County to cap short-term rentals

The commissioners did not make any changes to the boundaries as originally proposed. Regions one and two, which are in north county, are divided by the Depoe Bay Bridge. The western and eastern regions are divided by Highway 101. Regions two and three are divided by the Yaquina Bay Bridge, regions three and four are divided by the Beaver Creek Bridge, regions four and five are divided by Alsea Bay Bridge and regions six and seven are divided by Highway 20.

The majority of the debate was over how many STRs, based on a percentage of the total number of tax lots, should be allowed in each of those seven area. There has been a lot of public input on this issue, and more was presented Wednesday prior to deliberation by the commission.

Natalie Raymond, of Gleneden Beach, said, “We own our home, live in a community pretty packed with short-term rentals, which we don’t mind, we actually appreciate it. We would really like to see the opportunity at some point … to potentially own a short-term rental or turn part of our property into a short-term rental. We feel that will keep the economic growth of visitors and other ways to grow our community.”

Lucy Nash, of Beverly Beach, said, “I realize that I am beating a dead horse, but before the first license was ever approved, the voters should have been asked if they wanted such enterprises in their neighborhoods. Over a decade ago where I lived, if someone wanted to open a B&B, a notice was sent to all those affected neighbors, and they had to agree.” Today in her neighborhood, she said, “There are houses with Meredith, Vacasa and other corporate signs in front. How is that not commercial? Why are commercial businesses allowed in residentially zoned areas?”

Nash also pointed out that Oregon’s governor recently issued a housing shortage state of emergency. “Here we have at least 500 homes that I know of that could be available if there were no short-term rentals. That would go a long way to help the shortage of housing.”

Witten testimony was received from Timothy and Tracey Dean, residents of Washington state, who own a four-bedroom STR in the Bayshore community of Waldport. “We replaced our septic system in 2019 to be in conformance with a rule by the county that the septic system has to meet the number of bedrooms in the STR,” they said. “So to maximize the occupancy rate and income generated by our home, we had a $20,000 water treatment system installed. After already going through this and making a significant investment … we recently learned that the county wants to cut our occupancy despite the fact that we specifically designed and built the system for 14 people. We also found out we cannot sell our home or transfer it to our heirs with the vacation rental use intact. Bayshore was designed for that use and has always allowed it.”

Many other people submitted written testimony to the county commissioners on both sides of this issue. Some cited problems with STRs in their neighborhoods, while others made the case for why STRs should be allowed to continue. A document containing this written testimony can be found on the county commission’s website at https://tinyurl.com/nheb799b (see “supporting documents” at the bottom of that page).

Following public testimony at last week’s meeting, commissioners debated where to set the caps for STRs in the seven geographical areas

Commission Chair Kaety Jacobson said, “My thought on areas six and seven, which are kind of the eastern part of the county, I don’t want to see that number climb super high. There’s also not a lot of development opportunities.” These are also the only two areas out of the seven regions that are currently below the lowest proposed cap of 1 percent. Region six currently has 40 STRs, and 1 percent density for that area would allow up to 47. Region seven has 33 STRs and could have up to 45 at 1 percent.

Commissioners Claire Hall and Casey Miller said they would be agreeable to capping STRs in those two areas at 1 percent.

Areas one through five, however, are the most controversial.

“I would be of the mind of having a cap that is similar in all of those places,” Jacobson said. She realizes those caps would have a much greater impact in some of those areas, “but I’d be looking for a similar kind of number in all of those areas.

“I’m just thinking for enforcement perspective and communicating with the public … I’m in favor of having a percent that is similar across all of those regions. And I’m leaning between 1 and 2 percent for those areas.”

That percent would considerably reduce the number of allowed STRs, although existing licenses would be grandfathered in.

Hall said, “If you’re looking at 1 to 2 percent for each of these five regions … that would mean a very low ceiling realistically, with no opportunity for new licenses for quite some time. It could take many years, even decades for those areas to get down to a 2 percent cap.”

Miller said, “I certainly don’t want to see the percentages go up. We need to put the brakes on — 1 percent, 2 percent seems like a lot to me.”

Hall pointed out that there are a lot of variables to consider. “Certainly, a very strong sentiment of the voters passing the ballot measure, although not standing up to court scrutiny, sent a pretty clear countywide sentiment,” she said. “On the other hand, it has been pointed out to us by many of the correspondence we do have subdivisions and planned unit developments that were specifically designed and developed to be primarily second homes and vacation homes. Do they need and deserve the same treatment that the areas developed primarily as residential neighborhoods do? Maybe there’s not an easy answer to that unless we go to caps by neighborhoods, and I don’t think that anybody wants to go down that route. It would be just a nightmare to organize and manage.”

After further debate, the commissioners reached a consensus and voted to cap regions one through five at 2 percent, and regions six and seven at 1 percent.

Under this change, the number of licensed STRs would be as follows:

• Region one: 42 licenses (currently there are 140);

• Region two: nine licenses (currently there are 23);

• Region three: five licenses (currently there are 40);

• Region four: 26 licenses (currently there are 139);

• Region five: seven licenses (currently there are 90);

• Region six: 47 licenses (currently there are 40);

• Region seven: 45 licenses (currently there are 33);

Under these new caps, the total number of STR licenses throughout all unincorporated areas of Lincoln County would be 181. Currently there are a total of 505 licenses.

Jacobson reiterated, “(Reductions) would be achieved both through sales of homes, people no longer wishing to be an STR, or possible enforcement action as we get that going, where we would taking away existing licenses.”

Hall made a motion to direct staff to prepare an order establishing STR boundaries along the lines of the draft map and to establish the individual caps for those areas as listed above. This motion was passed unanimously, and formal action on that order was scheduled for the board’s meeting today (Wednesday).