Vacation rental compliance among items discussed at Planning Commission meeting

— by Steve Bernheim, Orcas Issues reporter —

The San Juan County Planning Commission met via Skype on Friday, June 19, for the first time since March 20 and received notice of the County’s Community Development Department’s report on Vacation Rental Compliance as well as briefings about the 2020 Annual Docket proposed amendments and the Comprehensive Plan update.

The Vacation Rental Compliance report was published May 29 and is available on the County website. The report concludes that there are
224 active, technically compliant vacation rental permits issued for Orcas Island (San Juan 141, Lopez 59). County-wide, the report identifies 331 non-compliant vacation rental permits for which warning letters have been sent to owners or notices of violation issued and revocations commenced. The report identifies all of the active and inactive permits issued county-wide by owner, telephone contact number, and parcel number. None of the commission members indicated they had received the report and there
was no discussion.

The Planning Commission next heard a briefing on the status of the seven “docket requests” received by the March 1 deadline and staff recommendations for further action. The docket requests, which are
proposed amendments to the current comprehensive plan (first adopted in 1998) that anyone may present, concerned changes to the Deer Harbor subarea regulations to help business development, suggestions to enable private parties to build affordable housing in rural cluster developments, requests not to pursue international ports of entry on Orcas and Lopez Islands, changes to legal definitions of affordable housing to simplify loan applications, a renewed request to name Coastal Cutthroat Trout as
locally important species, and a staff request to correct typographical errors.

Staff recommended out all of the proposals to various reviewing agencies for consideration as part of the current comprehensive plan update. If you wish, you may send comments to sophiac@sanjuanco.com; the Planning Commission will meet in Public Hearing devoted to the docket requests and comment on July 17.

Community Development staff next presented updates on the draft 2036 Comprehensive Plan sections relating to the plan Introduction, historic preservation, and capital facilities portions. The County’s 2036 vision statement has already been adopted and is part of the proposed draft introductory section; the Planning Commission discussed the current comprehensive plan’s historic preservation section which calls for an historical commission that has never been established; the draft of the capital facilities section raised questions about “level of service” for police, fire, water, sewer, schools, government services, trash disposal, public works, parks, medical centers, senior centers, libraries, museums,
performing arts centers, college and continuing education facilities and even state and federal parks.

“Level of service” for each of the services and facilities is graded on a scale from A to F, though “F” denotes only a lower level of service rather than failure. Most of the levels highlighted in the staff report for public works, sheriff, parks, and fire and EMS were “F” for 2036.

To close out the meeting, the development staff presented some proposals related to technicalities and to the organization of parts of the proposed 2036 comprehensive plan.

The Commission’s next meeting will be Friday, July 17.