"It’s been a rough couple of years," Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mike Steele reported to the Chelan County Commissioners on Tuesday.
"We've experienced a downturn in our county revenues for the first time," said Steele. "We're grappling with what that really looks like, and so today's kinda conversation is both sort of a plea for support from the county commission and helping us to become whole again because we're looking down the line at a potential loss of over $150,000 this year in our county revenues."
"I'm calling upon you this morning, and why it was so important that I get in front of you to say, we need some help. We need you guys to intervene and to help us recover from this pretty significant blow we're experienced over the last year, year and a half," Steele added.
Steele referenced the impacts from wildfires in and around Lake Chelan this summer and Chelan County's short term vacation rental ordinance adopted in August 2021.
"We've watched the volumes change and people's spending habits change," said Steele. "I would just mention, that would be remiss, I've had more that 12 individuals come to my office that are no longer able to rent their short term vacation rentals, they can't figure out why."
Steele pointed to what he called, an incredible value in making sure that the short term rental industry continues to flourish in a controlled and managed way, "because there is a direct correlation between the percentage that we're down in revenue to the regulated amount of short term vacation rentals in Chelan County."
"One of the things that Leavenworth and Lake Chelan was always been proud of is that we generated and still do, more tourism spending per capita than any other county in the whole of Washington State," Steele asserted. "And when you all decided a year and a half ago, two years ago to do what you did with vacation rentals, I was actually at a statewide conference when the announcement was made and people were shocked that the leading county in tourism had made such a drastic decision."
"A woman who graduated with my father in 1968 came to my office in tears because the vacation rental she has relied on for 20 years as income for her retirement was not allowed to continue." Steele shared. "This is someone who is not new to the community, this is not someone who bought a home and decided to flip it and make it an investment property. This is someone who literally planned their retirement on the basis of having this property in the middle of their orchard to be able to generate some revenue, and in turn by the way benefits my community."
"This is a problem that needs to be addressed," added Steele. "I'm a huge advocate of private property rights, and I believe anytime the government gets involved in taking rights from you, we should all be a little concerned about that."
A business owner himself, Chelan County Commissioner Shon Smith said, "Seeing your great idea get capitalized on by somebody else and then all of a sudden your pie is cut as well, is a very hard one to stomach."
"It's a weird phenomena for us, it's nothing we've experienced before. As we all know Leavenworth and Lake Chelan in this county are the major generators of tourism dollars," continued Steele. "This summer continues to be solid, in terms of traffic. Our city revenues are not down by any stretch, so that's been a good thing for us."
In commenting on the effects of the Pioneer Fire, Steele said, "These folks in Stehekin have lost an entire season and normally the Chamber would step up and spend, but we don't have the money to spend. We have a plan on how we help Stehekin in the fall so that they come back in a very robust way."
County commissioner Tiffany Gering responded with an idea of potential assistance saying, "The lodging tax committee is also working on reserves and bringing a proposal to the board. We're going to have that conversation in September and the goal is to have those recommendations made to the board by the beginning of October." Lodging tax revenues that are generated through hotel and motel taxes paid by visitors.
"There are a lot of bright spots in Lake Chelan, we're a resilient community, we are a resilient valley, we pull together when we have to." "We're really proud of the work that the (Chelan) city council is preparing to do with us because they can see the need and they understand that we are struggling to make decisions that are going to benefit our members and our members are coming in on a daily basis to explain the struggles they've experienced."
Steele says the chamber and its businesses are working with the city of Chelan to try to figure out how to bring in more revenues by potentially planning more events in the fall to bring in visitors.
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