Why a cap below the current count matters differently

A cap set above the existing number is a growth limit. A cap set below it is a reduction programme, and the mechanism of reduction is what determines who loses what.

Lincoln County's programme is the Oregon template, and it works by attrition: licences are not transferable when a property changes hands, so the count falls as properties sell. Licences there have gone from roughly 502 at adoption in February 2023 to 427 on the county's current table, against 164 allowed, with a design target of 181 and a waiting list.³

If Cannon Beach follows that pattern, an owner who sells does not pass the licence to the buyer, and the property's rental income stops at closing. That is a disclosure question for every sale in the city, and for every association in it.

What this means for an Oregon board's own position

An association has no standing derived from its covenants in a municipal licensing decision, and no ability to preserve a member's licence.

That was settled for Oregon on August 12, 2026, when the Court of Appeals held in Briggs v. Lincoln County that short-term rental licensing is business licensing rather than land use — so there is no LUBA jurisdiction, no special statutory notice to affected owners under ORS 215.503, and no nonconforming-use protection under ORS 215.130(5).⁴

The two systems run side by side and neither substitutes for the other. A member may hold a valid city licence and still breach the declaration. A member may comply fully with the declaration and be unable to obtain a licence. An association enforcing a rental restriction is doing so alongside the city's regime, not instead of it.

Where a board does have a role is in disclosure and in planning. Our Oregon short-term rentals page covers the covenant analysis, and our Oregon resale and disclosure page covers what an association owes a buyer.

The wider coastal picture

Dunes City, in Lane County, has Measure 20-386 on the November 3, 2026 ballot. It would prohibit new short-term rental permits entirely and rewrite the rules for existing ones: the roughly 29 permitted rentals could renew only if an on-site host lives in the home permanently and is present during every guest visit. The city's own registry currently lists 28 permitted rentals. A Dunes City Property Rights Coalition political action committee opposes it, noting that permitted rentals already pay 5 percent of gross revenue to the city.⁵

Hood River has already tested its rules in federal court and won twice. Its ordinances permit a rental in a residential zone only as an accessory use to a dwelling that is someone's primary residence, capped at ninety days a year, and a 2024 amendment lets a long-term tenant on a lease of at least twelve months satisfy the residency condition. The district court upheld them in March 2025; the Ninth Circuit affirmed on July 20, 2026.

Bend takes the density route rather than the cap route: “There must be 500 feet of separation between whole-house short term rental properties that will be rented more than 30 days per year or more than four (4) rental periods.” Notably, permit-exempt properties include Mount Bachelor Village, Broken Top and Deschutes Landing — themselves master-planned association communities. Fees run to $3,840.31 plus a 4 percent surcharge for a Type II land use permit, with a 10.4 percent room tax.⁶

What to watch next

October 6. If the council adopts, the questions that follow are the ones Lincoln County has already answered in practice: whether licences are transferable on sale, how the reduction from 195 to 165 is sequenced, and whether the exclusion zones east of Highway 101 map onto particular subdivisions.

An owner in a Cannon Beach association who relies on rental income has a stake in that meeting, and a board can expect the disclosure questions that will follow it.