The Seaside City Council passed an ordinance last October increasing annual fees for vacation rental owners. As rental owners renew their licenses, some have said they’re shocked to see the new fee.
The fees originally ranged from $75 to $150, depending on the size of the rental property. The ordinance increased that by a flat $400, regardless of size.
Anastasia Corya said she and her business partner have owned Seaside’s Starry Night Inn for about two years. The Inn is a six-room property, meaning with the new ordinance, it’s considered a medium-sized property, and its annual fees jumped from $100 to $500 with the fee increase.
Corya said she was not aware of the increase and said she was not notified beforehand.
“That’s pretty depressing. I didn’t even know it happened,” Corya told OPB.
She said she lives in Portland half-time, and travels to Seaside for work at the Inn, and is therefore not very involved in Seaside city politics.
“I think we will start getting more involved because it seems like if you’re not involved you don’t even realize what is happening,” she said. “Decisions are made without the input of the people being affected by it.”
She continued: “That just seems unfair. If they’re going to have a vote on something, they should invite all the people who are going to be affected by it to at least participate. We didn’t even know they were having these meetings.”
The increased fees are slated to pay for a compliance officer to inspect Seaside’s vacation rentals.
“One of the things that the council need to look at was how they would fund a compliance officer position,” Seaside city manager Mark Winstanley said in an October city council meeting, according to meeting minutes.
“And it was suggested that the business license fees for vacation rental dwellings might very well be the best alternative.”
John Dunzer, a Seaside resident who owns a small bed and breakfast, spoke against the increase at that same meeting last year.
“What this now has is that my little bed and breakfast with one room with two occupants has had a 633% increase,” Dunzer said at the meeting, according to council minutes.
He said the ordinance should have tiered fees, related to size.
Winstanley responded that the work of a compliance officer, whose position the fees will fund, would be the same regardless of the size of a rental property.
“The reason why we made them all the same is because basically the work is the same,” Winstanley said.
Bed and breakfast owner Dunzer, like Corya, also said he was not notified of any meetings before October’s vote.
“I don’t remember any public hearings,” Dunzer said at the council meeting. “It would seem to me that somebody should let somebody know, especially the people that are going to be affected about this, that there are work sessions. I don’t remember. I didn’t get anything.”
Council president Randy Frank responded: “I’m pretty sure that those meetings were published in the paper. We did have people turn out for them and in the workshops, there was a lot of discussion.”
Along with funding the compliance officer position, the council said some of that money will also go to the city’s Chamber of Commerce and the downtown development association.