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Astoria council weighs vacation‑rental licensing and possible caps as North Coast units come online
Summary
Staff reported 31 vacation‑rental locations (70 rooms) and proposed licensing to allow inspections and enforcement; councilors debated caps, grandfathering, and whether to wait for a pending appeal before code changes. North Coast additions (36 rooms) would raise totals to roughly 106 rooms citywide.
City staff presented an update and options for regulating vacation rentals and related lodging at a July 22 Astoria City Council work session, including a proposed municipal license, potential development‑code changes and a broader debate over whether to cap vacation rentals.
Community Development Director Matt Brammeier told council staff counts distinguish locations from rentable rooms: homestay lodging was reported at 22 locations / 31 rooms; vacation rentals were reported at 31 locations / 70 rooms. Brammeier said a pending North Coast (North Host) project will add roughly 36 rooms, which staff estimated would bring the total to approximately 106 rooms and raise the citywide share of such units to near the range discussed (transcript estimates near 1.8% after additions).
Brammeier proposed a two‑step approach: (1) a municipal licensing program to register and inspect vacation rentals and to give the city enforcement tools (revocation of a license, ability to require safety compliance); and (2) potential development‑code changes to define vacation rentals separately from hotels/motels, add stated purpose language and create review criteria (time/place/manner, noise, occupancy and historic protections) that would require Planning Commission review before council action.
"If we had a license that would give us authorization to inspect the building," Brammeier said, citing life‑safety checks (smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, evacuation maps). He added staff could provide draft municipal code language by the Aug. 19 meeting.
Council debate centered on tradeoffs: some councilors urged swift licensing and clear language to avoid a sudden influx of listings; others argued Astoria's current share is low (staff cited roughly 1.2% prior to North Coast) and cautioned against caps that could restrict property owners without clear criteria. Several councilors asked staff to analyze how many eligible commercial‑zone buildings are available and to use transient lodging tax (TRT) data and other comparatives to quantify economic impact. Staff also recommended waiting for the outcome of a pending appeal (referred to in the transcript) before finalizing rules that could be affected by litigation.
Next steps: staff will prepare draft municipal code language for a licensing ordinance by Aug. 19 and further data on room counts, eligible pool percentages in commercial zones and economic impacts; councilors requested comparisons with other coastal towns and TRT data to inform cap decisions.
