Commissioners axe transient lodging rental cap at Cape Kiwanda

By TIM HIRSCH
of the Sun

Those wishing to rent their properties as short-term rentals in the Cape Kiwanda area will have an easier time as Tillamook County Commissioners unanimously approved a plan to exempt the properties west of the Nestuca River from the short-term rental lodging cap that was set in 2023.

The remaining area of Pacific City and Woods will still be subject to a 95-home rental limit.

The change comes after numerous community meetings showed support for the concept, an effort led by Sarah Absher, director of Tillamook Community Development Department. 

“There was overwhelming consensus and support from (Pacific City) meetings to create a cap exemption area in Pacific City,” she told the Board of Commissioners on Jan. 8. “They still need a license, they still need to go through the process, they need to pass the fire and life safety inspection, comply with parking, et cetera, but those properties would be removed from a (transient lodging) cap (that a 2023 board order established for 21 subareas of unincorporated Tillamook County). It was acknowledged through the program ordinance update amendment process that this area (which includes Cape Kiwanda and homes along Cape Kiwanda Drive), has been more transient vacation rental use in nature.”

Absher also noted that the area comprised the majority of properties being used as vacation rentals with properties west of the river accounting for 236 of the area’s 326 short-term rental licenses. She also noted that with Pacific City’s current wait list of 28, 18 will immediately come off as they are in the new exempt area.

The order passed by Commissioners on Jan. 8 also tweaked some language. Gone is any mention of percentage of total homes of an area. Instead, there is simply a maximum number of homes eligible to rent their properties as vacation rentals.

“I think (Commissioners) should know what the percentage of dwellings (is) in each subarea that has a license. But, in terms of the order, to keep it clean and to simply establish a number of licenses available for each community, we have taken the percentages off.”

Absher also thanked the other subareas for their willingness to wait another year for the program’s features — particularly the “use it or lose it” clause — to have a more full effect. 

“What I really appreciate is that the communities, with the exception of Pacific City…some more reluctantly than others…were supportive of taking another year and taking a wait and see approach, and not adjusting the cap limits at this time for the number of licenses in their subareas. … The changes in the updates that we made are still being implemented, and we have not fully realized or been able to fully track for an adequate period of time, in my opinion, how these changes are working through the program itself.”