Are lenders still “bullish” on Seaside real estate?

Yes, said Tara Jarrett, branch manager of Seaside’s U.S. Bank. “I’ve done a lot of refinancing and lending to the local community which has been a lot of fun,” she said. “I’m always just super excited to save people money and get them out of debt, so that’s what drives me.”

Jarrett’s visit to the Seaside Housing Task Force, a committee chaired by City Councilor Steve Wright, came as the city wrestled with an array of concerns, from vacation rental dwelling regulations to shelter for the homeless.

Residential housing is “very strong‚” in Seaside, she said.

Lenders “love apartment complexes,” she said. “Anything over a fourplex is commercial. And so that is something that they are heavily looking into and want to lend on.”

Lending for hotels is tighter, Jarrett said, largely because of the pandemic. “It depends on the deal and where we are and how it fits,” Jarrett said.

Lending for restaurants, especially equipment financing, is also strong.

Committee member Erin Barker, a property manager, suggested creating a link between city resources and banks to navigate funding to increase the number and availability of residential apartments.

“We all agree we need apartment complexes and funding,” she said.

Barker suggested a liaison between contractors through the building and planning department to find grant programs and other sources of funding. “I feel as a group, that’s something we need to look at.”

For now, changes to vacation rental rules to create additional affordable housing will remain unchanged.

In its Jan. 31 council meeting, the city tabled a motion to place a moratorium on vacation rental dwellings as a means of preserving affordable housing.

The city has six new VRD applications and 396 total transient rental units, according to a report presented by Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Flory.

Since 2015, VRD business licenses have been issued to 474 individual addresses in Seaside. Of those addresses, 346 are still permitted or pending VRD conditional use permits. Since 2015, 128 addresses have given up their permits and are no longer operating as short-term rentals.

Data from the Seaside report shows a 1.5% growth in 10 years.

“From the City Council standpoint, I think we said we’re tabling the notion of having a moratorium and we’ll continue to leave it in the Planning Commission’s hands,” Wright said at the housing meeting.

“My perception of it is that Seaside has one of the strongest sets of policies to control this and to keep it reasonable,” Wright said. “They’re not necessarily onerous rules, but it gives us a standard that everybody has to live up to. The places that are having a lot of problems just don’t have that. Anybody can do anything.”

To address housing needs, Wright suggested area and state coalitions to pursue common regional goals.

“There are no easy solutions,” Wright said. “We need to continue doing whatever little things we can find to do, and that would include financing. ”

The task force meets the first Monday of each month.

Future task force meetings will host Cannon Beach development director Jeff Adams, Rep. Suzanne Weber and representatives of the Tillamook Housing Authority.