Kittitas County commissioners direct short-term rental committee to draft regulations after survey shows 60% support

Kittitas County commissioners asked the county—ommittee studying short-term rentals to proceed toward drafting potential regulations after staff presented survey results showing 895 responses and about 60% in favor of some regulatory approach.

Jeremy Johnson, a planner with Kittitas County Community Development Services, told commissioners the survey ran 60 days and that respondents ranked concerns in this order: noise, occupancy compliance, annual permit requirements, safety inspections and tax collection. Johnson said staff also prepared a comparison matrix of 10 counties west of the Cascades; five do not adopt local short-term rental rules and instead rely on state law (identified in the presentation as RCW 64.37), while five jurisdictions have local ordinances ranging from brief use-permit requirements to extensive regulations.

The survey and the matrix were offered to help the board decide whether the short-term rental committee should merely study the issue or move forward by drafting regulatory language. Johnson said the committee began work last April under Resolution 2024-049 and that staff could prepare an amended resolution directing the committee to draft regulations if the board wished.

Commissioners who spoke supported moving the committee to the drafting phase and agreed there could be a public joint meeting with the Planning Commission. One commissioner said, "I would like to have the short term rental committee work on something," and later added, "I'm in favor of the updated resolution." The board did not record a formal vote; staff described the discussion as direction to proceed.

Chad Bayless, director of Community Development Services, cautioned that some resort developments may be contractually exempt from new local rules. "Suncadia . . . within their development agreement . . . have a no conflict in enactment section," Bayless said. "I will be getting together with our legal to make sure we vet that out because no new regulations are supposed to apply to that entity of that development within their master plan resort approvals."

Johnson highlighted differences among neighboring counties as examples for the board to consider: Chelan County had a lengthy regulatory code and dedicated staff for enforcement, while Yakima County relied on a shorter, permit-focused approach. Johnson said staff attempted to estimate permitting costs to frame potential administrative burdens but emphasized the committee still needs more precise counts of how many short-term rental units exist in the county.

Next steps described by staff were: prepare an amended resolution to clarify that the short-term rental committee should draft proposed regulations; arrange a joint public meeting with the Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners for discussion (not a final decision); and vet exemptions such as those contained in Suncadia's development agreement with county legal staff. No ordinance or formal regulatory changes were adopted at the session.

The discussion included references to data provided by the local chamber of commerce and to committee members' independent research into homeowners associations and developments; staff said that material will be vetted for comparability before use in drafting any rules.