Vacation property owners and residents in Yachats are looking to find common ground for how to deal with the growing use of vacation rental units. Tuesday, the city council discussed two proposals that stemmed from public forums in May.
The first proposal limits the number of days in a year property owners could rent to clients; the second would require a $500 rental license fee. Candy Neville is a realtor and property owner in Yachats. She says it's wrong to assume home owners are just renting units to make profits.
Neville: "We are one of those people. A lot, in fact most of the property owners are retirees or almost retirees. So it's property they bought, they need help buying, it's not a group of people that have that money that they can just buy a little house and go running over there just for themselves all the time."
Neville also expressed concerns about the timing of notifications about the proposed changes. She says the council hasn't been receptive to the needs of vacation property and business owners. Yachats Mayor Ron Brean says the city has been transparent and adds they're trying to find the right balance between vacation rentals and residential housing.
Brean: "And the premise is that at some point in time if we get too many, it will change the character of the community and that character change will have an effect on the economic community, home sale prices and so forth. And we are trying to get ahead of that before we ever do get to a crisis."
No official proposals are on the table for the City Council yet. The number of rentals in Yachats has grown from 76 in 2003 to 135.
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