NEWPORT — Lincoln County commissioners will let a moratorium on issuing new vacation rental licenses expire for at least a day once the 20-month-old freeze expires Tuesday.
County counsel Kristin Yuille said Wednesday that commissioners could let the moratorium expire Nov. 30 because the county will begin following regulations within a newly passed ballot measure that prohibits new short-term rental licenses in residential zones.
The county’s own moratorium – which started in March 2020 and was extended four times — applied to new licenses in any part of unincorporated Lincoln County, not just residential zones.
“Essentially the ballot measure is the law,” Yuille told commissioners. “You don’t have to take any action. That’s the law.”
But commissioners decided to re-visit the idea of extending their moratorium at its next meeting Wednesday, Dec. 1 – the day after the expiration. If it does nothing, then the moratorium ends automatically.
“We’re not making any decision today and we may not make any decision at all,” said commission chair Doug Hunt.
Voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative measure Nov. 2 that ends licensing of vacation rentals in residential zones in unincorporated Lincoln County and phases them out over five years.
Six days before the election, commissioners passed their own ordinance that, among other things, would cut back the number of licenses in five “zones” west of U.S. Highway 101 and allowed more licenses in two zones east of the highway. That new ordinance is being appealed to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals by a vacation rental organization on behalf of 21 license owners.
At least one of the two groups that campaigned against the ballot measure is also expected to go to court to seek an injunction to stop the ballot measure from going into effect. That has not yet happened.
Lincoln County Sheriff Curtis Landers, whose office handles licensing, said there are only 1-2 applications awaiting approval for vacation rentals outside residential zones.
A study released this week by 15neighborhoods, the group that placed the initiative on the ballot and campaigned for it, said there are currently 515 licensed vacation rentals in unincorporated county, 86 fewer than in July 2020. The county’s rules – and the new ballot measure’s rules – prohibit transferring licenses to new owners when a property sells, resulting in much of the attrition.
Of the 86 dropped licenses, 28 had Lincoln City addresses, 21 had Waldport addresses, 12 had Depoe Bay addresses, six had Yachats addresses, four each had Gleneden Beach, Newport, Otis, South Beach and Seal Rock addresses, and one each in Otter Rock and Neotsu, according to the analysis.
