiting list would take place during the council’s May 7 meeting, councilors decided.