Port Angeles & The STRs
Last year, we bought a home in the Lower Cherry Hill neighborhood of Port Angeles. Just a few blocks from the ferry and downtown, we fell in love with the walkability of the home, the private backyard, and the potential the dog hair encrusted home had. I spent the winter painting every inch, furnishing it, and bringing it into full glory as the Queen of the Strait.
Just two months after we opened our doors to guests, the Port Angeles City Council issued a moratorium on new short-term rentals (STRs) in the residential medium and high-density zones, where ours is (commercial zones were allowed to continue to open STRs). They also spoke of a “path to compliance” for the existing STRs that were operating illegally (estimated at the time to be 85% of existing STRs). Compliance, though, means quitting your illegal activities when you’ve been violating the law. Though many interpreted this to mean a path to legality, that was never the intention.
In 2017 Port Angeles’ then City Council had passed a new zoning code that allowed STRs to operate in commercial zones (though CO/Commercial Office requires a conditional use permit) as well as median and high-density residential zones (RMD and RHD). STRs, they said, were prohibited elsewhere (R7-11 zones) and they took the position that this code legalized STRs in limited zones, and that they had been illegal everywhere prior to the 2017 zoning code change.
The thing about the code was that although it was always available on the City’s website, it was never enforced. City of Port Angeles re-funded the code enforcement division in 2020, but STRs were only brought to Code Enforcement’s attention when they received a complaint regarding one. With COVID and a backlog of other problems to deal with, the STRs were just not a priority. Until the moratorium, when they started receiving complaints about every single one.
One by one, STR operators in the R7-11 zones began receiving letters from Code Enforcement detailing the violation and asking them to voluntarily cease operations. As they told me, this is a law that is designed to be followed and not enforced, so they were hopeful people would. And, some did. Some homes have been put up for sale, some have been changed to 30+ day rentals, and some continue to operate. The Planning Commission advised the City Council to “de-platform” all illegally operating STRs, but City Council hasn’t voted on it yet. So anyone continue to operate outside of the legal zones is just waiting to see what happens.
The question I think is on the minds of a lot of owners is, why now? After six years with no enforcement, why did they suddenly decide that now was the time to pull the trigger and enforce codes regarding STRs? In part, this was because of the lack of a Code Enforcement division to handle it, but the other, potentially more significant part, is that it wasn’t a crisis. And in this modern world with so many competing needs, sometimes we don’t respond to things until they are at crisis level.
How did it reach crisis point?
Next time.
