Vacation Rental Work Group sees promise, hope, and healthy skepticism in ’21 Council agenda
||| FROM TOBY COOPER FOR VACATION RENTAL WORK GROUP |||
After conducting interviews with all four candidates running for District 1 & 2 San Juan County Council seats, the Vacation Rental Work Group (VRWG) is cautiously optimistic that vacation rental reform measures will be given long-awaited attention when the new Council members take their seats in early 2021.
“It is gratifying to see Christine Minney, Ryan Palmateer, Cindy Wolf, and incumbent Rick Hughes expressing support for reforming current regulations on vacation rentals,” said Lisa Byers, Vice Chair of the VRWG, “but we are not celebrating. There is no assurance that the Planning Commission or the County Council will get this done – no matter who holds office.”
Orcas attorney Jeni Barcelos agrees, adding, “We have provided the county with eight specific ideas. Each of them was derived from existing laws and ordinances that have been successfully implemented in other towns and cities across the US and abroad. Many have withstood legal challenges. The VR issue is not new, and San Juan County is not at the forefront. Our county has absolutely nothing to fear. Now is the time to install fair and reasonable limits to what has become a seminal issue before our island community, and to back it up with funding and enforcement. Without question, now is the time.”
Likely to be a priority for the new Council are proposals to place an upper limit or cap on the number of VR permits in the county and an enforcement provision requiring revocation of a permit following “three strikes’ or validated complaints. Both are “deceptively simple” in the eyes of the VRWG, but the “devil is in the details.” Exactly for these reasons, the
VRWG has offered to convene a community-based forum or task force to assist the county’s analysis.
“Our county economy is opening up responsibly and we are grateful for that,” said Yonatan Aldort, Chair of the VRWG. “But we are in danger of finding ourselves right where we were last year, facing the prospect of another travel season for which the county is ill-prepared. We cannot let bureaucratic inaction threaten our unique and cherished island quality of
life. The county must act with all the focus and skill it can muster.”
The VRWG has presented the county with an initial proposal including specific language for regulatory relief. (Link to initial proposal.)
The VRWG has compiled the responses of all four candidates into a “Scorecard” which summarizes their responses to each of the eight-points of consideration. (Link to the Scorecard.)
Links to the candidates’ full comments follow:
In 2019, the VRWG and the Eastsound and Deer Harbor Plan Review Committees’ advisory panels requested a moratorium on new vacation rental permits. Such a moratorium would serve only to buy time for consideration of substantive reforms, but thus far the county has failed to act.
The VRWG initiated an on-line petition in support of the moratorium that has in excess of 2,800 signatories.
About the Vacation Rental Working Group
The VRWG is an all-volunteer organization formed in June 2019 to mobilize our community in order to regulate vacation rentals in a manner that protects our rural character, environment and culture in the San Juan Islands.
How many rentals do the signers of the VRWG proposal collectively own?
Good article Toby… one clearly outlining the fact that the problem has never been a lack of good suggestions from the public… but more a lack of the political will to engage, and do anything meaningful about it. Thank you for the links you included that are relative to the subject.
“the VRWG has offered to convene a community-based forum or task force to assist the county’s analysis.”
I see this as being a good idea, one that would serve to take some of the workload off of the county, while increasing citizen involvement. The county would be remiss if they didn’t include members of the public that are already educated on the subject as liaisons in an effort to achieve meaningful regulations…. indeed, this would be a win-win for everyone. The vacation rental work group has thousands of hours of research, and is undoubtedly the most educated group in the county in relation to this topic. It’s what they do.