||| FROM NATALIE MENACHO |||
Dear County Council and San Juan County Community,
The future of our county is at stake. I urge you to uphold the vacation rental moratorium.
The moratorium is not taking away vacation rental permits from the folks that already have them. More time is needed to reform and build a sustainable system for vacation rentals.
As it is, we have many out of county residents buying up our housing specifically for vacation rentals. This hollows out our community by removing valuable housing stock that could be occupied by our hard-working community members. This in turn hurts businesses as the lack of long-term housing decreases the number of eligible employees available to support and serve the rising number of tourists. The empty houses also hollow out our neighborhoods and hurt our community’s morale as so many upstanding folks are struggling to find affordable long-term rentals while perfectly good housing just sits dormant. This strain affects the hardest workers on our island. Does it serve our county for the rent money for these vacation rentals to line the pockets of folks who don’t even live here? I say no. I urge us to change.
I recommend creating an equitable pricing tier for permits that charges more for out of county permit holders and subsidizes permit cost for locals. I am in favor of county residents being prioritized because they spend their money here and their presence supports our year-round economy.
I recommend establishing a lottery system to administer a limited number of permits annually.
I am in favor of granting our voting community members a limited number of coveted vacation rental permits while offering a lottery system for the rest. I am in support of discouraging vacation rentals owned by out-of-county people by raising the cost for these permits and capping the number that are granted each year. I am in favor of limiting the number of permits granted and I urge the county to put expiration dates on all of them.
I fear our islands are headed toward the fate of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Two vacation destinations that have destroyed their communities and environment in favor of financial inequality and serving the elite.
We need the moratorium. We need vacation rental reform. We need to look at just how many visitors our islands can realistically, sustainably accommodate. We need to look at density and carrying capacity and the true costs of tourism.
We can do better and I have faith that through your leadership we can find an equitable solution that serves our community and environment.
I appreciate your devotion to this important topic.
My grandfather built a house on the sandy bluff of Siasconsett at the eastern end of the island. It was sold in 1947 as part of the major game played at all tourist locations: Monopoly, with a continuous housing shortage. Fisherman’s cottages you can’t stand up in are expensive. Even then, the small middle class sold to tourists and left for Florida when their patrons returned to Philadelphia (where I was raised), New York and Boston. Winter on Nantucket was a shell of government including post office employees and a scattering of people who couldn’t afford to go anywhere. All such places end up with two classes: tourists (daily or seasonal) or inmates (those stranded without options). Nantucket is bleak in winter.
Meanwhile, my grandfather’s house had to be moved away from its sandy cliff, across its nearby road. The seaside yard had eroded a good 60 to 80 feet, the rate increasing today (I took grandkids back about 8 years ago). From a city person’s point of view, summers are nice. The weather’s great and writers and artists dally about. The Obamas summered on nearby Martha’s Vineyard. But it is a place of a failed economy, a failed community.
It will take more than dreams or demands to bring make our communities strong and well. There is serious work ahead … or else.