Friday, March 29, 2024

City Council, Staff work through rental regulations

Posted

CHELAN – A bulk of the allotted time at the Council’s scheduled workshop, Tuesday, April 3, at City Hall, was consumed with discussion and direction for vacation home regulations and impacts in the city.
Initiating the discussion, Mayor Mike Cooney began, “I hope this is a free-range discussion of any and all items the councilmembers would like to see put on the table for Craig to consider,” he explained. “Really, what I’m looking for is direction from Council,” said Planning Director Craig Gildroy, “what are the goals for short-term rentals, how do you want to address them in the city.” Planning commission had concerns of parking requirements, trash, noise and also had concerns that if the rules were too erroneous or difficult for people that they just wouldn’t comply, he explained, so code enforcement concerns were brought up as well.
There’s an option for hiring a consultant, Gildroy explained, and have already received a quote from Berk Consulting of about $12,000 that would involve Berk helping draft the regulations of short-term rentals within the city, but they would not be involved in the public review process.
Gildroy had pulled information from other cities and how they’ve managed short-term rentals in their cities. These cities include City of Bend, Coeur D Alene, Port Townsend and to some extent Seattle. The City of Bend, he emphasized, uses proximity standards, limiting how many short-term rentals you could have together, there’s also standards out there that limit the number of vacation rentals that a property owner could have, which was usually two.
The question of whether or not a vacation rental, using a management company, should be held to the same rules as an individual renting out short-term rentals was brought up at planning commission as well, he explained. “What if someone is using a management company, a professional company, should they be held to the same fees and application requirements,” he reiterated, “I think it needs to be fair for everyone, and zoning is always site specific, so we need to have an application, in my opinion, for each property, whether or not a management company is doing it for you.”
Councilman Ray Dobbs suggested that “somewhere in this ordinance there needs to be a local responsible party, whether it’s a management company locally or somebody that can be there in five minutes.”
“For me, it’s really important to understand what the objective is,” suggested Councilwoman Kelly Allen, “what you’re really wanting to achieve,” allowing her to be able to respond to questions from the community and explain “as a city, what we put the driver behind,” she said. “It’s our goal to provide additional income for owner-occupied, for people that live here … allow them to generate more income, maybe allow them to open up their accessory dwelling unit (ADU) or rent out their house or vice versa,” stated Gildroy, as a short-term rental. Allowing individuals to open up their ADUs provides some solution to financial difficulties that citizens of the community may be enduring with their mortgage payment and/or property taxes. “It’s our goal to track and monitor these short-term rentals, so we know how many there are and what the impacts are,” he explained, “and of course, the base goal is public health, welfare and safety.” He continued by explaining that if the City issues a license for the rental property, that the renter expects that it has been inspected by the city, “I think that’s one of the reasons that we have a license.”
“I’m going to answer Kelly’s question totally different,” Mayor Cooney supplied, as to why the City is doing this, “I think they negatively impact communities like Chelan,” he suggested, “for taking the value of a regularly priced home and moving it into a different strata … we’re trying to keep homes affordable instead of letting them become unaffordable.” Allen asked how these ideas would be applicable to something like GrandView that is not competing in the housing market. “For a single-family home,” clarified Cooney, “from a regular neighborhood home, that’s an affordable home, and then is put as a short-term rental, and it’s legal, then all of a sudden it’s value is jumped up. I think that’s one. The second is that they become nuisances.”
Previously, direction from the Council was to let the industry self-regulate, Gildroy explained, during a time where vacation rental nuisances included parking issues, partying, noise disturbances and lewd behavior. Since that time, after a discussion between the property owners and then Councilmen Mike Steele, “we have not had a complaint in the past year and a half,” he stated, “so, I do agree that one of the big things we need to address is our housing stock and making sure that we have enough housing. That’s where the cap on how many (short-term rentals) you would allow, is good, based upon the percentage of housing you have or need.”
“I think there’s a lot of lost revenue for the City,” suggested Councilman Ty Witt, “people that are already renting and maybe doing it peacefully and quietly and legally, to the point where maybe they’re in the right place (zone) that they could do it, but they’re not doing it with a business license and they’re not paying their taxes on it. Do we have a handle on that piece?” Gildroy replied that he believes that the City does have a handle of it, with the work put in by City Code Enforcer Casey Tjeerdsma. There are already penalty fees in place for non-compliances, he advised.
Another cause of concern, suggested Councilman Tim Hollingsworth, is the renting of boats for use as a dwelling. “We’re talking about someone who owns a boat and/or a slip,” he began, “and they want to rent the boat for someone to stay on … if they’re renting the boat, even for someone to stay, they’re still renting the boat which is covered under watercraft rental licenses, and there’s a whole of requirements about insurance and training … I think we need to look at that section of our code,” he said. “I think the same concerns about impacts on the homes is the same thing on the lake,” said Gildroy, “we have a lot more boats out there.”
“I hope we take a close looker at what we can do, as far as a nightly fee, to help fund the affordable housing,” offered Cooney, “even if it were a $10 fee, it’d help the community.” Gildroy stated in response, “I think that’s one of the goals we need to put in there, is addressing our housing units, the maybe because that’s hard to ordinance.” The fees attached and distributed from short-term rentals are not so cut and dry as to charging whatever the City wants for fees, and distribution of those monies to another program, however. “Certainly, you can charge a fee to recover the administration cost,” advised City Administrator Mike Jackson, “but, you can’t charge a fee to allocate to a different program … there’s regulations against charging fees for tourism and calling it tax, and so that’s what all those laws are designed to protect is inappropriate taxation. I’m not saying that’s the final word, because there’s always things we can look at.”
The question was also raised as to how to regulate the short-term rentals in the community. One way, suggested Councilman Ray Dobbs, would be requiring owner occupancy in the home or ADU, “this could be part of the affordable housing matrix,” he stated. Thirty eight percent of the approximately 2,600 homes in the city are second, third or vacation homes, supplied Gildroy. “No further business licenses or zoning changes in existing neighborhoods for vacation rentals,” reiterated Cooney. The point is already outlined in the comprehensive plan, stated Gildroy in response.
Other topics discussed during the workshop included:
Recycle – Containers should be out mid-April, with the first residential collection being the second week in May, and the drop-off facility will remain open until the end of May. Commercial customers will have their first pick up Tuesday, June 5.
Burkhard Towing – no longer towing for the City due to the purchase and management of NAPA Auto Supply, so the City needs to find a replacement towing company.
Washington Apple Commission Logo – requesting the City to sign over the rights to their logo, which includes apple, leaf and banner. “It’s a very important logo to them,” said City Administrator Mike Jackson, “and they’re concerned about protection (of it).” The City would still be permitted to use the logo however, the copyrights would belong to the Washington Apple Commission.
SEPA Subdivision process –Subdivisions are a two-step process, the first being a planning plat, which a decision goes in front of a hearing examiner, and second step is the final plat, which is presented to the Council.
Chelan Fire and Rescue 7 – Chief Tim Lemon and Deputy Chief Mark Donnell joined at the City Council’s workshop to discuss contingency plan on emergency services.
The City Council convenes for council meetings every second and fourth Tuesday of the month, beginning at 6 p.m. at City Hall. The next council meeting is scheduled to take place Tuesday, April 24.
 

Chelan, council, workshop, meetings

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here