By ARIADNE WILL
Sentinel Staff Writer
A two-hour town hall meeting on the issue of short-term rentals brought out concerns, opinions, and potential solutions from the public on the way permits are issued, and the effect, if any, short-term rentals have on the availability and affordability of year-round housing.
Around 50 Sitkans attended the town hall, where they wrote down comments on paper posted on the walls of the meeting room at Centennial Hall.
A short-term rental is defined as an independent dwelling unit that is rented out for no more than 14 days at a time. In Sitka, a conditional use permit is required for a short-term rental in a residential district. They are an allowed use in commercial zones, and no permit is required.
But city code does not give many reasons for members of the Planning Commission to deny short-term rental permit requests, and in recent years well over 90 percent of property owners’ requests that meet minimal requirements are granted by the Planning Commission. Permits that are granted also do not need to be reviewed unless a unit goes unused as a short-term rental for more than a year.
Among concerns about the permitting of short-term rentals was the potential for investors to buy up residential property for short-term rentals, removing the housing from what’s available for long-term occupants, and inflating the value of existing property for taxpayers.
Some solutions proposed Monday night were sunsetting conditional use permits for short-term rentals when a property is sold, capping the number of short-term rentals held by a single person or family, and implementing additional taxes on short-term rentals. Revenue from the additional taxes, some said, could then be put into affordable housing initiatives.
Benefits of short-term rentals were also voiced. Many said that they understand short-term rentals to be an important way Sitka families subsidize their own living costs and expenses.
The majority of the meeting was spent discussing concerns and potential solutions for those concerns. Many at the meeting felt there were positives to short-term rentals, but that further restrictions could be placed on them to improve Sitka’s housing stock and to maintain the community’s character.
The meeting was hosted by Assembly members Kevin Knox and Kevin Mosher and was led by Planning Commission member Katie Riley. Assembly members Crystal Duncan, Thor Christianson and Rebecca Himschoot also were present at the meeting, as were Planning Commission member Wendy Alderson and Planning Director Amy Ainslie.
Public opinion was collected during a 20-minute period in which attendees recorded their thoughts on posters stationed around the room.
Sitkans read and post comments on the wall at Harrigan Centennial Hall Monday night during a special meeting to discuss concerns about the rapidly growing number of short-term rentals in Sitka. (Sentinel Photo)
Knox told the Sentinel that the next steps will be for him and Mosher to “distill down” and contextualize information collected Monday for fellow Assembly members. After that, he said, he hopes to put something before the Assembly that will put solutions proposed by the public into action.
He said that “easier” first steps may include the implementing of code provisions that would allow members of the Planning Commission to consider factors apart from physical space requirements — such as an applicant having the correct number of parking spaces — when deciding whether to approve short-term rental permit requests.
“We just need to figure out where we want to go and (then) bring some things forward to the Assembly,” he said.
Monday’s town hall followed a proposed — and failed — Assembly action to place a year-long moratorium on the issuance of conditional use for short-term rentals.
In discussions of the failed moratorium, several Assembly members have said they believe Sitka’s difficult housing market is not a direct result of recent increases in short-term rentals, but that taking a closer look at the issues could provide an entry point into the complex and structural issue of affordable housing.
And Knox said he thinks work on that issue is off to a good start.
“I think we’ve got a really good start to the conversation,” he said this morning, adding that he hopes to have additional conversations about affordable housing in the future.
Riley agrees: “I’m really glad that we are having conversations about short-term rentals and, more broadly, housing issues in Sitka,” she told the Sentinel. “These are really serious issues that are facing increasing pressures and the first step to doing anything about them is having an understanding of the challenges and opportunities available.”
