||| FROM JOHN TITUS |||
I have been talking to various people who say they are just going to have to leave Orcas. These folks are hard working, love their jobs, but can’t afford to stay.
At some point all these arsehats that own short term rentals will realize there is nobody left to clean their houses, mow, paint, pump their septic or serve them food.
People just can’t find housing.
I never believed that Orcas would end up like Martha’s Vineyard because there is so much old money on the east coast I thought it was different.
Now, the Hollywoodization of the Orcas Disneyland has begun.
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I just read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle which describes how single family homes in California’s Napa Valley and nearby areas are being purchased
and converted into time shares. The timeshare owners show up a couple weeks a year on their vacation. They are not part of the local residential community. The timeshare homes become essentially hotel rooms. The availability of long term rentals is disappearing. Prices increase to take advantage of the well healed visitors.
Sound familiar? By the way, local residents are loudly protesting this development and proposing that they be strictly regulated.
If you know of a family or person in need of a rental have the call me at 360 298 5950. There a couple of them available. Also they need to call Karen Speck at Cherie L Lindhome Real Estate
Thank you John for your public expression of what has become the obvious. As I cannot disagree with your observations this truly bums me out too. There comes a time when anecdotal evidence becomes so overwhelming that our leader’s words are no longer even meaningful… “the asteroid in the room” is the phrase that comes to mind. There are, of course, multiple reasons why real-estate has, over time, become so expensive here in the San Juans– chief among them being the fact that there’s a limited amount of land, it’s such a beautiful place, the climate is mild, and our local leaders (via the Chamber of Commerce, and the SJC Visitor’s Bureau) continue to over-promote us. Within this cause and effect the growing lack of affordable, year-round housing is only one of the many symptoms of over-tourism that the San Juan’s continues to suffer from.
But, it’s more complicated than that. Major corporations that are fueling the real-estate industry have emerged as clear winners in the current free-for-all land grab that’s going on throughout most of America. Whether it be the nation’s largest homeowners like the Blackstone Group, or Zillow who come in after an economic collapse, a hurricane, a fire, or a prolonged drought, and buy up mass properties for pennies on the dollar, (and either flip them for a profit, or as in many cases rent them out as short-term vacation rentals), or simply (as in our case here), it being the result of an over-exhuberant real-estate industry, and local government that over-promotes tourism development (2nd & 3rd) homes), we’re now seeing the cause and effect of this as the quality of life in the San Juans continues to diminish, and our island communities continue morphing into a type of place where long-time residents can either no longer afford to live, or in some cases, even want to live. But, it doesn’t have to be this way… get engaged.
Support the Vacation Rental Working Group– https://www.vacationrentalsorcas.org/
Support Island Stewards– https://www.islandstewards.org/
Support the San Juan Islands Community Network– https://www.sjicn.org/forums
RSN– How Wall Street Bought Up America’s Homes
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/69908-focus-how-wall-street-bought-up-americas-homes
And, support The Friends of the San Juans– https://sanjuans.org/
Many of the people who own short-term rentals ARE long-term residents and rent them to be able to live here as well. In the most recent VR meeting this past week, Jamie Stephens–if I recall correctly–said he had reviewed all VR permits and all but one were owned by Orcas residents. We are finally getting real data and the claims about Orcas being overrun by greedy developers from off-island who are taking affordable rentals off the market have been disproved.
What’s beyond dispute is that few, if any, of the VRs would ever qualify as affordable long-term rentals. Their median value is something close to $500,000.
During the first of the forums Mr. Stephens is reported to have said:
“Regardless of the total number of VRs, density is the issue. . . . And we need to agree on what we know.”
he then went on to say:
Referring to his own dig into the numbers, he said that nearly all VRs on Orcas are locally owned.
His statement does not square with the County’s own data (from the Open Data website). Of the 996 VRs listed in the county wide “Vacation_Rental_Permits.csv” file, 458 are on Orcas. From the addresses provided in the “Parcels_and_Condominiums.csv” file, of the 458 VRs on Orcas, 210 or just short of half, are associated with out of county addresses (129 within Washington state and 81 out of state).
Now the County does not provide any description of the data fields in these files. But, It does not seem incorrect to assume that the addresses In the “Parcels” file are those to which correspondence regarding the associated parcels would be directed (eg, tax statements). If the VRs are locally owned by Orcas residents then why are the corresponding addresses “elsewhere”? The fact that many of these addresses are outside the County does not mean that the parcels are not “locally” owned. But, it does not seem likely that “nearly all” (or all but ONE) are locally owned as Mr. Stephens suggests.
Yes, we need to agree on what we know. I am not sure we are there yet.
Allowing more vacation rentals when we know that an over-dependence on tourism dollars is a large part of SJC’s current economic instabilities is akin to upping oil production when we should be getting off of fossil fuels.
Ken and Peg, etc:
Surveying my own small neighborhood:
There are 11 homes and an RV.
A total of 9 vacation rental permits, however:
8 fulltime residents live in 3 homes and the RV. 2 of these have inactive VR permits.
4 homes are “strictly” vacation homes – owners live in Seattle or E. Washington. 3 of those homes have inactive VR permits.
4 remaining homes are currently almost exclusively VR use (owners visit from Seattle or Yakima occasionally).
We non-renters had hopes that the oldest home, a modest one, would sell to a resident family. Nope, it went for $899k to an Eastern Wa buyer and is now being tricked out for commercial VR rental.
So those are the facts for one small neighborhood. All of the ACTIVE VR rentals are owned by non-county residents. So Jamie’s assertion does not match what is happening in my neighborhood.
Tracy, thank you for a practical field example. It is difficult to assimilate data when the pieces are so fragmented.
It take time and focused energy to do something so simple.. but the unbiased delivery is excellent!
Yes, there was indeed a lot of “loose data” flying around the room from both Jamie (SJC), and Jan Scilipoti (Hosting on the Rock), during this past Thursday’s online Zoom presentation that was hosted by the San Juan Islands Community Network.
The percentage of off-island landowners who own vacation rental permits in SJC compared to on-island vacation rental permit owners was established by the Vacation Rental Working Group several years ago (using the county’s own information), and the determination was, at that time, that off-island vacation rental permit holders owned approximately 51% of SJC’s total vacation rental permits.
Also, we’ve recently discovered that Jan Scilipoti’s group, “Hosting on the Rock’s” petition that was signed by several hundred people who are against the vacation rental moratorium is highly dubious. When I noticed Pierrette Guimond’s name on it (a friend of mine who is also a member of the Orcas Port Commission), I brought this to her attention. Pierrette told me, “I did not sign my name and I called her to remove it.”
In light of the fact that she (Jan) has erroneously, and publicly claimed that many of the signatures on the VR Working Group’s petition were fake… I now find that Jan having added the names of people who serve on the San Juan County’s advisory boards to their petition to have been done in an act of bad faith, and feel that the group’s list of signatures is clearly suspect.
A few observations:
1. I would ask Jamie to clarify his methodology and let us know how he reached his conclusion. The numbers put forth by the self-designated Working Group before the new VR rules went into full effect are well out-of-date given the new regulations.
2. Counting owners as non-residents because legal/tax notices are mailed to off-island addresses doesn’t work. Many lucky people who do live here have lawyers or accountants on the mainland to handle these details.
3. Tracy’s example raises many questions, the answers to which are key to understanding the current situation.
a. “Inactive” permit owners who did not fulfill the new rules are being issued notices of revocation and most will be dropped from the rolls.
b. I’m puzzled by the three of four houses that are used as vacation rentals without valid permits. How are they operating? Have they been reported to the enforcement officer who will investigate and issue fines and desist orders?
c. Of Tracy’s example, as I understand it, five of the VRs will be gone once enforcement reaches them. Three more are vacation homes, not VRs. There is a long tradition of families having vacation homes here. Despite the odd category assigned to such homes (“vacant”), the owners are here on holidays and in the summer. Many just have the homes run in the family. Others have bought/built a home here for eventual full-time residence. Neither group should be treated as having no stake or commitment to the County.
4. Stop with the petitions. A data summary of the first petition signatures’ Zip Codes showed it to be heavily endorsed by people registering addresses off-island, out of state, and a few out of country, as well as a few definitely suspect. I question the accusation against Jan Scilipoti of adding names of County advisory board members on the Hosts petition without their permission. But none of that really matters. Petitions and informal “surveys” are useless. We HAVE a reliable way of determining Orcas resident’s positions on important issues. Put any serious proposal on the ballot and let us vote on it.
5. Real estate prices are haywire; half the island seems to be up for sale or recently sold. That happens to be true in most real estate markets in the country. The crossover between high-end properties used for VRs and the dearth of affordable long-term rental properties is minimal.
Finally, it is clear that despite progress made in the recent SJI Network forums, we still have very little data that we all agree on, and that our discussions continue to conflate several distinct categories of property use.
Peg:
I want to clarify my survey of my neighborhood. I think you misunderstood how I listed the homes.
There are 11 houses and one RV.
Of those 12 homes, only 4 are occupied fulltime, by eight Orcas residents. Two of us have vacation rental permits in good standing (I’m one). But these 4 homes are NOT being used currently as VR’s.
4 homes are second homes used only by their owners – owners live in Seattle or E. Washington. 3 of those homes have inactive VR permits. NO ONE is renting illegally. One or more of those permits may have expired, in fact, as per owner’s wishes.
The 4 remaining homes are currently almost exclusively VR use, heavily and constantly rented by a commercial Orcas rental agency (owners visit from Seattle, California, or Yakima occasionally).
I would guess that the vehicular traffic from the 4 vacation rental homes surpasses by far, the traffic into and out of the neighborhood, of the 8 remaining homes. Year-round, that is.
Oh, sorry, I misinterpreted your post.
So if you believe in the law of supply and demand, there is a supply shortage. As Orcas continues to reduce available land through taxes to the Land Bank on Real Estate transactions, every sale makes it harder for the less wealthy to afford things. In other words, the more you preserve land and nature, the more valuable/expensive the remaining parcels become, so then people complain about the increase in value….Maybe taking the land from the land bank and using it to build low income housing would help? Is this a people/resident made problem?
In response to Michael Johnson’s comment about the signatures on a Hosting on the Rock petition: Michael, what petition are you referring to? We have not distributed a petition.
If you are going to spread negative information about our group, I ask you to be accurate.
Michael, Every person who signed that letter in February from HOTR, was confirmed by a written consent except for one who was a verbal and that person retracted after the letter was submitted to Council.
Jan / Vickie, in spite of what you’re saying, below see the list of names included within your letter to SJC Council dated 2/19/21 with your signature attached. You can scroll down to see Pierrette Guimond’s signature on it right after Susan and Wally Gudgell’s (spacing added for emphasis). Following the list of names you can also see an excerpt from the email response that I received from Pierrette regarding this.
Perhaps there are two Pierrette Guimonds in the county? Nope, I just checked… there’s only one. Falsifying the signatures of local county advisory board members on public documents is an egregious violation of signature gathering ethics, and sets a low bar from which to frame such an important debate. In the future it would be in everyone’s best interests (including your own), if your group were to function with more integrity.
Hosting on the Rock, Vacation Rental Owner/Host Group
Jan Scilipoti, Representative of 238 signatories, listed below
214 Military Road
Lopez Island, WA 98261
February 19, 2021
San Juan County Council
Cc: San Juan County Planning Commission, Erika Shook, Adam Zack, Mike Thomas County
Manager
RE: Vacation Rental (VR) Moratorium
Dear Council Members,
Regarding the VR Moratorium Resolution and Findings of Fact:
Attached Documents:
1. Orcas Business Letter to the Council.pdf
2. Wolf letter.pdf
3. 2015 Housing Data showing VR LTR Vacant FT.png
4. May 2000 socioeconomicgrowth.pdf
5. 2021 Caps for HostingontheRock.pdf
The following islanders have asked that their names be included in support of the vacation rental opinions that I’ve outlined above.
Erin & Pete Ancich, San Juan Island
Jenny, Kirk, Mary and Toni Ancich, San Juan Island
Connie Andersen, Friday Harbor
David and Susan Ambrose, San Juan Island
Connie Anderson, San Juan Island
Neal Anderson, Lopez Island
Kerry Andrews, San Juan Island
Brian B, San Juan Island
Jessica Bacon, Friday Harbor
Linda Bannerman, Orcas Island
Susan Barkshire, San Juan Island
Ryther Barbin, San Juan island
Michelle Bayba, Orcas island
Larry Bearg, Orcas Island
Elspeth Bellhart & Michael Bellhart, San Juan County
Sarah Bernstein, San Juan island
Bonnie Oak Boesky, Orcas Island
Josh Boudreau, San Juan Island
Jeffrey Bozanic, Property Owner, San Juan Island
Archie Brooks, San Juan Island
Carrie L. Brooks, San Juan Island
Brad Brown, Orcas Island
Samantha Bryner, San Juan Island
Steve Buck, San Juan Island
Ryan Burke, San Juan Island
Anita Callegari, San Juan Island
Robert Callegari, San Juan Island
Bette Cantrell, San Juan Island
Christian and Trina Carlson
Kim Contreras, San Juan Island
Lew and Debbie Dickinson, San Juan Island
John Dreesmann, San Juan Island
Celes Eckerman, San Juan Island
Jerry & Marilyn Eisner, Orcas Island
Jim & Cathy Ferran, Orcas Island
Brandy Carpentier, San Juan Island
Emma Jean Carpentier, San Juan Island
Natalie Chevalier, San Juan Island
Dan Christopherson, Orcas Island
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Meg & Bob Connor, Orcas Island
Jim Cooper, San Juan Island
Val Cooper, San Juan Island
Paul Cooper, San Juan Island
Cathryn Curlett, Orcas Island
John & Katie Curlett, Orcas Island
Peter Dammann, San Juan Island
Deb Dickerson, San Juan Island
Sherri & Paul Doherty, Orcas Island
Bj Dollahite
Audrey Dolsen
Dwight Duke, Orcas Island
Celes Eckerman, San Juan Island
May and Wes Edholm, San Juan Island
Brian Ehrmantraut, Orcas Island
Rivka Eisner & Mark Lever, Orcas Island
Mary Jane Elgin, Orcas Island
Heidi Evans, San Juan Island
Kim Fackrell, Orcas Island
Susan Fallat, San Juan Island
Enos & Kathy Farnsworth, San Juan Island
Marjorie Fielding, San Juan Island
Andrew Fleming, San Juan Island
Bob Frangooles & Anne Pace, San Juan
Gary Franklin, San Juan Island
Deb Fritz, San Juan Island
Evelyn Fuchses & Michael Mckinstry, Orcas Island
David and Katie Gaible
Tawnie Gallaghan, San Juan Island
Lauren and Michael Gardiner, Snohomish County
Janay Geiser, San Juan island
Aylene Geringer and Mark Zipkin, San Juan Island
Brian & Rachel Goodremont, Friday Harbor
Anders and Lori Goranson, Orcas
Tiffany Goudey, San Juan Island
Tina Grace, Orcas Island
Jack and Ladell Grandsaert, San Juan Island
Chris Grifo, San Juan Island
Elise M. Grisel, San Juan Island
Peter A Grisel, San Juan Island
Susan & Wally Gudgell, Orcas Island
Pierrette Guimond, Orcas
Bob Halliday, Orcas Island
Rebekah Halpern, Property Owner San Juan Island
Dennis Hamel, Orcas Island
Mark & Kati Heckele, Friday Harbor, San Juan Island
David & Nancy Hodges, San Juan Island
George and Teresa Holland, San Juan Island
Marlace Hughes, Orcas Island
Rebecca Hughes and Howard Crowell, San Juan Island
Cheryl Jackson, Orcas Island
Capella & Nick James, San Juan Island
Cheryl Jefford, Orcas Island
Lauren, John, Melissa, Scott and Kelly Jacobi, San Juan Island
Logan Johnson
William Johnson, Lopez Island
Boyd, MaryAnn, Nanette and Wayne Judd, San Juan Island
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Pam and John Keffer, San Juan Island
Warren and Tracy Kelly, Orcas Island
Jana & Randy Kessinger, San Juan Island
Becky Kilpatrick ,San Juan Island
Sara Kissel, Orcas Island
Amy Knutson, San Juan Island
Dana Knutson, San Juan Island
Jesse Knutson, San Juan Island
Meghan Korb, San Juan Island
Johannes & Angie Krieger, San Juan Island
Alex Krieger, San Juan Island
Eric Krieger, San Juan Island
Laura Krieger, San Juan Island
Luz Krieger, San Juan Island
Malorie Krieger, San Juan Island
Wolf Krieger, San Juan Island
Wolfram Krieger, San Juan Island
Omeed and Jonathan Kroll, San Juan Island
Colas Kronschnabel
Andy Kronschnabel
Claudia La Cava,San Juan Island
Kelsey Larrabee, San Juan Island
Marc Lampe, SanJuan Island
Julie & Peter Larsen, San Juan Island
Tim and Melinda Larson, San Juan Island
Barb & Scott Leeming, San Juan Island
Vicki Leimback, Orcas Island
Jim and Amy Lepien, Orcas Island
Trini Leslie, San Juan Island
Yasuko and David Lewin, San Juan Island
Dom Liberatore, San Juan Island
Carol & Max Lyons, Orcas Island
Cheryl Loder, San Juan Island
Josi Long
Juan and Heidi Lopez, San Juan Island
Jenny Low, San Juan Island
Sybil & Travid Mager, San Juan Island
Brittany Mahoney, San Juan Island
Peg Manning, Orcas
Jessica & Trent Martenson
Daniel Marty, Orcas
Michele Mayer, San Juan Island
Brent & Doris McDonald, Orcas Island
Mike Mcgillivray, San Juan Island
Toni Michele, San Juan Island
Lydia Miller, Orcas Island
Merwyn Murk, Orcas Island
Bobbette Murk, Orcas Island
Tessa Nichols, San Juan Island
Donald Niemann, San Juan Island
Kristen Nimmo, Orcas island
Madeline Ochsner, San Juan Island
Courtney Oldwyn, San Juan Island
Suzanne Olson, Orcas Island
Clayton & Trina Olson, Orcas Island
Stella and Mark Padbury, Orcas Island
Norris & Karen Palmer, San Juan Island
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Lorne Paulson, San Juan Island
Amy Pearson
Hal Peterson, Lopez Island
Rob Peterson, San Juan Island
Michaela K Peterson, Lopez Island
Sherri Pierson, Orcas Island
Melisa Pinnow, San Juan Island
Timothy and Rene Polda, San Juan Island
Larry and Elizabeth Pollock, Orcas
Terese Prescott, San Juan Island
Charis Pruitt, San Juan Island
Jim Pruitt, San Juan Island
Tyler Pruitt, San Juan Island
Jorge Puente, Orcas Island
Vijay Rathore, San Juan Island
Jon Richards, San Juan Island
Candace Richter, San Juan Island
Debbi Rishel, San Juan Island
Lisa Robinson-Spader, San Juan Island
Barb Roddy, Orcas Island
Patricia Roma, San Juan Island
Mindy Rowse, Orcas Island
Marie Rothlisberger, San Juan Island
Marlis K. Sandwith, San Juan Island
Roger Sandwith, San Juan Island
Trygve Satterlee, San Juan Island
Annette Schaffer, Friday Harbor
Ryan Schiess, Friday Harbor
Jayson & Katie Schmidt, San Juan Island
Peter & Brenda Schmidt, San Juan Island
Amanda Schmidt, San Juan Island
Jennifer Schmidt, San Juan Island
Hollie Schoppman, San Juan Island
Kari and Jim Schuh, Orcas Island
Katherine Schultz, San Juan Island
Damien Scott, San Juan Island
Michelle Seidelman, San Juan Island
Mike Sharadin, San Juan Island
Richard Simpson, San Juan Island
Jeanne Sleeper, San Juan Island
Heather Smith, San Juan Island
Ryan Smith, San Juan Island
Zak Speer, San Juan Island
Jodi Spitalli, Orcas
Drew and Chelsea St Pierre, Orcas Island
Chad Stevens, San Juan Island
Cindy Stewart, San Juan Island
Edwin Stewart, San Juan Island
Paula Sundstrom, San Juan Island
Debra Sullivan, San Juan Island
Bobby Tagney, San Juan Island
Stacie Tangney, San Juan County
Mitch Taylor, San Juan Island
Rob Thesman, Lopez Island
Burke Thomas, Orcas Island
Barbara Thomas, Orcas Island
Hyon Su Thomas, Friday Harbor
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Edith Thomsen, Orcas Island
RIck & Emily Tidball, Orcas Island
Laura Tisdale, Orcas Island
Debra Tonachel, Orcas Island
Amy Traxler, San Juan Island
Paula Trost, San Juan Island
Melanie and Thomas Tucker, Orcas Island
Ruth Vandestraat, Orcas Island
Pamela Van Vleet, Lopez Island
Kimberly Ashley Vowell
Matthew and Dawn Waite, Friday Harbor
Leasa Wangoe, San Juan Island
Jennifer and Chris Walsh, Orcas Island
Susan & Gary Waters, San Juan Island
Judi Westlund, Lopez Island
Jennifer Whalen, San Juan Island
Greg White, Orcas Island
Tiffany White, San Juan Island
Darcy Whittier, Orcas Island
Kim Wickman, San Juan Island
Janice Williams & Greg Sawyer, Orcas Island
Pamela Williams, San Juan Island
Toni Willis, Orcas Island
Bruce A. Wilson, Orcas Island
Susan York, San Juan Island
Jim Young, San Juan Island
Terri Zambrovitz, San Juan Island
Wei Zhang & Jenny Shih, San Juan Island
From Pierrette Guimmond–
“I did not sign my name and called her to remove it….”
Michael,
Of course many of the signatures on the VR Working Group’s petition were fake! I read off many of the ridiculous names from far away places to the county council meeting a few months ago. It’s a change.org petition!
Michael,
Thanks for posting the letter Hosting on the Rock sent to Council. The more people see it, the better. We have 200 VR owners in our group, and they’re great people and professional hosts, most of whom use the income to be able to live here on the islands.
You have questioned one of the signatures. Her name was given to us by another person we trust completely, who works with our group. It is true that the signer changed her mind and asked us to remove her name, but we had already emailed the letter. It was unfortunate timing, but not anyone’s fault and certainly not intentional.
What do you suggest that we do at this point? What do you need to stop this particular unfounded attack?
Jan– you said, “You have questioned one of the signatures. Her name was given to us by another person we trust completely, who works with our group. It is true that the signer changed her mind…..”
I say, that attaching names to a list in an effort to show public support for an issue in an attempt to influence local leaders does not follow ethical signature gathering protocols. The “signer” in this case, never “changed her mind” as you state. She never signed the list at all ! Falsifying the signatures of local county advisory board members on a public document in an attempt to influence the decision making of local political leaders is an egregious violation of signature gathering ethics.
You said, “What do you suggest that we do at this point?”
I said, “In the future it would be in everyone’s best interests (including your own), if your group were to function with more integrity.”
In response to Neil Kaye, actually, no, the issue with affordable housing is not having too much conservation land. There are 6,500 vacant parcels in the County with the potential to divide some of them to create another roughly 3,000, so 9,500 total. Additionally, the County Council has the ability to increase density in urban growth areas and rural clusters are also allowed. On the other hand, the County has the lowest amount of public land in Western Washington, 16%. By contrast, Whatcom has 68% and even King has 46%. We have surveyed County residents repeatedly and there continues to be a strong demand for more conservation land, more places for people to get outdoors especially if they don’t own a property with a beach or a mountain. During the pandemic, even with tourism severely curtailed, visitation to conservation lands soared, for example doubling at SJI National Historical Park. We need these places and as, inevitably, more people come here to live, we will need them even more.
Lincoln, thanks for setting me straight. Great to know that taking real estate money to buy land to conserve has no impact on land being available for other people to buy and build low income housing. So if there are 9500 parcels available as you calculate, why isn’t there a movement to build low income housing on a few hundred of these? I had presumed a land shortage was behind the log-jam, but clearly that was a bad guess. Is it possible that Orcasians just don’t want affordable housing for average people?
Michael, Integrity?? I say The Vacation Rental Working Group using a Change.org petition, with plenty of fictitious names from far away places, in an effort to show public support for an issue in an attempt to influence local leaders does not follow ethical signature gathering protocols. In the future it would be in everyone’s best interests (including your own), if your group (the Vacation Rental Working Group) were to function with more integrity.
Dan, there’s no way for one to add names to a GoFundMe petition that I’m aware of. I suppose that there might have possibly been a few of the 3,100 + signatures on the Vacation Rental Work Group’s moratorium petition ( https://www.vacationrentalsorcas.org/ ) as a result of there being some people out there who might have woke up one morning, and for some reason decided that they were going to go to the Go Fund Me website, and look for a vacation rental moratorium petition to sign. I remember when someone from the Vacation Rental Work Group looked into this early on in an effort to vet the signatures, and if I understood it correctly the signators on the GoFund Me site’s addresses are compiled from where their computer servers IPO addresses were created, (or something like that… I’m not a computer guy). This resulted in some people who signed the petition who have lived here for many years, and who’s address may appear to be from elsewhere… but they’re here.
Even though it’s not about who’s side has the most signatures let me indulge your fantasy for a moment. Let’s say that the Vacation Rental Work Group’s petition is flawed as you state. How many “fake” signatures might you think are on it? If only 50% of the signatures were valid that would still be over 1,500 local people who publicly stated that they are in support of the moratorium, (and, according to their comments, also for more stringent regulations, and enforcement). You’d think the council would take note of that. Hell, if 90% of the signatures were invalid that would be over 300 signators (more than your group can come up with). One might think that the council would even take note of that.
It appears that your group was only able to get 200 signatures from the local vacation rental owners, (out of apprx. 1000 permit holders). Let’s face it Dan… there’s probably more SJC vacation rental permit holders who signed the Vacation Rental Work Group’s moratorium petition than signed the Host on the Rock’s letter.
I’m not a member of the Vacation Rental Work Group. I havn’t been a member of that group for about a year now. I’m not a member of any group.
Neil, San Juan County voters supported “YES for Homes” campaign, also known as Proposition One in the November 2018 election.
I have to say, obsessing about one signature only brings into focus the large number of people supporting the hosts.
Peg, I wasn’t particularly obsessed with the one signature, but I did feel it worth pointing out… I was ready to drop the issue once I acknowledged it. It’s the lack of responsibility, and the intentional, ongoing coverup that’s going on by the Scilipoti group in regards to this that has made this into an issue, and called the validity of their letter into question. Indeed, it seems that the more they talk about it the longer their noses get.
“the large number of people supporting the hosts.” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Imagine how impressive it would be if I printed the entire 3,100+ list of the Vacation Rental Work Group’s petition signers.
When you guys are ready to quit talking about this… so am I. Till then.
I never gave permission to anyone to put my name on this list. Already have written to the Council in support of a moratorium.