While they wait for a judge’s ruling on vacation rental regulations, Lincoln County commissioners took the pre-emptive step last week of putting a 1-year moratorium on issuing new licenses in case the judge tosses out the contested rules.
Circuit pro-tem judge Joseph Allison said at the end of a five-hour hearing Aug. 16 that he intended to rule on the county’s regulations by the end of last week. That hadn’t happened as of 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24.
As a precautionary measure, county commissioners held a special meeting Friday afternoon to unanimously approve an emergency order halting any new licenses. If Allison rules in the county’s favor commissioners would vote at its first meeting in September to end the moratorium.
Commissioners want to avoid a situation that occurred in November 2021 when a 3-day window of apparent rental licenses opened up, causing a rush of applications. Commissioners had to quickly make a moratorium retroactive, and the licenses were eventually rejected.
The county has a waiting list of 64 license applicants, commissioners were told last week. The county order being challenged in court would slowly drop the number of licenses from the current 509 to 181 as owners sold or changed the use of their houses.
At the end of the hearing last week, Allison told lawyers he would not rule from the bench that afternoon, but intended to issue a written ruling in the next two days “because I expect it to be appealed.” But there’s been no ruling since.
“Certainly these decisions will have a great effect on a great number of people,” Allison said at the conclusion of oral arguments.
Twenty vacation rental owners filed suit against the county last November objecting to a new ordinance restricting the use of their properties.
The lawsuit, which consolidated and amended some previous filings, has been the subject of responses and motions by attorneys since then. The lawyer for the rental owners and outside attorneys for the county have been fighting in court and before the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals since late 2021.
With the water problems ( inadequate in the case of Yachats) that are faced in recent years and likely to continue moving into the future, I am curious if vacation homes have any type of restrictions or limitations that can be put in place per dwelling. I believe it is the natural inclination of someone traveling on a vacation to not pay too much attention to the ongoing problems of the places they are visiting. And understandably, with beach sand etc there is a desire for the good long shower. Is it possible to put requirements in place for limited use with things like required low flow shower heads in the rental properties or to fine the vacation home owners if they exceed normal usage considered for their square footage or amount of bedrooms?
It seems completely unfair and probably unconstitutional to allow some of my neighbors to rent their house for vacation families and I can’t because of local bylaws that restrict my freedom as a law abiding owner of property in the same county and or city.
I totally agree. This whole thing is a violation of our property rights.
It seems very unfair as a resident who purchased a home in a zoned residential neighborhood. I did not purchase my home in a hotel business zone. Vacation rentals are a business. Period. End of story. Zoning is put in place for this very reason. If not, why then shall I not be able to open a business of another type in a zoned residential neighborhood.