Chelan County Commissioner Tiffany Gering wants to allow an increase in the number of Short Term Rentals (STRs) in residential neighborhoods in Chelan County before she leaves office at the end of the year.  Former Commissioner Bob Bugert believes the best way to stop this is for a large number of residents to show up at the Planning Commission public hearing that is scheduled for 6:30 PM tonight at the Confluence Technology Center in Wenatchee.   One can speak in person or via Zoom.  Details are in the RC3 email below.

Bob believes that speaking in person carries much more weight than sending an email to the county.  But sending an email is much more effective than doing nothing.  So, if sending an email is the only option for you, please do so.

Long version:  Please see the email below from the Residents Coalition of Chelan County (RC3).

Final Public Hearing Scheduled
The County has scheduled the final public hearing before the Planning Commission for Wednesday, November 13th at the Confluence Technology Center in Wenatchee starting at 6:30 pm.  There will be a Zoom option available – details below.

A new draft of the code has been released. Thanks to all your comment letters, we have made some progress!

Tier 1 STRs: The proposal to open up the Tier 1 category to everyone, not just owners who reside on the property, has been withdrawn. The new draft requires that Tier 1 STRs must be owner occupied. Please thank the Planning Commission for making this change.

6% cap on STRs: The 6% cap on STRs (9% for the Manson UGA) is still on the table. One of the primary goals for enacting the STR regulations was to protect residential neighborhoods and the County’s housing stock for the benefit of people who live and work in Chelan County. The situation is no different today than it was three years ago when the STR code was adopted. Housing cost and availability remain a crisis and it is unfair to residents and to local businesses to allow more conversions of homes to commercial lodging. The need for housing is especially acute in zip codes 98826 and 98831 where about 50% of the housing units are already vacation homes which may or may not be STRS. We need to stand firm in advocating for no change in the 6% cap.

Not Counting Children Under 2:  The new draft still contains language that will exempt children under 24 months of age from the occupancy limits for all three tiers of STRs. We are opposed to this change for two reasons.

  1. Health and safety. The Planning Commission has received testimony from the Chelan Douglas Health District and the Fire Marshall that their regulations count all persons, including children under 24 months. Similarly, the Fire Code is based on an occupancy of two persons per bedroom including children.
  2. Excluding children under two will result in higher occupancies in STRs. Renters of STRs tend to maximize occupancy so that costs can be shared among more people. We feel the current limits of 8 people for Tier 1, 12 people for Tier 2, and 16 people for Tier 3 should not be changed.

The rest of the changes to the code are mostly administrative or minor in terms of their impact on residents.

Hearing Details
For this public hearing, we are urging all of you to testify rather than submitting written comments. You can do this in person or via Zoom. Your time limit will be 3 minutes. We suggest you speak on one of the following topics. Get a Zoom Link here.

  • Thank the Planning Commission for protecting the requirement that Tier 1 STRs must be owner occupied and address the need to protect the 6% cap and keep children under 2 in the occupancy count.
  • Speak about any ongoing problems you are experiencing with STRs near you. If you are having problems with the response from the enforcement unit of the Community Development Department, you could address that.
  • Speak about the need to protect our housing inventory for people who live and work here. If you know of any personal examples of people struggling to find housing (either to buy or rent), you could share these

The County’s website provides all the meeting details, including the new draft of the code and copies of all the letters submitted so far.

Meeting Time/Location:
6:30 PM tonight, Nov 13 ,at Confluence Technology Cente2, 285 Technology WA, Wenatchee