Pierce County community of Steilacoom, in Washington State, has banned short term rentals. The town council said regular bed and breakfasts are still allowed in the town and that they would be monitoring sites like VRBO or Airbnb to see if someone was trying to rent out their property and if that happens they would send out a compliance letter. Property owners that don’t receive proper permits to make it an official bed and breakfast, a long-term rental property, or move in themselves they could face daily fines of $250.
- The city of 6,500 has between 2,600 and 2,800 homes, said Doug Fortner, town planner for Steilacoom.
- The city estimates that between 5 and 10 units are rented on a short-term basis.
- ~0.3% is an incredibly low amount of short term rentals compared with popular vacation destinations. In Park City UT, for example, nearly 50% of their total housing units are used as short term rentals.
Among other requirements, the state requires businesses that earn $ 12,000 or more to register. The Steilacoom city code has a lower threshold, requiring anyone doing business to obtain a business license from the city.
The code change is in effect, but gives Airbnb owners and existing short-term rental owners six months to comply. If there are still rentals by the end of January, owners will be fined $500 for the first day of violation and $1,000 per day thereafter.
Chelan County, where Leavenworth is located, recently passed a law banning short-term rentals in residential areas. Places like Chelan County have banned new Airbnbs entirely. Spokane is try rules that might limit big corporate Airbnbs without sabotaging small-time homeowners renting out their rooms. Units would be limited everywhere to no more than two units by any one owner to no more than two units in any one building. The city could also consider charging an additional $15 fee for each unit each night it’s rented.
Why is anyone traveling to Steilacoom for vacation anyway?
It feels like a small New England village with the masonry chimneys and cedar shake roofs to match. Fort Steilacoom Park sits quietly about a mile up the hill off of Steilacoom Boulevard. Featuring 340 acres of walking trail, sports fields, an open-air theatre, children’s play area and a large off-leash dog park, there’s plenty of room to stretch your legs.
Steilacoom became the first county seat of the newly formed Pierce County in 1852, the same year Steilacoom got Washington Territory’s first post office. In 1853 the Reverend John F. DeVore founded the first Protestant church north of the Columbia River, and in 1854 Steilacoom became the first incorporated town recognized by the legislature in Washington Territory. The town of Steilacoom continued to grow thanks to Canadian gold rushes, and in 1858 built Washington’s first jail and first public library during the first wave of building new public institutions of social control and coercion — penitentiaries, asylums, and police forces.
Like many places in the world, there’s a bit of local history and a few things to do out in public. But really, people are most likely there to visit friends and family that live in the area, or to escape the nearby Seattle metro area for a while.
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