PORT TOWNSEND — Early implementation of Jefferson County’s short-term rental ordinance, which was passed in April, has included creating a website with the newly written permit application, trying to locate rentals and notifying owners of the requirement to be permitted.
A short-term rental (STR) is defined as a primary dwelling unit which is not a hotel, motel or bed and breakfast and which is rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days.
The ordinance requires STR owners must have owned their property for more than a year. It limits operators to only one STR in Jefferson County, among other policies.
The ordinance limits STRs to 4 percent of the housing stock per zip code within the county. The total number of STRs allowed is 468.
Code Compliance Coordinator Nicki Akins, who has taken the lead on developing the program’s permitting and compliance protocol, estimated there are 700 unpermitted STRs in the county which have yet to apply.
A permit application for an STR can be found at tinyurl.com/52bbpak2, along with information about the policy, how it came to be developed and more.
“Everything on [the permit application] relates to the new ordinance,” Akins said.
So far, 23 STR operators have applied, 19 have paid and are being processed, she said.
The county had 29 permitted STRs prior to the ordinance, according to a slide in Akins’ presentation to the Board of County Commissioners on Monday.
Akins reviews the applications before they are submitted to assure the information is filled in correctly, she said.
The Department of Community Development (DCD) vets the application before the fire marshal is given the green light to do a fire, life and safety inspection, she added.
If the inspection is not passed, operators are given an opportunity to correct deficiencies and have a re-inspection, she said. If they pass, they will be issued a permit.
Akins has started investigating STR listings in the county, and the process has been interesting, Akins said.
“It’s been a lot of fun, so much fun,” she said. “I have found some really, really neat properties that I didn’t even know existed.”
Akins has noticed increased numbers of STRs since the ordinance has passed. Particularly, structures which cannot be permitted.
STRs are only allowed in permanent residences, not temporary structures like boats, tents, recreational vehicles or yurts, which cannot be permitted.
The plan to find the STRs involves some sleuthing, County Administrator Josh Peters said.
Using the county’s Geographic Information System (GIS), cross-referenced with Airbnb’s map, Akins has been able to locate some properties.
Once located, the owners will be notified of the ordinance. A letter states that county records show that an owner may be operating an unpermitted STR and they have 45 days to submit an application or notify DCD that they are not operating an STR.
Failure to respond within 45 days would result in some enforcement action, including potential fines or legal remedies, the letter states.
“We’re hoping to get, ya know, 100 people or something, voluntarily to come in,” said Development Code Administrator Greg Ballard. “After that, we’re going to start chasing them down.”
“I don’t see much leverage in this letter,” county commissioner Greg Brotherton said. “I would probably write you back and say, ‘Oh no, I’m not operating a short-term rental,’ and continue to do that for a couple of times.”
Mentioning the limited number of STR permits being offered should be included in the letter, Brotherton said.
Akins said she does not expect the position to be her full-time responsibility after the end of the year.
Brotherton noted that the permitting program was supposed to pay for itself and he underlined the potential expense of stamps to send notification letters as well as staffing for permitting and code compliance.
“You did vote for this,” Commissioner Heather Dudley Nollette said.
“Reluctantly,” Brotherton responded. “I argued over every tenet. I argued about putting in something that we didn’t have the capacity to enforce.”
Brotherton said the workload seems unmanageable, calling the code compliance work daunting. He asked when the number of STRs in the permitting process — currently at 23 — might meet the number of unpermitted STRs, estimated at 700.
“When do those two numbers meet?” he asked. “I don’t know, a decade?”
Commissioner Heidi Eisenhour said it might take a while. Dudley Nollette said the program needs time to play out to see if it will work.
Brotherton expressed his disagreement with regulating the STRs at an April 7 commissioners meeting, but he did participate in the unanimous motion which passed the ordinance.
In April, Brotherton said he was not convinced that limiting homeowners’ ability to utilize their properties as they prefer would ultimately improve the housing affordability crisis the county faces.
When they passed the ordinance in April, the commissioners agreed to return to it in a year to discuss the cap on STRs, among other policies.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
