||| BY MATTHEW GILBERT, theORCASONIAN OP-ED REPORTER |||
The six-month moratorium on VR rental permits, put in place in January and then limited to urban growth areas and hamlets on Orcas and Lopez, is set to expire on July 13. Council members took up the issue at their June 29 meeting, and a six-month extension has been tentatively approved, pending a July 12 public hearing. As the DCD’s Erika Shook noted, “The Planning Commission (PC) is anxious to start working on this topic.”
Currently on the table are the following two cap proposals:
- ISLAND BY ISLAND
- Orcas: 500 total permits (491 currently)
- San Juan: 500 +/- (385 currently)
- Lopez: 150 – 200 (130 currently)
- COUNTYWIDE
- 1,200
The new resolution draft, with an expiration date of January 13, 2022, adds a work plan that gives county staff time to address “emergency management, impacts to neighborhoods, and impacts to community roads and water systems” along with a simplified code enforcement process for non-compliant VR permit holders. Council member Cindy Wolf noted that Rural Residential areas (such as Rosario Highlands) would not be protected during the extension and felt that waiting another six months for caps to be established was too long. “Why haven’t we moved ahead with (establishing) caps?”
“The Planning Commission needs a hearing to consider the cap issue and make a recommendation, which then has to go back to Council,” responded Shook, though it was never explained why the PC had not already been engaged in that process.
“Can we do this in pieces?” asked Wolf. “Adopt a resolution for caps and then do the rest of it? I’m concerned over the unprotected areas.”
Christine Minney had no interest in such a suggestion. “I need more input from the PC and others to recommend a cap.”
Anecdotally, concerns have been raised that a high proportion of typically vacant summer homes have been sold to off-islanders who have been working remotely, plan to return to their primary residences, but intend to retire here – in the meantime, renting their homes as vacations rentals.
Jamie Stephens wondered if the Council could get something to the PC by Aug./Sept. “They’ve been tracking this and have definite opinions and input.” Shook responded that this was their expectation all along, although “a September hearing is ambitious.”
Wolf pressed on. “Can we modify the ordinance to add Rural Residential (RR)? Failing that, would you consider a moratorium for Orcas?”
Minney again resisted. “I need more time to consider the impacts as well as hear from the attorneys.” Stephens concurred: “I can’t support a countywide extension to include Rural Residential.”
Responded Wolf: “I’m not trying to run over anybody or leave out public input, but the Eastsound and Deer Harbor planning review commissions along with several public hearings (have already agreed on this). I’m asking for protection for Orcas. We can’t find workers for our businesses because they have no place to live.”
Deputy Prosecutor Amy Vera weighed in on this option. “I think the best way is to do a new moratorium and have a public hearing.”
Stephens noted that there is a tentative public hearing already scheduled for July 12 – one day before the original moratorium ends. “Could we use that day?” Yes, according to Vera, adding, “You can extend the current moratorium as it is right now, and if you want a new one, you have to schedule a public hearing within 60 days.”
“I’m not comfortable with pivoting that quickly,” said Minney, referring to expediting a decision on caps by July 12. “We haven’t yet had input about specific numbers or what a cap would look like. Even the PC wasn’t clear.” To which Wolf replied, “The PC has been quite clear, recommending (last year) an immediate cap at the current level (at that time).”
Minney: “Because they didn’t have any answers otherwise.”
Wolf: “That’s what they voted.” She again suggested adopting the current extension as is but adding coverage of RR on Orcas, asking Minney, ““How much more time do you need to decide whether adding RR Orcas to the resolution is acceptable?”
Minney: “I will have conversations outside this meeting with those I need to . . . but I don’t expect it will take long (less than a month).”
Stephens reiterated the role of the July 12 hearing “if nothing else than for the extension of this moratorium. And if before then, we decide to do something different, we can move forward from there.”
The commissioners agreed. The outcome will be one of three: an end to the moratorium, agreement to extend it six months, or a new (and amended) moratorium.
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Good reporting, Matthew. And good work done by our Orcas CC, Ms. Wolf.
Thank you, Cindy, for representing your constituents so well. It would be nice if the other councilors could move a little faster.
Thank you to Christine Minney for providing a tempered and thoughtful voice to the conversation.
Legislation is a difficult process and requires thoughtful consideration. We cannot run this county through moratoriums driven by special interest groups. If Ms. Wolf believes a moratorium on vacation rentals in RR zoned Orcas properties is going to have an effect of providing worker housing then we are in far deeper trouble than a moratorium will resolve. Go ahead and regulate Vacation Rentals all you want, but don’t do it under the flawed logic of thinking you’ll gain affordable housing. You won’t. You’ll just gain some empty houses.
How about moving immediately to take proactive steps to incentivize housing, remove unnecessary restrictions and find ways to undo the mess that the GMA has unleashed on our county. The Comp Plan is in process now. Get to work on fixing it!
I agree with Justin. There is no evidence that the lack of affordable rental housing in the County is driven by vacation rentals; the overlap between potential affordable long-term rentals and vacation rentals is virtually nil–we will not find many of the $500,000+ homes suddenly available for rent at $1000 per month. Thank you, Councilperson Minney, for not launching into yet another moratorium without careful consideration. And the Planning Commission did not recommend the immediate imposition of caps. Unless I am mistaken, it recommended that the issue be studied and that the large gaps in meaningful data be addressed before any action is taken.
What exactly has been done during the past six months to gather data? It appears that there has been no clarification of the issues at all. This is the guesthouse controversy all over again. We can look forward to years of litigation as the result of this muddle, and in the end there will be no more affordable housing than there is now.
Finally, whether Councilperson Wolf is representing all of her constituents remains to be seen. One way of determining how Orcas islanders on the whole feel about caps is to put the proposals on the ballot.
Finally, I
Thank you Cindy for thinking this thru, and for going “full-circle”, and for your continued long-term thinking in regards to such an important issue.
Everything has a caveat, doesn’t it? I mean, there’s normally at least two sides to every issue, and it’s human nature to leave out a part of the story when it doesn’t support one’s side of an issue. In light of this human frailty I feel it’s important, that in an effort to see things in an honest light, that we remember that “what isn’t said is sometimes just as important as what is said”. In the end result our elected official’s policy decisions are only as good as the information they have to work with. The old idiom, “Garbage in, garbage out” comes to mind.
For example, when you say, “There is no evidence that the lack of affordable rental housing in the County is driven by vacation rentals,” you leave out the part, the fact that there are many who believe that, ALONG WITH other factors that have contributed to SJC’s current dismal, (and getting worse) affordable rental dilemma, that the vacation rental industry has very much been a prime proponent in increases in rental prices in not just SJC, but in resort neighborhoods throughout the U.S.
When you say, “the overlap between potential affordable long-term rentals and vacation rentals is virtually nil–we will not find many of the $500,000+ homes suddenly available for rent at $1000 per month,” you leave out the part that vacation rentals (being a prime driver of market prices) have been (along with other factors) a steady driver of home values for years… they have very much had their place in slowly, over time, helping to reduce the number of affordable long-term rentals that have, in times past, been available to families throughout the islands.
I mean, inferring that SJC should continue to support unlimited vacation rentals while they continue to exacerbate that which we’re already in such short supply of, is a bit like supporting an increase in the hunting of a sensitive species when most have already been depleted. Nobody said it better than Colleen Smith, editor of the Orcas Sounder, in a recent editorial on the very same subject when she said “Five years ago I would have believed it”.
The better question is, “Why should we continue to support the unlimited growth of an industry that has historically, and continues now, and will continue in ther future to have negative long-term affects upon our island communities… including negatively affecting the existing, limited number of affordable homes, as well as the affordability & availability of our limited long-term rental stock?”
Justin– I partially agree with you when you state that putting a moratorium on VRs in RFF won’t develop many affordable rentals… but again, vacation rentals affect every aspect of the housing market. Cindy’s intent is to slow down all new vacation rental permits in the RR zoning, (or on all of Orcas), and is doing so because this is what many of her constituents (including myself) have asked her to do– to stop the issuance of all new VR permits until the regulations have been upgraded, and firm caps have been put into place, thusly, among other things, protecting the island’s rural character from the continued proliferation of short-term VRs. The moratorium, as is commonly known, would not affect any existing legally permitted VRs… including yours.
Peg, I do not totally disagree with this, “One way of determining how Orcas islanders on the whole feel about caps is to put the proposals on the ballot.”
One problem with ballot measures is that second home owners may not even be allowed to vote and so they are hostages to the very undemocratic position of taxation without representation. As an example: these owners pay school taxes but will never use the schools and so the full time residents are taking advantage of them. They might use the roads a few weeks/year but pay for them full time. If Orcasians want real fairness, they should apportion taxes based on actual use as opposed to the old fashioned basis of just property ownership. The full timers might not want the part timers to have any say or to even be there, but I have yet to see them turn down the revenue stream these second home owners represent. They also support businesses, buy groceries, frequent restaurants and promote the island. Like it or not, second homes and tourism are a major part of the island economy and it’s best to make peace with that idea.
Michael–
You complain that I’ve left out “the fact that there are many who believe that . . . the vacation rental industry has very much been a prime proponent in increases in rental prices in not just SJC.” The fact is that a disturbing number of Americans “believe” that The Former Guy won the 2020 election. That doesn’t make it so. We can agree to disagree. The same is true of the “belief” that vacation rentals are largely responsible for the dearth of affordable units. Again, while there may be a handful of houses that were long-term rentals but became low-end vacation rentals, the current status of vacation rentals is that they are for the most part high-end construction that would never be available as affordable housing. More important, though, is the continuing “belief” that there is an “industry” of vacation rentals disconnected from the island and island life. The fact is that vacation rentals have been here for 50 years, before Air BNB and the others. They were run by individual owners on the island. Today, the overwhelming majority are still owned by island residents, and many of the rest are owned by future island residents. There’s no “industry” of any size owning and renting the VRs.
Councilperson Wolf persuaded Council to allow a temporary moratorium but on Orcas alone, and only in certain areas of Orcas. Now, with no further findings or development, she’s asking to EXPAND the moratorium until the Council figures something out. This is not how government rulemaking is supposed to happen.
Neil–you would be surprised about our voting rules.
Peg,
Please see the minutes from the November 20, 2020 Planning Commission meeting when a unanimous vote was recorded in favor of recommending caps on Vacation Rentals at existing levels.
Thank-you, Cindy Wolfe, for all your hard work and attention to detail on behalf of our county’s residents!
As pointed out in the recent Science Direct article in the Orcasonian studies of short term rentals show they cause a decrease housing affordability, increase rents, and increase housing prices. It’s not only the number of vacation rentals that affect the housing market – it’s the combined impacts of those rentals that reduce housing affordability. Thank you Cindy for your diligence on this issue
The Big Lie–
Myth– Short term vacation rentals (STVRs) do not affect the rental market.
Truth– STVRs affect every aspect of the housing market.
Myth– STVRs do not affect home prices.
Truth– STVRs affect every aspect of the housing market.
Myth– “The current trend….”
Truth– Current trends are the end result of local governmental policies that continues to allow uncontrolled vacation rental (tourism) growth in SJC today.
Myth– “the overwhelming majority are still owned by island residents.”
Truth– There are many VR permits that are held by non-residents of the islands.
Myth– “There’s no “industry” of any size owning and renting the VRs.”
Truth– The vacation rental industry is a part of the lodging and tourism industry. Let there be no doubts that they are backed by big money.
Peg, your comment “the overwhelming majority are still owned by island residents, and many of the rest are owned by future island residents,” is oxymoronic.
Having lived thru all this before in the years that I spent in SW Colo. I see the same players here as I saw there. Though they have different names they’re the same people. There’s the County Councilmen, who, even when the people threw it in their faces, refused to look at the evidence presented before them, or admit that there was a problem with over-tourism. There was the tourist-industry related businesses who decried, “We need the money”. There was the real-estate industry proponents who decried, “We need the money.” There was the lodging industry proponents that decried, “We need the money.” And, there were the environmentalists and the preservationists who decried, “that the direction they were heading was harming the environment, and destroying the rural character”.
Then there were those like you, Peg. Those who were always looking in the other direction screaming, “there’s no problem, there’s no problem, there’s no problem”. If you go back to the little mountain resort towns in the same area that have now been ruined by overtourism today you will still find some of the same people… only now you will hear them all saying, “Of course this happened.” “Everybody knew this was gonna happen.” “It was inevitable.” “Disingenuous” is the word that comes to mind. If we don’t control the direction that the ship is moving… history has shown us that we will end up where we’re heading.
Considering that we are already facing every aspect of overtourism here in the San Juans today, (there’s a 50:1 tourist to resident ratio), I believe that overall caps on vacation rentals in the San Juans should be set no higher than the current level of “legal permits that are in operation today”.
Keep up the good work Cindy!
It seems to me that a lot of time and energy is being spent on a symptom rather than a cause. When a building permit is issued for a single family residential home the county does not differentiate between what will be an owner occupied unit or a rental. If suddenly all the residential properties in the county were occupied by full time residents…either owners or long term renters….does that mean that all the problems that we have been talking about for the past few years will have evaporated? Is there a difference between over tourism and over population? I think it is time that we switch the conversation to what is the capacity that our islands can support.
Bonnie, that’s an interesting approach. So 1) how many people would you allow to live on Orcas and 2) how many people could be on the island at any given time? After you answer those questions, we can look at the economics and how that can or can’t sustain things like roads, schools, internet, water, power, grocery stores post offices, etc. Seriously, that would be a fabulous undertaking.
Neil, I have no answers….only questions. I’m just guessing that many of the folks who are concerned about the impact of tourism would be just as unhappy with the impact of having all houses on the island permanently occupied. So, let’s switch the conversation to the real issues…what do we need in terms of infrastructure, water, services, etc to support additional development? Or the existing development for that matter.
To “switch the conversation” requires information. San Juan County has. before it a docket request, 21-0003, that explicitly asks the county to reveal the data in user (that would be resident)-understandable terms so that an informed decision (albeit a very tough one) can be made as to how “full” we already are and how “full” we want to be, using the Comp Plan’s GMA-required, locally crafted “vision statement” as the standard. You can learn about the county’s 3 decades long unwavering refusal to letting you know how full we, today, are legally allowed to get, by going to “http://doebay.net/bigpicture.pdf” ; if you’re happy with over 130,000 people, you need do nothing. If you aren’t so happy with that (knowing that this population estimate does NOT include visitors), you’ll either silently live with your unhappiness or let the Planning Commission and County Council know that you are an unhappy camper. Contact info and background is contained in the “bigpicture” link. Silence in the face of an issue has always meant that the current situation is acceptable. Like the final line in the opening scenes to the original Mission Impossible TV series, “Good Luck Jim. This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds”, the time for assembling your IM team and crafting a workable response is now. Time and tide wait for no one. The hearings on the docket and the Vacation Rental moratorium are coming up within the next few weeks. Be there. It’s your choice that will craft our collective choices.
Bonnie, I’m with you on that one. Can you tell me where you think Orcas is coming up short on infrastructure? On my visits there the roads have seemed adequate, I am unaware of water/electric shortages or rationing, and internet seems abundant over most of the island. I think I counted 4 post offices and plenty of grocery stores, a newly solved medical care delivery system, plenty of outdoor recreation, excellent schools, multiple houses of worship, banks, gas stations, regular ferry service, and an active airport. I don’t know how close to “carrying capacity” any of these are but with a year-round population of about 5,000 and a peak population of perhaps 10,000 it would seem there is a elasticity in many of the current systems.
I am aware of a shortage of “affordable” housing for workers and like many areas with tourism, perhaps a shortage of entry level workers? I suspect a shortage of home heath workers or people to assist what is an above average aged population. But, to get these needed (?) employees the island would have to increase in population, and the sense I get from so many Orcasian posts is a desire to reduce or cap the population. Good luck with a productive, solution oriented approach. I look forward to meeting you some day.
Thank you Cindy for your courage and commitment.