To the editor:
Our group, 15Neighborhoods, is asking Lincoln County commissioners to please reinstate the short-term rental pause in unincorporated Lincoln County due to Gov. Kate Brown’s recent order limiting gatherings to no more than six people from no more than two different households.
Because of this order, and the fact that the Lincoln County Sheriff’s department does not enforce occupancy limits in short-term rentals, the governor is using State Police to enforce this limit and has stated that there will be potential fines and/or imprisonment if this order is violated.
The pause that county commissioners enacted this spring helped slow the spread of the virus in Lincoln County then and could do the same again now.
Because of the rampant spread of COVID-19 in our state and across the country, we need to stop renting these short-term rentals in unincorporated Lincoln County until the spread is controlled. The holiday season is upon us and people are not stopping their gatherings even with the governor’s orders and strict warnings to people.
Since we cannot enforce the occupancy limits on our own, the only way to ensure compliance with the order is to shut down rentals until such time as the virus is contained — and that will be when there is a vaccine.
Until we have a vaccine, we should reinstate the shutdown on rentals. Hotels do not have the same problem as short-term rentals do. Staff at hotels can enforce occupancy and will do so. Short-term rentals, with no owner on-site (which is the majority of STRs), cannot be checked and occupancy enforced by the sheriff’s department.
Please protect all Lincoln County residents by temporarily closing short-term rentals through the end of 2020. The holiday season is too much of a temptation for people to gather and this year the temptation is even greater I fear.
Closing short term rentals will help stop the spread of COVID-19 and comply with the governor’s order for no gatherings over six people from no more than two households.
— Jay Riley, Depoe Bay
