Lincoln County commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to extended their moratorium on issuing new vacation rental licenses for another six months as challenges to its new ordinance and a voter-passed initiative make their way through the court system.
Vacation rental owners and an umbrella organization are challenging both a county measure that tightened regulations and cut back on the number of licenses it could issue, and a ballot measure that passed last November to phase out vacation rentals in unincorporated Lincoln County over five years.
The state Land Use Board of Appeals recently sent a challenge of the county ordinance back to Lincoln County circuit court, saying it was not a land-use issue. It has yet to make or announce a ruling on a similar challenge to Ballot Measure 21-203.
Lincoln County Circuit Judge Amanda Benjamin is scheduled to hear arguments on a permanent injunction to the measure and county ordinance during a hearing Wednesday. Attorneys for the vacation rental owners, for the county and for the group that put the initiative on the ballot have been filing their arguments and will make their case before Benjamin at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
County counsel Kristin Yuille told commissioners Wednesday that the county moratorium on issuing new licenses expires next week and asked them to extend it until Benjamin and LUBA issue their rulings. But she indicated – and others have already said it – that any decision by Benjamin or LUBA will likely be appealed to the Oregon Court of Appeals.