BINGEN — The City of Bingen approved a six-month moratorium on short-term rentals, during which city officials are expected to undergo discussions about what the direction of the local short-term rental market should be.
The moratorium, unanimously approved by city councilors, puts on hold applications for the designation, permitting, construction, development, expansion, remodeling, creation, location, and siting of short-term rentals. It requires a public hearing to be held 60 days in advance of the passage of the moratorium. Councilors can then decide to either reverse the moratorium or allow it to go through the full six months, when it would automatically expire unless councilors voted to extend it further.
Despite the moratorium being enacted, current owners “who can show to the reasonable satisfaction of city staff that a short-term rental booking was finalized prior to this moratorium” may allow the booking, as long as the owner registers their business with the city within 30 days, according to the approved ordinance; “however, those property owners who were not previously registered and register during the Amnesty Period may not incur new bookings during the moratorium.”
Before the moratorium there were no regulations limiting the use of short-term rentals in the City of Bingen, said City Administrator Krista Loney.
She said city staff have verbally discouraged interested parties calling into City Hall due to the extent of the housing problem in Bingen and across the county and state. All that the city currently asks of developers and owners of short-term rentals is they own a business license or permit, Loney said.
Due to an increasing number of calls interested in short-term rentals as well as inquiries regarding Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), councilors consented to the moratorium, noting that a discussion of short-term rentals would be pertinent as the city begins to undergo its 10-year comprehensive plan update, which will include a review of city policy as it relates to short-term and long-term goals and visions of the community.
“We want to utilize the conversation that came up during the comprehensive plan to sort of further identify the right way to go about implementing policies that protect what we want this community to be, and give people the parameters to use their properties the way they want, and just consider all the different factors and come up with an actual policy that reflects what the direction of Bingen is,” said Mayor Catherine Kiewit. “The moratorium buys us time to come up with what the policy should be.”
The ordinance was modeled after one instituted by White Salmon city officials. There, the moratorium had been enacted in 2021 and extended through February of 2022, culminating in the passage of a suite of regulations that, among other rules, implemented a limit of short-term rentals allowed within the city’s residential areas to 10% of the total number of housing units, enforced by a permitting system (a full description of the changes to White Salmon’s short-term rental ordinance is available at www.white-salmon.net/citycouncil/page/short-term-rentals-0).
There are currently 12 properties within the city operating as short-term rentals, Loney said.
During councilor discussion, Councilor Ryan O’Connor said he was in support of regulation of short-term rentals in the city.
“I think it makes sense. Everybody else is implementing rules around short term rentals, and I think if we don’t implement similar rules, then we’ll have more pressure for short term rentals,” O’Connor said. “I think it makes sense for us to take the time to consider how many short term rentals is really healthy for Bingen and then implement from there.”
Hood River and White Salmon both enacted varying types of regulations limiting short-term rental usage in 2020 and 2022, respectively.
City officials also adopted definitions categorizing different types of rentals, which as Loney explained, was needed for clarification before adoption of the moratorium. Under the new definitions, a bed and breakfast is defined as a rental limited to 15 consecutive days per stay; a short-term rental is limited to 30 nights per day, where it’s not a hotel, motel, or bed and breakfast; vacation rentals is defined as usage of the entire home (excluding ADUs) when the owner/licensee is not present and there’s no time limit; and a hosted homeshare is defined as a room or ADU where the person who owns or manages it is present and there is no time limit.
Commented