PORT ANGELES – The city of Port Angeles may soon have a moratorium on short-term rentals.
This week the city council approved a motion directing city staff to put together a draft ordinance that would halt all new short-term rentals, sometimes referred to as VBRO’s or Air B and B’s.
City Manager Nathan West:
“And it’s just an intriguing challenge simply because at this point in time, we have short-term rentals as permitted uses outright in all of our commercial zones as well as in our high and medium density zones. So, there’s no application. Ultimately, they’re permitted outright. There’s no application process for them. So how you track or might enforce a moratorium is something that we’re going to have to be discussing as staff and working a bit to figure that out.”
The move coincides with an effort the city is already making to collect data on the short-term rentals locally. Director of Community Services Calvin Goings says they’re nearly ready to hire a company to perform data collection.
“This is something that’s been discussed since at least last April and so we want to make sure we get this right. There are lots of points of view on this issue and make sure that we have a very well-informed package before we proceed. So, we are in the final stages. Now of selecting a firm through a competitive RFP process, hopefully to make that decision here in the coming weeks and then once that firm is on board, really make sure we’ve got the data before us so we make an informed decision.”
The effects of short-term rentals on the larger market has been part of the debate on the housing crisis locally.
West says a deadline for bringing the draft ordinance was not part of the motion this week, but he adds the council would prefer to move quickly on the matter.