B2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2021
Vacation rental frustrations heat up
Ballot measure
calls for new
restrictions
By LORI TOBIAS
For The Oregonian
NEWPORT — Voters in
Lincoln County will decide
this fall on a ballot mea-
sure that could signifi cantly
impact how visitors vacation
in coming years.
The measure would com-
pletely phase out vacation
rentals in residential areas
in unincorporated parts of
the county. It’s the latest,
and most drastic, proposal
to rein in the proliferation of
short-term rentals through
online platforms like Airbnb
along the Oregon Coast.
It’s a contentious sub-
ject that seems to grow more
so by the day, as people on
both sides seek answers
to what County Commis-
sioner Kaety Jacobson calls
a “thorny, messy, giant hair-
ball.” And the coronavirus
pandemic isn’t helping.
“We
were
gaining
momentum and getting
ready to overhaul the short-
term rental licensing pro-
gram, and then COVID hap-
pened,” Jacobson said. “We
were having public meet-
ings and workshops, and
suddenly we couldn’t do the
hearings anymore. Then, we
were again getting ready to
pick it back up and we had
a wildfi re. Both COVID and
wildfi res have been an issue
on the timeline.”
But even as the pan-
demic has disrupted dis-
cussions around a fi x, it’s
only turned up the pressure
to act. Tourists and remote
workers have slammed the
coast, raising fears that vis-
itors could overwhelm local
hospitals or exacerbate other
pandemic-era
shortages,
including for housing.
Lincoln County began
licensing vacation rent-
als in 2016. One year later,
a group of neighborhoods
banded together to combat
issues they said were ruin-
ing their small communities.
They dubbed themselves
“15neighborhoods for a Liv-
able Lincoln County.”
Last year, frustrated with
a lack of movement on the
county’s part to revise vaca-
tion rental regulations, they
gathered the 1,454 signa-
tures necessary to put Mea-
sure 21-203 on the Novem-
ber ballot. If approved by
voters, the measure would
phase out short-term rentals
in unincorporated Lincoln
County over fi ve years and
halt immediately the issue of
new licenses.
Monica Kirk is one of
the people behind the mea-
sure. She got involved after
seeing her community of
Miroco — about 50 homes
located north of Newport
— transform from a quiet
neighborhood to a vacation
destination more akin to a
motel.
“We thought we were
unique,” Kirk said. “But as
we wrote letters to the edi-
tor, other neighborhoods —
Beverly Beach, Gleneden
Beach, Otter Rock, Logs-
George Rose
A ballot measure would phase out vacation rentals in unincorporated communities in Lincoln County if approved by voters this fall.
den, Siletz, parts of Roads
End, Makai, Bayshore —
started to contact us.”
They were all having
the same problems as long-
term housing was converted
to vacation rentals. Traf-
fi c increased, and overfl ow-
ing garbage bins drew rats,
raccoons and bears. There
were reports of nudity, pub-
lic sex, noise, illegal parking
and speeding. Meanwhile,
aff ordable housing for resi-
dents grew scarcer, and busi-
nesses found it increasingly
diffi cult to hire workers who
could aff ord to live nearby.
licenses permitted.
They did set up a “strike”
system meant to address
reports of trouble, such as
noise, unruly tenants or other
nuisances. Once a property
owner received three strikes,
they would lose their short-
term rental license.
But the process hasn’t
worked. There have been
no strikes issued — not
because there have been no
complaints but because it’s
unclear what constitutes a
strike. And even if that was
decided, no one seems sure
what should happen next.
‘THIS IS ONE OF THOSE
NO-WIN SITUATIONS.’
Lincoln County Commissioner Claire Hall
“They’ve introduced so
many short-term rentals,
each operating at maximum
license, which could be up to
11 for a three-bedroom home,
that it’s resulted in more rent-
ers in our community than
there were full-time occu-
pants or neighbors,” Kirk
said. “Some people have said
that there is a season for short-
term rentals. We found there
isn’t one. These are rented 12
months out of the year and
in the summer, seven days a
week. Winter, people come
for three or four days. The
population has doubled.”
Five years ago, when
county
commissioners
imposed licensing regula-
tions, the number of vaca-
tion rentals “exploded,” said
Commissioner Claire Hall.
But county commission-
ers hadn’t anticipated the
boom and failed to put in
place caps on the number of
“There were a lot of great
intentions about having this
three-strike program,” said
Lincoln County Sheriff Cur-
tis Landers. “To me, it isn’t
a strike or violation until a
judge says guilty. I didn’t
want the sheriff ’s offi ce to
be the judge and jury.”
Clearer local rules, Land-
ers said, would give his dep-
uties a better sense of when
and how to intervene.
“Give us a good ordi-
nance we can follow,” he
said, “and we’ll do our job
and enforce the ordinance
the best we can.”
That’s what county com-
missioners are working on
now. They hope to clarify
the strike process, includ-
ing how strikes will be adju-
dicated. They are also look-
ing at capping the number
of short-term rentals. Mean-
while, they’ve imposed a
moratorium on new licenses
until the code can be revised.
VIA Oregon, an orga-
nization of rental property
owners formed in response
to 15neighborhoods, says
the commissioners are tak-
ing too long to revise the
code and refusing to meet
with its members.
“There was one in-person
meeting and then, because
of COVID, the interactive
part of public comments just
went away,” said Heather
Brann, a member of VIA
Oregon, who owns a short-
term rental on Devils Lake.
“You had to email, and you
had to trust they were read-
ing the emails. There were
two
county-sponsored
Zoom workshops, but no
commissioners
attended.
Both sides are a little frus-
trated with the county’s
emergency
do-nothing
stance.”
VIA supports a work-
able strike system and
accountability among land-
lords, Brann said. But she
said current regulations are
an example of “one person
behaving badly and another
being punished.”
“If I have a noise com-
plaint, I can guarantee it’s
damaging my property and
I want them out more than
the neighbor,” Brann said.
“We could have a code that
a guest gets a $1,000 ticket
and told by the sheriff they
get to depart now.”
She also suggested that
the county look at zoning
principles, both as a means
of controlling the number of
rentals and a way of main-
taining housing stock for
workers.
“Why don’t they con-
sider saying, if this is a
workforce neighborhood,
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you can’t have a short-term
rental license?” Brann said.
The proposed ballot mea-
sure has created some confu-
sion about where the restric-
tions would apply, with
some incorrectly believing
it would be countywide.
“We only govern them in
unincorporated areas,” Hall
said. “Cities do their own
licensing. One of the odd-
ball things about this mea-
sure is that everybody in the
county will vote on it even
if they live in the city. I hear
people promoting the bal-
lot measure thinking it will
phase out short-term rent-
als in the neighborhood, and
that’s not the case.”
There have also been
threats of lawsuits if the
measure does pass, and
complaints from both sides
that proposed restrictions go
too far or not far enough.
“I’ve already had emails
that we have betrayed our
obligation to make sure the
neighborhood remains liv-
able. I had another from
a short-term rental owner
who said they hope I am
aware that I am ruining
people’s lives,” said Hall.
“This is one of those no-win
situations.”
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