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Wednesday, December 5, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Take another look
at room rental
By Christine Funk
Guest Columnist
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be
no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.
To the Editor:
I really appreciate the column written
by Craig Rullman about today’s new tech-
nology and how that is affecting the world
(“The Fulfillment Machine,” The Bunkhouse
Chronicle, The Nugget, November 28, page 8).
He brought up a lot of things that I think
are important for every American to be aware
of. Technology has become so much more
than just a convenient distraction. It has essen-
tially become a way of life for most people,
and almost everyone is affected by it in some
way or another, even if they do their best to
limit their use of it.
One of the things I think it is important to
understand is that artificial intelligence is only
advancing from here on out and that many
of the very physically repetitive jobs such as
manufacturing and shipping fulfillment could
disappear for humans very soon. That being
said, as humans, it is our job to fight for our
place in this world. I believe it is important
for us to take a tactful approach rather than
one of banishment toward all technology. This
technology is a double-edged sword. It can be
used to advance our society and to advance
this world to a point of coexisting unity, peace,
and self-sustainment for the entire planet. Or it
can be used to control and completely destroy
all freedom. The choice is literally ours as we
are all the ones who support what “happens.”
This technology is created by humans and
supported by humans, which is why it cur-
rently thrives. And the same goes for the cor-
porations. They cannot thrive without us. I feel
like it is our role and job to not allow this new
technology to cross the boundaries of our own
personal freedom and privacy. When Craig is
See LETTERS on page 8
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Last night I went to the
City Council meeting to
express my concern over
point No. 6 of the new
short-term rental regula-
tions and also about the
distinction between a STR
that is “an entire house
rental without the primary
resident present” and a
STR that is “a room or a
series of rooms in a house
where the primary resident
lives concurrently.”
To me there is a big dif-
ference if you are going to
apply the clustering solu-
tion of separation by 250
feet.
I live in a neighbor-
hood where several of
my neighbors rent rooms
or portion of their houses
out to AirBnB clients, and
since those current permits
are going to be “grandfa-
thered in” and not subject
to the new regulations, as
well as transferrable if the
house is sold, potentially I
will never be able to rent
a room on AirBnB where I
live. Again, I am not talk-
ing about a house that is
vacant unless there is a
VRBO occupant.
Moving into the future
as housing costs/property
taxes increase, the addition
of people renting rooms or
part of their houses out for
nights and weekends is
becoming more needed for
some income levels and a
desire for extra income for
others. Think of an older
person on a fixed income
and they had it in their
mind that they were going
to rent a room and now
they are unable to. Think
about some parents that
have kids going to college
and their plan was to rent
out the room to help with
college tuition. There are
many scenarios that would
be helped by not lumping
room rentals with house
rentals.
I feel the City is not
separating out the differ-
ence that is very impor-
tant. This criteria hinders a
person’s ability to earn this
extra income if they want
because the house 250
feet away from them had
applied earlier and it now
has the potential of block-
ing the homeowner for
years or even decades from
attaining their goal. There
are no limits set for others
to prosper from this extra
income and I don’t believe
it is a fair regulation for
these types of STRs.
I asked the Council to
reconsider just No. 6 and
to look at being able to
separate out room rentals
and house rentals. AirBnB
does it on their website, I
believe that the City could
also do this when giving
out the permits and apply
the 250 feet for full house
rentals and not rooms. See
how that goes for a year
and then decide if room
rental clusters are an issue.
I hope the Council will
think about these points as
I feel that this part of the
regulation of not distin-
guishing between types of
STRs needs extra consid-
eration. Also, I believe the
250-foot rule was a last-
minute addition and this
was the first I had heard of
it via The Nugget.
Not only does this
apply to homeowners in
residential neighborhoods,
it also applies to any resi-
dential homes that are des-
ignated commercial.
If you own a home and
someday want to rent a
room on AirBNB or part
of your house while you
are still living there – 250
feet is close and it might
be very difficult to get a
permit as time moves for-
ward. Home ownership for
the middle- to low-income
families gets harder and
harder to come by without
creative thinking. Write
a letter or email to your
Council members if you
have thoughts on the 250-
foot rule applying across
the board of STRs and
if there needs to be more
thought on the types of
STRs.
Thanks for listening.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.