The permit process is open until June 25, 2026, and can be completed through the mail or in person
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS |||
If you operate a vacation rental in Eastsound Village or Lopez Village, it is a requirement to apply for a provisional use permit to remain compliant with the County code. The permit process is open until June 25, 2026, and can be completed through the mail or in person.
Background
All pre-existing vacation rentals in Eastsound village and Lopez village are required to submit an application for a provisional use permit with San Juan County prior to June 25, 2026. Ordinance 10-2025 provides that provisional use permit fees will be waived for these pre-existing vacation rentals. Pre-existing vacation rentals that do not submit an application by this date may not be able to continue to operate after June 25, 2026.
How to Apply for a Provisional Use Permit (PUP)
- Paper and/or Payment via Check or Cash: To submit a paper form, print and completely fill out the form titled San Juan County Land Use Application. Follow the instructions on the form to submit via mail or drop off in person at 135 Rhone St. Friday Harbor, WA. You can also mail it to San Juan County DCD P.O. Box 947 Friday Harbor, WA. 98250
Do you have questions about the vacation rental provisional use permit process? Ask Building Official Chris Jones at Christopherj@sanjuancountywa.
About San Juan County’s Department of Community Development
San Juan County’s Department of Community Development is responsible for administering building permits and inspections, code enforcement, land use permits, long-range planning, and more. The department’s main office is located at 135 Rhone Street, Friday Harbor, WA 98250. For more information about San Juan County’s Department of Community Development, visit www.sanjuancountywa.gov/1778/
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“Pre-existing vacation rentals that do not submit an application by this date may not be able to continue to operate after June 25, 2026.”
Read and heed!
Thank you Cindy.
I welcome any improved oversight of VRs. Tourism is an industry like any other and it must be regulated so that its harms are not excessively externalized. Housing scarcity, lack of parking, long lines, crowded trails, noise and other pollution, higher property taxes, and demands on our water system are examples of externalities. Islanders who don’t profit directly from the tourist industry are expected to tolerate all of this so that a relatively small number of VR operators, some of whom are already quite wealthy, can market their properties to tourists and exploit these externalities in order to increase their wealth.
Ordinance 10-2025 appears to be intended to count Eastsound and Lopez Village VRs towards the island-specific VR caps that were calculated in recent years. This is very much a step in the right direction. If I remember correctly Orcas will cap the number or VRs at 211. I can’t find the number of VRs within the Eastsound UGA at the moment, but I’d expect that it’s a significant portion of the total. Counting VRs within the UGA towards the maximum of 211 will go some ways towards ensuring that the VR cap has the net effect of reducing the total number of operating VRs on the island.
The Eastsound UGA had become a loophole that VR operators could use to fly under the radar without having to fully comply with the intended regulatory process. One example is the new 3-story building at the corner of Fern and Madrona. This could have been a nice affordable housing project housing dozens of working-class islanders. Instead it seems to be a gold mine for the developer. Units are listed for sale for approximately $1 million while also also being advertised as VRs through AirBnb. It is marketed as “Madrona Suites” (www.madronasuites.com). This arrangement seems extremely profitable: rent out your unsold real estate to tourists for over $400/night (summer rates) until someone with deep pockets decides to buy an Eastsound condo for a downtown Seattle price. And then the owner gets to turn a profit from those same tourists by renting out the first floor studio apartment. This might be perfectly legal, but it seems wrong somehow. Hopefully the VR changes in Ordinance 10-2025 will close this loophole and disincentivize developers from building projects like this.
Well put David.
“Pre-existing vacation rentals that do not submit an application by this date may not be able to continue to operate after June 25, 2026.”
It should read– Pre-existing vacation rentals that do not submit an application by this date WILL NOT BE ABLE TO OPERATE after June 25, 2026
“You stated, I can’t find the number of VRs within the Eastsound UGA at the moment, but I’d expect that it’s a significant portion of the total. Counting VRs within the UGA towards the maximum of 211 will go some ways towards ensuring that the VR cap has the net effect of reducing the total number of operating VRs on the island.”
The above astute comment is absolutely correct. Decades of nepotism by SJC elected officials cemented into place protections that were afforded to themselves and their friends who own vacation rentals… and they did so knowing that this was furthering the Eastsound UGA’s growing noncompliance with the Growth Management Act.
The irony is that the recent inclusion of the many unregulated vacation rentals in the Eastsound UGA guarantees that, through the attrition process, there will never ever be a new vacation rental licensed to operate on Orcas Island.
Good points, David, and hopefully the VR loopholes are being closed. But there are others; and that’s not all it takes to provide affordable housing. The developer of the Madrona Suites, Evan Westcott, was, this morning, granted preliminary approval for a 21-lot “affordable” subdivision, “Orcas Rose,” on the extension to Rose Street, east of Madrona. The recent Comp Plan update, in an effort to create more space for affordable housing in the UGA, raises the density in that area to a minimum of 12 units per acre (similar to April’s Grove); however this will come in at about 4–suburban density. And these are Eastsound view lots. They can’t be vacation rentals, but they can be vacation homes. “Affordable”? Wait and see.