By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The first in what is expected to be a salvo of legal action against new restrictions on vacation rentals in unincorporated Lincoln County came Wednesday when lawyers for one industry group gave notice they will appeal a recently-passed ordinance to the state Land Use Board of Appeals.
Attorneys for Via Oregon filed the notice Wednesday in order to meet a 21-day state deadline following county commissioners’ passage of its ordinance Oct. 27.
Not yet challenged – but it is expected to be soon – is the ballot measure widely approved by Lincoln County voters Nov. 2 that would phase out vacation rentals in unincorporated residential areas over the next five years.
It may take a judge or special mediator to sort out the expected legal and procedural challenges of the county’s new ordinance and the voter-approved measure. Wednesday’s notice doesn’t stop work by the county on ways to combine the ballot measure and some portions of its ordinance, only that a challenge on land-use issues is being filed soon with the state.
The challenge by Via Oregon attacks the many changes to the county ordinance hurriedly made by commissioners in the last weeks before the election on procedural and substantive grounds.
Lawyers for the 21 plaintiffs in the notice said the county failed to notify them and hundreds of others affected by the decision following commissioners’ approval of the ordinance, as required by state law.
The lawyers also contend the revised ordinance uses business licenses as an instrument for land use and zoning changes that violates property rights by taking away a right to continue an activity that was lawful when it began. It also challenges the county’s new prohibition of disallowing the transfer of a rental license to a buyer or heir and allowing only a handful of larger rental homes to be “grandfathered” or allowed under new, tighter occupancy limits.
The notice to the Land Use Board of Appeals gives the plaintiff’s more time to file detailed arguments and for the county to provide more than two years of records leading up to its decision.
Via Oregon was formed by vacation rental owners and managers after a neighborhood coalition began collecting signatures to put the phase-out initiative on the ballot. Voters approved the measure by a ratio of 58 to 42 percent.
Lawyers for Via Oregon are also contemplating going to court to ask a judge stop the county from implementing the ballot measure. County commissioners met recently in executive (closed) session to discuss their next steps in handling legal issues associated with the measure and its ordinance.
In an email Wednesday to the 15neighborhoods coalition, county counsel Kristin Yuille said they had been notified “of the intention of several property owners to file litigation regarding the ballot measure …”
Yuille told YachatsNews on Thursday the county couldn’t comment on pending litigation.
Another political action group formed separately by Meredith Lodging also fought the ballot measure and is expected to file or join legal action to stop its implementation.
Although it had been expecting some sort of legal action, Lincoln County’s lawyers were waiting until election results were certified this week to begin trying to work out how to combine the voter-approved elements of Ballot Measure 21-203 with the county’s newly passed ordinance.
Just days after the election, the sheriff’s office sent notices to holders of vacation rental licenses saying it would no longer issue new licenses in residential zones and that current ones would expire within five years. The sheriff’s notice also reminded license holders that the new rules – once implemented by the county – would also affect occupancy rates, septic systems and parking requirements.
Lincoln County commissioners approved changes to its ordinances on short-term rentals just six days before votes were counted on a ballot measure to phase them out in residential zones.
How this all started
Despite their differences, the ballot measure is deeply intertwined with Lincoln County’s stuttering effort to tighten its 5-year-old vacation rental regulations.
Lincoln County commissioners began licensing and regulating vacation rentals in 2016 but with their rapidly increasing number and rise in complaints, began working in early 2019 to tighten its rules. In March 2020 it put a moratorium on new licenses – it has been extended four times and is now scheduled to end Nov. 30 — and started holding workshops to gather comments.
Since the moratorium, the number of licenses in unincorporated areas has dropped to from just over 600 to 523 due mostly to the inability to transfer licenses after a change in ownership.
But the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2019 and September 2020 wildfires in Otis delayed much of the work.
Last November, County Counsel Wayne Belmont came back to commissioners with suggestions in four areas that represented a much further tightening than previous ideas.
Belmont’s suggestions included a limit on the number of licenses, which has since been refined to establish different limits in seven areas of the county. It would also dial back occupancy limits, currently one of the most lenient in Oregon; require septic system inspections and establish capacity limits for any vacation rental using one; and create an administrative hearings officer to handle complaints and establishing a “three strikes” program to pull licenses of chronic offenders.
After dropping the discussion in late May, commissioners resumed looking at Belmont’s proposals in September. In early October commissioners had their first reading of the amended ordinance and unanimously approved the final version Oct. 27 – six days before the Nov. 2 election.
I hope they are successful in their suit.
I hope they are successful in a T shirt and jeans…