It’s been a year. Here’s what’s going to happen with Airbnb-style rentals in Gig Harbor
The Gig Harbor City Council unanimously voted to extend the moratorium on short-term rentals Sept. 12, again.
The city will continue to not issue permits for new Airbnb-style rentals for another six months, while it tries to figure out what rules and regulations it wants to have for those properties. But, those already running short-term rentals in the city can keep doing so, Carl de Simas, principal planner for the city told The Gateway.
If someone’s been waiting to open an Airbnb-style rental in Gig Harbor, they’ll have to wait.
In 2021, the city received complaints that it was difficult to apply for the right permits to operate short-term rentals. The city was applying the closest permit that they had, but it wasn’t specifically meant for short-term rentals.
“Residents were unsure how to apply and what they needed to do to get the proper permitting to operate a short-term rental,” Laura Pettitt, the city’s communications and tourism director told The Gateway. “It is not a straightforward process. After city staff brought the complaints to council, they advised staff to place a moratorium on accepting new short-term rental permits. The moratorium passed Sept. 27, 2021.”
When the city lifts the moratorium they will have a new type of permit altogether that short-term rental owners (old and new) will have to apply for, de Simas said.
“The moratorium allows the Planning Commission to take a deep look, hear all sides, and evaluate what worked for other cities,” Pettitt said.
The original moratorium of six months should have ended in April 2022, but the city first extended it an additional six months because it turned out to be a more complex issue than they initially thought, Pettitt said. It was next set to expire Sept. 28, 2022, until the council extended it again Sept. 12.
Regulations draft at Aug. 18 special meeting
There is a draft of what new regulations for Airbnb-style rentals could look like.
The City Council saw draft regulations from the Planning Commission at an Aug. 18 meeting. The draft included the application process and what it could look like for owners to rent out their space.
“We need to define what short-term rentals are in the city of Gig Harbor, criteria that a short-term rental operator would have to meet in order to operate one within the city,” de Simas told The Gateway.
The Planning Commission draft broke short-term rental definitions up into three types.
- Short-Term Rental 1 rentals would be the operator’s primary residence. That means the unit would be their place of normal residency for the majority of the year (183 days). It would require a business license that would be renewed annually.
- Short-Term Rental 2 rentals wouldn’t require the owner to live onsite, but they would need to have a primary residence somewhere else in the city limits. The residence requirement would not apply to short-term rentals in commercial districts. Operators would need one of the new short-term rental permits the city is creating, in addition to a business license.
There are multiple pockets of commercial districts within city limits, which can be viewed here.
“Requiring someone to have a primary residence in the city in order to operate a short-term rental is something we arrived at because we understand that these regulations are meant to both allow for short-term rentals as well as limit the number of them within the city in some ways,” de Simas said. “It’s also a way of ensuring that the people who are operating short-term rentals in the city have some stake within the city here.”
- Short-Term Rental 3 properties would be boat rentals in a commercial marina. The live aboard boats would have to be the primary residence of the rental operators, who would need a business license and one of the new short-term rental permits.
“The regulation is still in a draft format. We’ve had several iterations of regulations over time the past year,” de Simas told The Gateway.
This is the tenth version of the draft.
The Planning Commission was supposed to post the final draft of the ordinance Sept 2. Then it would have been posted for 10 days before being brought forward at the Sept. 12 City Council meeting for feedback from the council and the public. That did not happen.
“Due to the actively evolving local and national legal landscape on this topic, the city has decided to pause and evaluate the ordinance against very recent case law developments,” Mayor Tracie Markley’s Sept. 2 weekly newsletter said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently struck down a New Orleans short-term rental ordinance provision. Similar to Gig Harbor’s draft, the New Orleans ordinance required that to qualify for a license in a residential neighborhood, the owner must reside on the property as the owner’s primary residence.
In Hignell-Stark v. City of New Orleans, the court held that the “primary residence” requirement violated the U.S. Constitution’s dormant Commerce Clause, which prohibits states and local governments from restricting interstate commerce.
At the Sept. 12 City Council meeting, the council voted to extend the moratorium for the maximum six months, in order for the Planning Commission to follow the Hignell-Stark v. City of New Orleans case.
“Gig Harbor has never been looking to ban short-term rentals entirely. The goal is to find a balanced ordinance that works for everyone and is appropriate for our city,” Pettitt told The Gateway. “It’s important to listen to all voices and have a policy that is common sense and reflects the views of all of our constituents.”
Owners support extension
It’s been difficult for the city to establish how many short-term rentals there are in Gig Harbor. Data from third parties has not been exact, nor does it account for rentals just within Gig Harbor’s city limits, versus the greater Gig Harbor area, Pettitt told The Gateway.
Short-term rental owners have watched closely how the city is moving forward with regulating properties. Some said the moratorium will allow more time to hear short-term rental owner’s opinions.
“I have heard many personal stories about owners wanting to become hosts because of the many benefits their homes bring to the city,” Carolyn Allen, co-founder of the Gig Harbor Short Term Rental Alliance, told the council.
She was in favor of council passing the extension for the city to follow the New Orleans case.
“It’s just fundamentally, constitutionally unright,” she said about the residential requirement.
Allen was also unsure of the exact rental count in the city, but within the alliance they’ve counted 33 homes and six boats.
Council member Mary Barber said she hopes the moratorium extension allows for further conversations about the regulations.
“I look forward to being able to use the extension so that we as the council can continue to engage the public and prepare regulations that address everyone’s concerns,” Barber said at the meeting.
