Opposing Viewpoints Weigh In On Upcoming Short Term Rental Code Prior to Hearing

Chelan County commissioners have reviewed the short term rental regulations turned in by the short term rental task force and are holding a hearing on the drafted code Tuesday morning. The hearing starts at 10:15 a.m.

A task force was comprised of both folks wanting tighter neighborhood restrictions and folks in favor of short term rentals to draft a code. The county Community Development department also worked alongside the task force.

"One (concern) is the nuisance issues. Nuisances issue really are the result because right now, there's no regulations at all," said Kirvil Skinnarland, Residents United for Neighbors representative.

RUN also identified the issue of the correlation between the increase in short term rentals and lack of available housing in the county. Skinnarland is hopeful the regulations.

On the flip side, Short Term Rental Alliance of Chelan County comes from a different angle and favors short term rentals and they do for the tourism industry. Don McKenzie, STRACC secretary and served on the short term task force, clarified that the task force's responsibility was a limited scope of the overall code and there were areas STRACC wanted to improve further.

"We're continuing to push to allow existing established operators to make improvements to their property," said McKenzie. "The draft code would say if you're a grandfathered property you cannot make any changes or improvements to your property that require a building permit or any county issued permit."

The hearing starts at 10:15 a.m.