Chelan resident urges city to cap short-term rentals as housing concerns resurface

CHELAN — A Chelan County resident used public comment at the Chelan City Council meeting on Jan. 13 to urge city leaders to consider placing a cap on the number of short-term rentals (STRs), arguing that the current scale of vacation rentals is putting pressure on the community’s housing supply.

Brian Patterson, who identified himself as the local regional vice president for the Residents Coalition of Chelan County, told councilmembers that Chelan now has about 411 permitted short-term rentals, which he said represents nearly 14 percent of the city’s housing stock.

Patterson said that research from other communities shows housing availability and affordability begin to suffer once short-term rentals exceed about 4 percent of total housing. He cited a city-commissioned short-term rental assessment from 2017, with a draft released in 2018, that warned Chelan was already seeing homes shift from long-term occupancy to vacation rental use, driving up prices.

He noted that Airbnb listings in Chelan had grown rapidly in that period, rising from about 1 percent of the housing stock in 2015 to roughly 9 percent just three years later.

Patterson argued that current zoning rules allow short-term rentals in districts that cover more than one-third of the city, leaving room for continued rapid growth. He said existing zoning could theoretically allow more than 1,500 additional short-term rentals, with proposals for hundreds more already circulating.

“None of them have as high a density of STRs as Chelan has,” Patterson said, referring to other Washington communities that have adopted limits.

He pointed to several examples, including Winthrop, San Juan County, Port Angeles, Walla Walla, and the Lake Wenatchee, Cashmere, Plain, and Manson areas, which he said have enacted various forms of limits in recent years. He added that Leavenworth and Entiat have banned non-owner-occupied short-term rentals altogether.

Patterson said a cap would not require reducing the number of existing short-term rentals and would not represent a reduction in current tourism, but would instead focus future development on housing for full-time residents.

“It is well past time for Chelan to limit the number of STRs allowed,” he said.

No councilmembers responded directly to Patterson during the public comment period, in keeping with council procedure.

Later in the meeting, however, the issue resurfaced during closing comments from councilmembers and the mayor.

Councilmember Terry Sanders said he appreciated both the positive public comment earlier in the evening about the Lakeside Pathway and Patterson’s remarks about short-term rentals. He said the STR issue is “probably a conversation we should continue or bring to a workshop,” adding that the council should aim for a thoughtful approach to the topic.

Councilmember Agustin Benegas echoed that sentiment, thanking Patterson for bringing forward information and perspective on the issue.

Mayor Erin McCardle also returned to the subject during her closing remarks, noting that the city has been reviewing housing conditions in the context of tourism-dependent communities. She referenced a Washington State University study focused on Leavenworth and similar areas, as well as a more recent county tourism impact study.

McCardle said both studies suggest that while short-term rentals do affect housing availability, second homes represent an even larger share of the housing stock affecting affordability and supply in communities like Chelan.

She added that the average sale price of homes currently used as short-term rentals in Chelan is over $800,000, indicating that many of them are not homes that would likely fall into the affordable housing category even if they were returned to the long-term market.

McCardle said that if the city begins a broader conversation about short-term rentals, it should be part of a wider discussion about overall market conditions in a tourism-based community, including both vacation rentals and second homes.

While no action was taken Tuesday night, multiple council comments suggested the issue is likely to return for deeper discussion in a future workshop setting.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media