About STRACC
The Short-Term Rental Alliance of Chelan County (STRACC) is a coalition of homeowners, property managers, and affiliated individuals and businesses dedicated to maintaining a positive experience for property owners, visitors, and our neighbors. STRACC represents, supports, and protects residential vacation rentals by setting standards of practice and ethics and by working with elected officials, government staff, and the media on issues that affect the industry.
Our Mission
The mission STRACC is to maximize the benfits of short-term rentals as a necessary, valuable and important part of Chelan County tourism, by encouraging encourage cooperation among our members, our neighbors, our communities, and Chelan County.
Our Approach & Vision
With the changes that have occurred in travel over the last decade, families want to vacation in the beautiful areas of Chelan County and many prefer to stay in homes. As such, short-term rentals (STRs) are a vital and necessary part of the growing tourism industry in Chelan County. STRACC is dedicated to working with the county to protect the wonderful quality of life in our communities, a vibrant tourism industry, and the ability of homeowners to use their properties in a safe and responsible manner.
Chelan County & Short-Term Rentals: A Collaborative Approach |
OUR HISTORY
Short-term Rentals (STRS) started in Chelan County in the late 1980’s and have coexisted peacefully since then. Over the course of that time there have been several times where the subject of regulation was brought up and each time the (Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) chose not to regulate. Many of us were involved in each of the battles. In 2017 an informal group of property managers began meeting to propose options to the STR issues in our county. We met with each Commissioner individually. In May 2019, STRACC was officially formed to strengthen our voices and to use our collective knowledge and resources to defend the right to rent a home on a short term basis in Chelan County. Since the formation of STRACC the board has met with each commissioner to discuss options, fair regulation and enforcement. In 2019 the BoCC chose to not accept the planning commissions recommendation and wanted to go back to the table again. They hired Berk Consulting to help them with the process. During 2020, the STRACC board has tried to work with the BoCC offering compromise and options, including our support for strong code language that penalizes or removes repeat offenders of legitimate nuisance complaints as well our willingness to help fund law enforcement and creating an STR registry through a modest tax increase. The last meeting was with Bob Bugert, Sheriff Brian Burnett and Community development leader Jim Brown. The meeting went well with discussing code that would be enforceable by the sheriff and not onerous on the STR owner. Code that would actually work to solve the nuisance and neighborhood issues that are out there. There was great support from the Director and Sheriff but it was obvious Bob Bugert had made up his mind.
STRACC Executive Board
Chair - Denae Poss Secretary - Don MacKenzie Treasurer - Sean Reid At-Large Members of the Board
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