Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
The Dalles City Council met in a marathon 4 and a half hour session last night. The majority of the meeting was devoted to public testimony about a proposed new ordinance regulating short-term rentals in The Dalles. Local residents in several cases have complained about noise, parking and safety problems, but 10 owners of short-term rentals showed up to testify against some of its provisions, and councilors did make adjustments on some of the details in the ordinance. They lowered a requirement on minimum separation from another short-term rental from 500 feet to 300 feet, dropped a requirement that contact information for the owner should be posted on the outside of the house. The ordinance will be back for final passage at a meeting in the near future.
Acting as a contract review board, councilors awarded a $1.9 million dollar contract for storm drainage and sidewalk improvements on East 12th Street between Thompson and Richmond Streets. Low bidder was Crestline Construction of The Dalles.
They also voted on adjusting language in the city’s transient room tax. It was primarily a housekeeping measure removing outdated references, and incorporating updates due to changes passed by the legislature. It did not raise the tax, but it did raise the interest charged for late payments from 1 to 3 percent. It also changes the name from transient room tax or TRT to transient lodging tax or TLT.
Councilors adopted a model ordinance adding new requirements for any construction in a flood plain. This is a mandatory requirement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA. The alternative was to ban any new construction in a floodplain. And if the city hadn’t acted on a very short deadline, FEMA threatened to withdraw federal flood insurance from the city and said the city would not be eligible for any FEMA disaster relief money.
That will also involve adopting new flood plain maps for the county., which haven’t been updated since 1984. County Planning Directory Josh Chandler describes the changes:
“This process started in 2014, and is expected to be complete in late 2025, early 2026. The 1984 map has 155 properties within The Dalles urban growth boundaries are identified within the flood plain. Once the maps are adopted, 122 more will be added and 22 will be removed, so there’s an overall impact of about 300 properties.”
And they approved a new intergovernmental agreement allowing Northern Wasco PUD to rejoin the city and county in as a partner in Q-Life.