This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
Lincoln County’s tortured and tumultuous 10-year path to regulate and limit hundreds of vacation rentals in unincorporated areas may be over.
The Oregon Court of Appeals has ruled against 20 vacation rental owners who have spent the past four years challenging the county’s ordinance first in circuit court and then to the appeals court.
A three-judge appeals panel last week:
Agreed that the county’s 2023 short-term rental licensing ordinance was not a land-use decision, backing rulings by the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals and Lincoln County circuit pro-tem judge Joseph Allison.
- “Past litigation before LUBA and this court has made clear that the county’s challenged actions are not land-use decisions,” the appeals court said.
Rejected the vacation rental owners’ contention that each licensee needed special notice of county actions because the ordinance was effectively re-zoning their property
- “The court did not err because there was no ‘rezoning’ of plaintiffs’ property,” the appeals court said. “Zoning (and “rezoning”) are terms of art that apply to specific types of land use decisions.”
Overturned Allison’s December 2023 ruling that three provisions were unconstitutionally vague. Those included sections of the ordinance prohibiting “events, such as weddings, rehearsal dinners, and similar activities” at rentals that violated capacity limits, provisions governing how complaints were made, and delegating to the county counsel the authority to appoint a hearings officer, create procedures and rules to hear complaints, violations and citations against vacation rental owners.
The appeals court reversed that portion of Allison’s ruling and sent it back to Lincoln County circuit court.
In part of his 2023 decision, Allison ruled against the vacation rental owners as they tried to stop a county ordinance regulating their properties as businesses and drastically reducing their number in unincorporated areas. Just days earlier, the Court of Appeals declined to stop part of the ordinance that created seven zones where the number of licenses could eventually shrink from 502 to 181.
In a news release Wednesday, Lincoln County called it “a significant legal victory for the county.”
“In February 2023, less than 30 days after I took office, we established geographic regions and limits on short-term rental licenses,” Commissioner Casey Miller said in a statement Thursday. “I had already spent many years as the county’s public information officer watching concerns escalate as residents called for stronger action. The court’s decision provides greater certainty that we can administer the licensing program, continue protecting neighborhood livability and make necessary adjustments as circumstances change.”
Walter Chuck, who was not appointed to the commission until the issue reached the appeals court, said in a statement that the county’s “license program allows rentals while also balancing livability for residents.”
The attorney for the short-term rental owners, Heather Brann, has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Issue started in 2016
The county has been grappling with the issue since 2016 after the number of short-term rentals ballooned – reaching more than 600 — in unincorporated areas as coastal cities enacted limits and restrictions in their jurisdictions.
The cities of Yachats, Newport, Depoe Bay and Lincoln City have their own limits on vacation rentals; Waldport, Siletz and Toledo do not.
But dissatisfaction with the county’s effort to regulate short-term rentals led to a citizen-led ballot measure in November 2021 that would have gradually phased them out in residential neighborhoods. Commissioners then tried unsuccessfully to undercut it by passing a number of changes to their existing ordinance just days before voters resoundingly approved the measure.
A coalition of property owners represented by the vacation rental advocacy group Via Oregon appealed both the ballot measure and the updated county ordinance to LUBA, contending both were land-use measures.
LUBA ruled in 2022 that the voter-approved ballot measure conflicted with Oregon land-use law and declared it invalid. But LUBA twice said the county’s ordinance was not a zoning or land-use issue and sent the rental owner’s lawsuit back to circuit court.
In February 2023 commissioners voted to create seven geographic areas and sharply limit the number of vacation rental licenses in each. Five of the areas are west of U.S. Highway 101 and two are east of it.
There are currently 422 vacation rental licenses in unincorporated Lincoln County, down from 502 when the seven areas were approved. That number is supposed to drop sharply via attrition – licenses cannot be transferred when properties change hands — to 181 licenses under the 2023 density requirements.
There are currently 138 property owners from the seven zones on a county waiting list seeking a license.
