Tuesday, March 19, 2024

City to crack down on illegal short term rentals

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Leavenworth city officials are ready to start more aggressively going after illegal overnight rentals in the city. At the March 14 study session, the council talked about plans to beef up their enforcement.

Leavenworth City Administrator Joel Walinski said he sat down with City Attorney Thom Graafstra and Pacific Patrol to talk about this. These rules have been in place since 1987, but there still is an educational piece that must be done, Walinski said. City Development Manager Nathan Pate will be crafting something and get it out.

“We’ll be using the newsletter, website, radio, also some direct mail to contact those addresses we believe have that type of activity going on, to let them know the city is moving forward with a higher level of enforcement,” Walinski said.

The other piece is a new contract with Pacific Patrol. Walinski said they would hire Pacific Patrol and provide them with the list around 25 possible illegal overnight rentals in town.

“They’ll collect and put those reports together. Those will be reviewed by myself and the city attorney. If we hit that mark that he thinks is enforceable, we have two options. We can send them a letter with a packet of information, showing them the evidence we have. We believe you are dong overnight rentals, which are illegal in the city. Give them one last chance for coming into compliance,” Walinski said.

In addition, Pacific Patrol would also go undercover and make a reservation at the overnight rental to collect some hard evidence. Councilwoman Carolyn Wilson said she wasn’t sure Pacific Patrol had the proper expertise to do investigations.

Wilson said if the investigation is not done right, the case might fall apart. Farivar said Pacific Patrol does have an arm of their organization that does investigative work. Walinski said there would be three parts to the PP contract.

“There is the initial investigation piece, which is more like our parking enforcement people. They go on the internet, do the walk by, take notes. They are certified witnesses. They’ve been trained in that,” Walinski said. “The second piece of the contract is we are going to put in a phone line for overnight rental compliance. That will be available 24/7. Given the type of information, we might not respond to that. If there is a loud party, that is not what we are looking for.”

The hotline is meant to be used to report illegal overnight rentals. The third piece of the contract is the surveillance, undercover piece.“Those are different individuals with different training than our parking enforcement people. These folks will be coming over from Seattle,” Walinski said. “They have a very good background. Most of them are ex-police, from the detective division. The other piece is, all the information collected, they are not the ones that make the decision on whether it is enforceable or not. That will be reviewed by myself and Thom.”

Walinski said the costs are not fixed, but it does give the city the resources to do what is needed, if they do come across a property doing overnight rentals. There are resources to do the investigation and go undercover, if necessary.

Prior going to court, it would come back to council to decide if it wants to spend additional dollars for legal fees.

“One thing we’re really hoping, and this came clear in the meeting with our attorney and Pacific Patrol, we hope to do this a couple times, go to court, to show how serious the city is about this kind of vigorous enforcement,” said Mayor Cheri Kelley Farivar. “Then watch others who will be monitoring this process, fall into compliance. That is our hope. We’re not saying it is going to cost us $60,000 per year. We’re hoping this is an investment in the future of compliance.”

The base cost is $35 per hour with 4-to-8 hours per week, along with $109 per month for the phone service. When the city gets to the point of doing the undercover work, that is where it might get expensive.

“The city has to be willing to spend the dollars for the investigative services and legal fees, just like enforcing the sign code or someone who doesn’t want to pay their business license. The not-to-exceed amount is $60,000 over six months,” Walinski said. “If we believe we have someone that is breaking the law, doing overnight rentals in the residential neighborhood, we want to be able to take the next step and do full enforcement.”

There might be several cases where people do not want to come into compliance, Farivar said. At that point, they might have to come back to the council for more money. Once a residence is found to be doing overnight rentals, the city will start sending letters.

“If this is going all the way, we typically don’t get a response from the property owner until the third notice. They send a notice they will appeal to the hearing examiner. To that point, those costs are relatively minor,” Walinski said. “Once the hearing examiner makes the decision, they can challenge again. This is where it goes to court. Thom will make a decision and estimate on the cost. Then it will be up to the city council.”

“We don’t want to be a paper tiger. We have to go all the way,” said Councilwoman Margaret

Neighbors.

Farivar said it is very likely at least one homeowner will take it all the way. Wilson said other cities around the country will be looking at this.

Wilson said Leavenworth may become the model city for how to get rid of overnight rentals, something big and small cities are dealing with. Leavenworth Chamber Director Nancy Smith said she had an issue with Leavenworth becoming a model city.

“I hope it is not one of our goals is to be that model city on vacation rentals, because vacation rentals are huge part of Leavenworth. They are just outside your tiny city limits,” Smith said. “That scares me to death because it is a giant part of what Leavenworth is and a giant part of what our guests want. We just didn’t want it in the high density area. I’m not suggesting you change what you’re doing.”

Smith said this model will affect the rest of Leavenworth.

“A giant part of where the traveler is going, especially family travelers, is to enjoy a vacation rental. I have a great vacation rental next to my house,” Smith said. “I’m not trying to suggest you do anything different. Just don’t be the model city.”

Farivar said becoming the model city is not their goals. Wilson said this activity is illegal, so as elected officials, they have to enforce that. Councilwoman Sharon Waters said the residents came and said enforce it and that is what they are doing.

“Once we have this fully set up with Pacific, then we’ve actually given somebody with a number to keep in their drawer. We had 175 people sign that petition (against overnight rentals) who are going to be vigilant about this and give information to the city, presumably,” Farivar said.

Councilwoman Gretchen Wearne asked if other cities had done sting operations.

“Other cities usually don’t expose their secret sting operations. We searched for that type of information, it is not readily available. They do not want to release their secrets,” said Pate.

At the council meeting that night, the council unanimously approved the new contract for Pacific Patrol regarding overnight rental enforcement.

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

 

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