Today is the final city council meeting where new rental regulations for the short term rental industry in Seattle will be decided. Local vacation rental managers have spent the last two years working with and sometimes against city council on behalf of their businesses, their employees, their homeowners, the many vendors they keep employed, and the industry as a whole in Seattle. They have helped educate the Affordable Housing Committee on our industry, and have helped craft a workable legislation that will both support affordable housing, and protect homeowners right to rent their properties on a short term basis.
On September 15th, 2017 the Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods and Finance Committee passed CB119082 and CB119083.
The City Council will vote on these recommendations today. There is just one amendment that is of concern and would eliminate many properties from being able to rent on a short term basis.
Amendment 5 (which will be Amendment 1 when presented to the City Council) proposes: “Reduce the area that would be exempt from the proposed limit on the number of dwelling units a short-term rental operator can operate. As proposed, CB 119081 would exempt units being operated as a short-term rental prior to September 30, 2017, that are located within the Downtown, Uptown, or South Lake Union Urban Centers. This amendment would reduce that area to apply only within the Downtown Urban Center, south of Olive Way and north of Cherry Street.”
While local managers agree that balanced regulations are necessary, they believe this additional addendum does more harm than good.
For more information and to learn how you can support local managers visit The Seattle Short Term Rental Alliance’s website at http://sstra.org/
Aron Queg
December 12, 2017 at 12:34 pm
Last year our destination area had 77 vacation rentals on Vbro/Homeaway.
This year we have 194 vacation rentals.
There is a huge increase in deceptive geographical wording in newbie listing descriptions….unsuspecting renters may show up to journeys on dirt roads to nowhere or fighting for parking spots in dense condo gulags….
Let the shakeout please begin-