Resolution 2023.1 Short Term Rentals (2/27/2023)

WHEREAS; Housing has become a critical issue across the country as insufficient creation of new housing has become a national issue, and 

WHEREAS; Owning your own home has provided the basic building block for family stability and security. It is the traditional way of building inter-generational wealth, and

WHEREAS; When families invest in a home, it is a fair expectation that government will protect that investment with appropriate requirements and conditions, and

WHEREAS; Residential neighborhoods provide an opportunity to nurture community at a very basic scale. We rely on neighbors to come to our aid, notice threats, and assist each other in advancing the safety and values we want for ourselves and the community.  Neighborhoods are for neighbors, and,

WHEREAS; We now see the advent of real estate trusts and major organizations who buy up properties in popular sites for vacationing visitors, in order to reap higher profits for their investors.  This results in negative consequences for adjacent residential property owners through higher traffic, noise, and demands on water, sewer or septic systems. 

WHEREAS; Owners of second homes are also able to rent out short term at a higher return, thus removing properties which might add to the rental market for those working in the county, and

WHEREAS; Cities in Clatsop County are setting standards which require the owners to live in their residence in order to operate a short term rental, thus limiting the numbers of short term rental properties and balancing their impacts, assuming that owners “in residence” will assure  considerate neighbors, and

WHEREAS; Clatsop County has informally allowed short term rentals in all residential zones, a practice which has been illegal as commercial uses are not residential as an explicit matter of definition. Given community response, the County enacted a moratorium. Their actions ignored the recommendations of their own housing study.

WHEREAS; Basic to planning and zoning is the delineation of appropriate uses for residential, industrial, and commercial uses, and

WHEREAS; Now the county has proposed a “correction” which explicitly allows STRs in all residential zones under a  Type 1 Permit process which proceeds with no notice and no public hearing. It appears that the Board’s reasoning is a support of “private property rights”, allowing each owner to “do what they want with their own property”. The stresses implicit in greater numbers of STRs will be visited particularly on communities facing on ocean and river fronts desirable for visitors, and

WHEREAS; In response, a group called North Coast Neighbors United collected sufficient signatures to place an ordinance on the ballot for the May election, citing the impact on rural communities which are targeted with the inclusion of the commercial STRs within their fragile environments, and

WHEREAS; We are concerned for the long term impacts of the County’s unsupported negation of recognized zoning limitations and their proposed actions upon our neighborhoods and communities.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT: The Clatsop County Democratic Central Committee endorses the proper use of zoning and planning requirements in both cities and rural communities in order to protect residential neighborhoods and our residents. We strongly support the enactment of the proposed Measure 4-221 presented by North Coast Neighbors United which will be on the May ballot in Clatsop County.