— from Tom Evans —
There is no better time than right now to save what all of us hold sacred about the beauty of the land, water, trees, mountains and shoreline of the San Juan Islands.
It has now become clear our commissioners will have no part of ever considering a VRBO moratorium and they will not allow discussion of a proposed Ordinance.
They are vacationing in a fools paradise. It is clear the People can and will bring on a moratorium, or for that matter, an outright ban, on further vacation rentals.
Both voter imposed moratorium or total ban are legal under land use law. Both could be considered at the same time by two initiatives which the voters can sign one or both at the same time.
It only takes 15% of the voters in the last election to get a petition to the people. A simple majority, and it becomes law. Off-Island voters not registered to vote here have no say and cannot vote on the initiatives. By my count for every one pro-VRBO there are three no. Any petition will pass. The Commissioners be damned.
VRBO is killing communities all over the world. Consider Bellingham. One entire neighborhood became so changed neighbors no longer wished to live there. Moratoriums and bans abound across the worlds.
If you are one of the lucky ones with a permit in hand, with moratorium/ban you can expect the value of your property to skyrocket. Or, with no moratorium or ban, every new VRBO diminishes the value of yours and further trashes the Islands.
More rules is not the answer. Human nature, being what it is, there will be more destructive behavior no matter how well intended vacationers are. Two teenage boys from the VRBO immediately to the East of us reportedly set fire to a brush pile on our property just before leaving with their family at 10 am. Had the incoming cleaning crew not noticed our property was on fire we would have lost tree acreage to fire. Our other neighbor adjacent to that same VRBO describes its use as like having a family reunion every weekend.
We must act and act now. Power to the people!
It’s about time we take direct action. Our beloved Commissioners are unlikely to take any serious measures to limit vacation rentals. Thanks for taking the lead on this, Tom. Your voice is highly respected, here on the island and in courts across the state and nation.
I share Tom’s frustration. VRs are only a piece of the tourism juggernaut that we can’t live with, and for financial reasons, can’t live without. Many who want to exclude the foreign inrush of thoughtless consumption-habituated souls ignore that fact that they live, directly or indirectly from the income these people generate.
Contrary to Tom’s belief in the power of the people, the people do not have the legal power to exclude VRs by initiative. That was settled in the demise of the recent whale-watch initiative petition. But I understand that one or more members of our council would look at a well-drafted ordinance for their consideration. I don’t believe one has yet been presented.
I invite those active in the anti-VR effort to join those of us looking not only at that, but also to our larger economy so that those of us who live here can enjoy a community in which more, most, and finally all all have both community, jobs, housing, education while retaining our rural character and the wealth of natural life for which we share responsibility.
Yes Tom,we do need to step up and defend our “ island “image.we need a way forward to accomplish this.I suspect that a voters initiative is the way to go,if for no other reason than to wake up the current commissioners that elections are coming up soon. Would you consider a leadership role in this effort ?
I am not sure that a VR moratorium would be enough to solve our problem.
While it would relieve us of some of the scourge of vacation rentals, it would do nothing to bring housing costs down for the workforce families which are necessary to our economy.
Housing costs have already risen so high that even making VRs illegal across the board would not put a dent in housing prices.
I suggest that we need to put our focus upon finding ways to provide workforce-family housing at reasonable cost.
One possible way might be to make the issuance of a VR permit contingent upon the VR property owner providing an accessory year-’round dwelling at low cost for a workforce family.
That family would also act as property caretakers for the times when the VR is empty and subject to squatting or vandalism.
There is no single problem related to over-tourism, and there is no single answer. The negative affects related to the over-proliferation of vacation rentals hosts real concerns which are being felt by the citizens throughout the San Juans today. For better or worse our environment IS our economy. 1 out of every 6 homes on Orcas Island is now a legally permitted short-term vacation rental… and the trend throughout the island’s is growing.
Though it is true that the over-proliferation of vacation rentals affects the housing market across the entire spectrum it is narrow-sighted to think that the negative impacts of over-tourism end there. The lack of housing is not the only problem perpetuated by the to big to fail industry that we now see sweeping over the San Juans. There are many communities that have gone down this path before us, and the roadmap is clear. Doing nothing at this point in time is simply not an option. We now stand at a crossroads and are forced to ask ourselves- What kind of community do we want to live in?
This does not have to become a political issue. One step at a time. A moratorium in-itself is not intended to be a cure-all, and there are those seeking middle ground who have asked the County Council to implement a temporary moratorium on the issuance of any new vacation rental permits while they research regulatory options intended to lessen their negative impacts. One follows the other.
“The growing presence of vacation rentals limits our community’s access to affordable housing; degrades the natural environment; and threatens the very reasons why many of us choose to live here – why many of us made investment-backed expectations to live in a rural community that wasn’t a hotel room next door.”
Read THIS.
https://theorcasonian.com/2019-county-economic-trends-confirm-challenges-yield-few-surprises/
and THIS.
https://theorcasonian.com/eastsound-water-membership-fee-increase-coming-soon/
A desalinization plant is being planned… HELLO?! Is anyone talking about WATER? Our most finite and essential resource? We need to be protecting our watersheds, wetlands, and surrounding salt waters above all else.
Consider the upcoming Port Master Plan; what do you think is driving it?
All of these are parts of the Elephant. A moratorium on new VBROs is a temporary band-aid on what needs a tourniquet.
Our whole economic capitalism/tourism/real estate model is built on destruction of the environment. We are “selling” what we are destroying. And that’s just the microcosm here.
The driver? HUGE income disparity between the top 1% and the bottom 70-80 % globally. Who runs it all? Who ruins it and gives nothing back to sustaining LIFE? We can’t just be takers – even the poorest among us.
Our ONLY chance to effect anything is ongoing local citizen involvement, as an everyday, ongoing part of the privilege of getting to live in a place we love, or trying to make anyplace we live a better place.
We can do this locally. It’s thankless, endless, exhausting work. But isn’t our home, our community, this place and its other sentient life, worth standing for? When we SLOW DOWN we can see the inter-relatedness and inter-dependence of all life. Let’s slow down and take pause. Bring on the initiatives. WE are the government.
“Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.” (capitalism)
Why not create another tax on property sales similar to what you have for the Landbank, or redirect Landbank funds to buying/building/providing low cost housing? Is it really better to buy lots of empty land as opposed to spending those millions of dollars on giving housing to people? After all, the more the Landbank buys, the fewer lots available, and so the prices are driven up by the Landbank’s action.
Rather than just railing against VR’s, which is easy and popular, and creates and US vs OTHER fight, why not put those amazingly generous Orcas minds and deep pockets to work solving the affordable housing problem? Of course the more affordable the housing, the more likely more people will want to come to Orcas and the vicious cycle might continue…
Or, you could make VR permits good for only 1 season and require a $1,000 permit fee each season and a 15-20 page application (which would itself be a deterrent) which would make people more careful about getting them. That would also allow you to set a cap on number of VR’s and then hold a lottery or even an auction for the permits. That could be fun and generate money for the community as well. An auction would really set a market value on the permits and require owners to really be careful about to whom they rent and the price.
With the creative minds on Orcas, I am sure this is very solvable. I just hope Orcas will still welcome the occasional tourists (like us.)
My dear deceased friend Hugh Swift, Himalayan Explorer, author, trek leader, map maker, said this to a group of people who loved the Himalayas, and it is pertinent here:
“We Kill the Places We Love.”
thank you Sadie for your comments and concern, and Tom for bringing back the power to the people.
What’s next?
Just a note to Neil Kaye that the County does have an affordable housing REET in addition to the Land Bank REET. Regarding the idea that purchasing land for conservation is making it more expensive for people to live here: There are still thousands of parcels of undeveloped land in the islands and density can also be added to our urban growth areas like Friday Harbor and Eastsound. Real estate in the County is expensive because it is a desirable place to live or vacation.
Lincoln, that’s great news! So the REET could buy some of the abundant, undeveloped, available land your reference and build housing for people who couldn’t easily afford to live on Orcas (the Garden of Eden as I like to call it.) If the funds are there, and the land is there, and the desire is there, why isn’t this already done? You note “1000’s of parcels of land” but on Zillow, Orcas has only 56 lots for sale, and only a few 100 on all of the islands combined. Curious as to where your data originates? I still think land is limited and that it’s a sellers market based on what I see available and the turnover I have bee tracking. Yes, desirable location drives up price, but so does scarcity. Always honored to read the thoughtful comments by people there and hope to join you all someday, if I can afford it..