By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
A coalition of neighborhood groups will begin collecting signatures Tuesday to place an initiative petition on the November ballot to phase out vacation rentals in unincorporated Lincoln County.
No one challenged the petition’s constitutionality by a 5 p.m. Monday deadline.
That sets up a 5- to 8-day race for the petitioners to collect 1,454 valid signatures by 5 p.m. Aug. 5.
To delay signature gathering there needed to be a challenge filed in Lincoln County Circuit Court. The only organized vacation rental advocate in the county – VIAOregon – said they would wait to see if the petitioners collected enough signatures to get on the Nov. 3 ballot.
If the group called “15Neighborhoods” misses the Aug. 5 deadline, it then has until February to collect signatures to put it on the ballot in May 2021. It could also aim for the November 2021 ballot.
“If they get the signatures by Aug. 5 we will develop a Plan A for that,” said Jamie Michel, vice president of Yachats-based Sweet Homes Rentals and leader of the vacation rental organization. “And if it’s next May then we’ll have a Plan B for that.
“But we’ll let them go ahead for now …” Michel said.
If approved by voters, the initiative would apply only to unincorporated areas of Lincoln County outside the cities of Yachats, Waldport, Newport, Toledo, Siletz, Depoe Bay and Lincoln City. It would:
- Prohibit short-term rentals of under 30 days in three types of residential zones: R1-A, R1 and R2;
- Phase out all short term rentals, with the exception of some hardship cases, within five years;
- Limit ownership to one short-term rental in those three zones;
- And, put more stringent limits on short-term rental occupancies.
There are currently 600 properties with vacation rental licenses in unincorporated areas of the county, up from about 430 rentals 18 months ago.
Opponents object to the growing number of short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods, saying they often bring large, noisy, disrespectful groups, generate too much traffic, and detract from nearby single-family homes.
But they are becoming more popular as an alternative to motels because they can accommodate large families, several families or groups. Owners like them either to help pay mortgages on coastal property or as an investment.
A growing number of jurisdictions are trying to find ways to limit or regulate vacation rentals. Yachats has a license cap of 125; Newport adopted regulations last year limiting them in certain neighborhoods; Lincoln City has similar restrictions. Lincoln County had been working on new regulations, software and license-tracking programs, and froze license applications this year before much of that work was put on hold because of COVID-19 outbreaks in the county since March.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, signature gathering will be quite different this year — it has to all be done electronically.
Monica Kirk, one of three co-petitioners from the Miroco neighborhood near Depoe Bay, said her group will send out emails starting Tuesday to people who have expressed an interest in signing the petition. People will have to print off an attached the signature form, sign it twice, and mail it to 15Neighborhoods, P.O. Box 390, Depoe Bay, Ore. 97341 by Saturday in order for the group to get them by Aug. 3-4. The group will then turn them in to the county elections department.
People who miss that deadline can email the group at 15Neighborhoods@gmail.com to have someone come pick them up, Kirk said. The group’s new website is at 15neighborhoods.weebly.com
People who sign them have to be registered to vote in Lincoln County.
“We’re getting a lot of response as people hear about our effort,” Kirk said. “But I’m worried about people being unfamiliar with this signature gathering process.”