STR Advisory Committee completes work

The meeting began with a presentation from a staff member of the onsite wastewater division of the community development department. He said that the division had run into numerous instances of sewage backing up when aging septic systems experienced an increased load after properties’ conversion to short term rentals (STRs).

He said that he had suggested a requirement for new STR applicants with septic systems to have those systems inspected by a county official to determine their suitability for handling an increased load. Applicants would then be required to remediate any issues identified by that inspector within 60 days before receiving their license. The committee agreed to the proposed inspection.

The committee then took up the discussion on license transferability that had stymied them at their last meeting in April. After reaching an impasse, with STR operators arguing for unlimited transferability while others argued for some cap to encourage license circulation, the group agreed to await more data from Tillamook County Director of Community Development Sarah Absher before making a final decision.

Data provided by Absher showed that over the past seven years, an average of 22 licenses have been transferred annually. In the three years before that, a single digit number of licenses had been transferred, while this year 22 licenses have already been transferred.

The committee was able to agree that all new licenses issued after the pause’s lifting would be nontransferable, with exceptions for transfers to trusts, LLCs or family members.

But the data did not change either groups’ opinions on the transfer of existing licenses. After a lengthy discussion, the committee took a vote on instituting a two-transfer cap on existing licenses, with six members voting in favor and five against.

The committee was then able to quickly approve language in the ordinance requiring applicants to include a site plan showing a rough layout of their property with their STR applications.

Next, the committee began a discussion of fallow STR licenses and a potential way to address them. Data on the number of nights for which STR properties were rented in the county showed that in 2021 68 properties across the county with licenses had been rented for zero nights, a figure that more than doubled to 151 properties in 2022. 

Committee members noted that this created a situation where the STR program’s economic benefits were muted by those properties failure to host tourists. A “use it or lose it” clause was proposed that would see licensees that failed to rent their houses in two consecutive years surrender their license. 

The committee didn’t take a vote on the proposal, instead deferring the decision to the board of commissioners.

The committee then discussed the enforcement of the rules and the new Granicus Hotline that will be available by June 1, for community members to call and log complaints about STRs violating ordinance rules. STR operators were concerned about the proper handling and disposition of those complaints and their enforcement, but no revisions were made to the proposed ordinance.

Absher will now incorporate the final proposed updates into the draft ordinance for consideration by the board of county commissioners.

A first public hearing for the ordinance will be held on May 30 at the Port of Tillamook Bay, with another to come the week of June 12. Absher said that she expects the commissioners to vote on the ordinance at their June 21 meeting as well as on a lifting of the pause on license issuance that has been in effect since last July. That vote would allow the new ordinance to take effect on July 1 concurrent with new licenses being available.

Absher said that she expects the STR advisory committee to hold annual meetings going forward to monitor the impacts of the new ordinance but that she wouldn’t expect another overhaul in the immediate future.