HomeMy WebLinkAbout050924 email - Short Term Rental MoratoriumALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Greetings
Yet another needless moratorium, this one on Short Term Rental permit applications.
Ms Dean is concerned about availability of affordable housing. That is a fair concern but should not be conflated with short term rentals (more on this later).
Yet a property owner should have the freedom to a) occupy his property himself or b) rent it out to others on a long term basis, or c) rent it out to others on a short term basis.
If an owner determines he can have a greater return on investment from short term rentals (even with the risk of fluctuations in demand), then one would expect more short term and fewer
long term rentals.
Further, if an owner has a vacation home that he would like to use occasionally, then one might reasonably conclude that renting it out on a short term basis would help defray the expense
of such a home. There would be no expectation that such a vacation property would ever turn into a long term rental.
Indeed, it is in the County’s interest to encourage rather than discourage short term rentals because short term rentals, if properly reported, generate not inconsiderable sales tax
revenues to the county. They also generate lodging tax revenues which must be used to promote tourism.
Of course there can be some difficulties with short term rentals. Parking and partying come to mind. As mentioned later in the notice, these can be handled by the Sheriff. One would
expect Sheriff’s resources expended on these relatively infrequent calls to be far less than the sales taxes generated by the short term rentals. If the number of these calls become
too much, one might even consider ticketing owners for Sheriff’s responses.
The notice also cites safety concerns as a reason for the moratorium, but it does not supply any evidence that there ever has been any harm done to short term renters.
And just how does the County know there are 400 unpermitted short term rentals? If these are properties being marketed by Air BnB or a similar marketing organization, they are most certainly
collecting sales and lodging taxes. Frankly, it seems almost impossible to find short term guests without the use of a web based marketing firm.
In the end, I see permitting as a huge solution to a relatively tiny problem with short term rentals.
But back to affordable housing, the only way to make housing more affordable is to greatly increase the housing stock in order to bring supply in better proportion to demand. And from
what I can see, our severe land use restrictions and burdensome building codes make building more housing a non-paying proposition.
David Neuenschwander
142 Old Lindsay Hill Rd.
Quilcene, WA 98376
360.765.3151