To the editor:
If you think the short-term vacation rental problem does not affect you, you are wrong. When your daughter and her family want to return to Lincoln County, there is nothing available to rent. When Grandma wants to live near her family, there is nothing available. When the new nurse, mechanic, or teacher try to move to town, nothing is available. Many are driving from Corvallis, Lebanon, or McMinnville.
You can help. Download 15neighborhoods.com and print the signature sheet, sign and date twice, add your address and mail in. What this does is get an initiative on the ballot for May to help return vacation rentals to monthly rentals.
Tourists will still come to Lincoln County but will stay in our hotels which need help desperately. There will still be vacation homes but in areas they should be in, commercial and vacation, not residential.
— Reba Lovelady, Bayshore/Waldport
I own a lot in Yachats that I bought 10+ years ago and this year was going to build a 2000sq/ft. home with 2 car garage for 2400sq/ft. total. I planned on using it for 5 years as a short term rental until I retired and moved to Yachats full time. Estimates from 3 area contractors to build a home with mid-grade finishes ranged from $215-260p/sq. or a minimum of $516K plus lot cost. Low end break even monthly rent would be $3200p/mo.
I have been told that long-term rentals in Yachats or Waldport do not command $3000-5000p/mo. and that the community needs low income housing. Evidently grandma and little Suzie moving home won’t pay that much. So I am left with 2 choices. Build and lose money affecting my retirement planning, or don’t build and move elsewhere taking my retirement dollars with me. I chose the latter.
Honestly, I feel your proposal wreaks of privilege. I feel like you’re saying common folks who cant afford to own a beach house like you should not be able to enjoy a visit the Oregon coast and experience even for a few days the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful neighborhood. Instead they must be segregated to hotels and campgrounds like second-class citizens. Which by the way, in case you haven’t noticed most hotels and campgrounds are full during peak months requiring advanced reservations up to a year in advance. Maybe regulation on short-term rentals is needed but to eliminate them all together is the wrong solution. Your proposal sounds like a attempt to control your neighbors in a way that will hurt many.