— by Minor Lile, Orcas Issues reporter —
At Wednesday night’s public meeting of the Vacation Rentals Working Group, chair Yonatan Aldort announced that representatives will attend the November 5 County Council meeting and recommend that the Council establish an immediate county wide moratorium on issuing vacation rental permits.
This was the third meeting of the Vacation Rental Work Group (VR) and there were over 100 people in attendance. This was a solid showing of continued interest in a process that began nearly five months ago. Coverage of the first two meetings can be found here and here. Additional information is also available on the VR website.
The goal of this third gathering was to discuss and begin to move forward on an ‘action phase’ of the process. This action phase involves attending the November 5 Council meeting, as well as encouraging interested parties to write the County Council and express their support for the proposed moratorium.
A primary reason that the moratorium option is being pursued is that it received widespread support at the September meeting of the working group. Aldort also noted that to the best of the working group’s knowledge, no further action has been taken by the County Council since the request from the Eastsound and Deer Harbor Hamlet Planning Review Commissions to establish a moratorium was tabled at the County Council’s May 21 meeting.
Council member Rick Hughes was in attendance and later in the meeting he said that the Council has discussed the vacation rental issue three or four times since the May meeting and that County staff have been directed to include vacation rentals as a priority element in the current update of the Comprehensive Plan. He also noted that the question of what to do about vacation rentals can be looked at as either a regulatory or a land use question.
Aldort also sought to make clear that the proposed moratorium would only be applicable to the issuance of new vacation rental permits and is not intended to affect current permit holders. This has been a source of confusion for some and he apologized on behalf of the working group for any past misunderstanding in this regard.
After these introductory remarks, the agenda included an extended question and comment period, followed by a presentation on appropriate ways to write a meaningful letter to the County Council. Those in attendance were also encouraged to spread the word and sign up to attend the November 5 Council meeting.
During the question and comment period, several people asked about the possibility of an ‘Orcas only’ moratorium versus a county-wide moratorium. Representatives of the working group responded that while there was more work to do in connecting with San Juan and Lopez Island, a county-wide moratorium seemed like the most appropriate option. The recent county-wide moratorium on cannabis grow operations was cited as a recent example of how the concerns of one island (Lopez Island in that case) can be applied to the entire county.
Under their individual sub-area plans, both Shaw Island and Waldron already have provisions in place that ban vacation rentals. It was also noted that Bed and Breakfast establishments would not be affected by the moratorium as they are governed by a different set of regulations than vacation rentals.
Several of the remaining questions had to do with more general quality of life issues related to the impact of tourism, the relationship between vacation rentals and affordable year round housing, the permitting of additional dwelling units (ADU’s), and the possible impact of vacation rentals on other tourism-related lodging. In response to many of these questions, it was noted that although these topics are closely interrelated, up to this point the sole focus of the working group has been on vacation rentals.
Following the question and comment period, David Turnoy came to the podium and described the process of preparing and sending a constituent letter to the County Council. After this, the meeting gradually wound down as people either headed home or spent time working on their letters.
A next meeting of the working group has not yet been scheduled but is likely to take place sometime after the first of the year. Anyone interested in attending the November 5 County Council meeting is encouraged to contact the Vacation Rentals Working Group through the contact page on their website (www.vacationrentalsorcas.org).
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Thanks to this group for its hard work.
-from a person who has lived in their car.
David Turnoy,
Would you please submit a guide for a letter to the County Council for those of us who would like to write one but were not able to come to the meeting?
Thanks.
I must admit that I did not attend this last meeting. The consensus that was reached at the end seemed already evident before the meeting began.
It seems to me that banning any further vacation rentals (VRs) is akin to locking the barn door after the horse has already been stolen.
We are already plagued with too many VRs, already permitted, and it’s that which we need to do something about, already.
Worse, banning further VR permits will do absolutely nothing about affordable housing. Home prices have already been bid-up to unaffordable heights by housing speculators, VR permit holders, and people who own vacation homes used for only three months of the year.
It would probably be better to allow an infinite number of VRs, but to require by law that each one include on its property a caretaker’s ADU to house, at low or no rent in exchange for property care, a working person’s family all year ’round.