Tracy Warner on Vacation Rentals
It’s a big day for the blog and the Wenatchee World today! In our second post linking to them today, Tracy Warner has an opinion piece called Vacation rentals can stay away in today’s edition. In it, he speaks about the City of Wenatchee considering a ban of new vacation rentals in their single family residential zones.
Wenatchee has few vacation rentals yet they are aware of the issues in Chelan, Manson, Leavenworth and the Lake Wenatchee area. I have posted stories on the Chiwawa River Pines issues enforcing their covenants against commercial use and vacation rentals. Tracy Warner does a good job talking about the issues associated with vacation rentals:
They could tell you about it in Leavenworth, Lake Wenatchee, Chelan and Manson. People have complained for years that vacation rentals are a source of great disturbance in their neighborhoods. Houses meant for family living get overloaded with people who, naturally, are there for a good time. They make noise late at night. They strain the infrastructure and the waste stream. They create instability and depress property values. People who come for a night or a week really don’t care if they irritate the neighbors, and often they do. It’s one thing to rent out a lakeside cottage or a cabin in the woods; it’s quite another to rent a house in a neighborhood designed for permanent residents, where on any side and in close proximity are people who just want peace in their own homes. – Wenatchee World
It may very well be that vacation rentals are not a significant problem in residential neighborhoods in Wenatchee today. Of course, neither are auto wrecking yards nor strip mines, both of which are banned under the current zoning in residential neighborhoods. Good planning ideally addresses issues before they become large problems. That’s why it is called planning.
One Response to “Tracy Warner on Vacation Rentals”
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I agree with you that planning is important and that vacation homes don’t belong in residential neighborhoods in Wenatchee or in any “urban” area in Chelan county with a residential designation.
I would love to see Mr. Warner’s data showing that vacation rentals depress property values. My experience in Leavenworth has been the opposite. I would also guess that he probably thinks that the CRP neighborhood fits into his definition of a “cabin in the woods.”