Public Hearing Friday, August 20, 2021

||| FROM GERI TURNOY, JOE SYMONS, DAVID TURNOY for KEEP THE SAN JUANS WILD |||

We write you about the current status of the process by which your county decision-makers are engaged with crafting new regulations regarding Vacation Rental Permits.

Click here for a draft letter that you can use to send your thoughts to the SJC Planning Commission (PC) and the County Council (CC) regarding your concerns about and experience with the impact of visitors staying in vacation rentals on your island and in the county. This draft letter is a place to start. Feel free to modify it; put in your personal stories and concerns.

The draft letter includes a letter that has been sent to the PC and CC regarding the information challenges in the county’s data which is being used to determine the actual cap numbers; this is the letter that your letter is supporting.

Please let the PC and CC know your concerns; as you know, there is considerable controversy about the impact of VRs on the quality of life for locals and visitors. While there is some opposition to updated regulations, it appears to be small but it is very vocal. Your voice is essential to ensuring that county decision makers know the significance of their deliberations and decisions on your welfare as a local. We anticipate that additional letters will be drafted and sent to these decision makers, and hope you will continue to participate in crafting regulations that have the greatest benefit for the greatest number.

Here are the email addresses for the Planning Commission and the County Council:

Please pass this correspondence to all of your friends, family and neighbors and encourage them to write. It’s a democracy. A few loud voices need to be countered by many voices. The real issue is how to balance “me first” energies with “we count!” energies representing the often-too-quiet majority.

Thank you so much for ensuring that we honor our commitment to living here by expressing our concerns for our future and the future of our descendants, friends, visitors and Nature now, before conditions become not only worse but set in stone.

Tell your story. State your feelings. In-person (“live”) testimony is considered more effective than letters.

Please call! Only 3 minutes of your time.

Keep San Juans Wild

 

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