Guest writer: Short-term rental regulations should be on short list for local leaders

Where Glacier housing goes, your neighborhood could follow. As documented by Cascadia Daily News (Feb. 12, 2025), the collapse of local housing and community cohesion in Glacier, as it morphs from mountain village to resort, is just one more instance of the damage short-term rentals can do to a community while no one is looking.

It is a common and accelerating story in the West as expanding tourism fills up established places and seeks out new sites. It is so much easier to house visitors in Airbnbs, VRBOs and other nightly rentals than to build traditional hotels and other resort infrastructure.

The problem has some local planning visibility. Birch Bay, Blaine and Sudden Valley citizens discuss it, and the Whatcom County staff and council occasionally bring it up. The City of Bellingham actually has Short-Term Rental (STR) regulations on the books.

Simplified, the STR feedback loop works like this: The private sector promises high revenues to local property owners to convert houses, condos and apartments to nightly rentals. A few go for it, then more follow, using their higher income to move to Redmond or maybe Miami, managing their property on autopilot. Of course, the new transient residents aren’t locally employed and don’t fit into the community. They are noisy, uncommitted and unaccountable neighbors, and now local families become disenchanted and start to move away.

Realtors and developers have a new selling point, no longer in the housing business but in the “investment property” business. Property values go up, followed by property taxes. Families can’t afford to stay, more leave and community life begins to hollow out. A local wealth gap forms.

Local employers find their labor pool, including mid-level professionals, drying up and have to pay more to entice commuters from ever further out. Prices of goods and services go up. Traffic patterns change from busy communities to rush hour chaos. The political conversation becomes polarized around property rights vs. community/government oversight with no middle ground.

This is how communities die. I watched it happen as a member of an Affordable Housing Commission in another Western town that didn’t take the threat seriously. Whatcom County, fortunately, is ahead of events and can prevent Glacier’s agony from spreading.

The solutions don’t have to be all-or-nothing. Zoning amendments can do a lot to control STR density in appropriate locations and minimize them in family neighborhoods. They can also enforce a preference for more compatible STRs, such as small and owner-occupied.

Tax and fee regulations can put STRs on a level playing field with other hospitality businesses, rather than drive them out. Public safety and health measures can ensure that STRs don’t become festering pimples in neighborhoods. And use of enforced deed restrictions can ensure that housing meant to be affordable doesn’t wind up on Airbnb listings.

Community leaders in Whatcom County have an opportunity to maintain a healthy balance between economic strength, livability and neighborhood values by actively managing STRs, but the allure of money is strong and the chance won’t last forever.

Advocates for realty, development and tourism are watching at this very moment and will mount strong challenges in defense of their profits. The little side conversations we are having about controlling STRs need to get serious, now.

Tom Horton lives in Sudden Valley and is a retired teacher and community activist. He served on the Affordable Housing Commission of a Western resort town.