Mission Beach residents resent being “carved out” of the mayor’s compromise short-term vacation rental proposal and want a seven-day, not a three-day, vacation-rental minimum stay requirement for their community.
“Don’t let Mission Beach become the epicenter of short-term vacation rentals in San Diego,” decried one of about 70 residents attending a July 9 special meeting of Mission Beach Precise Planning Board. 
The community meeting was called to discuss Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s recently released vacation-rental proposal, before the City Council re-hears the contentious issue on July 16. 
At the end of the special meeting, the planning board crafted a laundry list of recommendations to be presented to the mayor prior to the vacation-rental showdown at City Hall.
Coastal communities have significantly more short-term vacation rentals than inland areas, and Mission Beach has the highest percentage of such rentals — as much as 40 percent or more — of available housing units.
Faulconer released his much-anticipated new regulations on a compromise plan to reign-in short-term vacation rentals. His plan would require a three-night minimum stay for coastal and downtown communities. Rental owners would need to register with the City and pay an annual $949 fee, per-year, per rental. Monies collected would be used for enforcement of a new rental ordinance.
Under Faulconer’s proposal, a maximum of two licenses can be issued to a host: one for their primary residence and one additional license for a secondary residence. The primary residence could be rented out for up to six months per year, with the secondary residence available for year-round rental.
On July 9, Elyse Lowe, the City’s director of land use and economic development policy, broad-brushed the mayor’s proposal speaking before a mostly partisan crowd of Mission Beach residents opposed to Faulconer’s plan.
Lowe then fielded numerous questions from residents, who characterized Faulconer’s plan as being short-sighted and insensitive to the community’s needs. Residents argued Faulconer’s proposal “doesn’t solve the problems” of proliferating rentals in their community. 
During more than an hour of public testimony, Mission Beach residents argued vacation rentals had “gotten out of hand” during a decade or more of uncontrolled expansion.
“More is not better,” said Mary Wilmot. “I’m outraged by a city that puts the onus of vacation rentals on us here at Mission Beach and penalizes us. They have not done their jobs.”
Added Wilmot, “Nobody asked me or other residents in Mission Beach what we wanted. To carve us out is a form of discrimination.”
Mission Beach board members and residents alike at the special meeting characterized the proposed three-day minimum vacation-stay rental requirement as a “joke,” arguing such a short time period lends itself to renters only interested in partying at the expense of local residents.
Mission Beach Town Council president Gary Wonacott took issue with the “one on one” portion of the mayor’s plan.
“This primary plus one [condition] is very misleading and is causing a lot of confusion,” said Wonacott. “Is there any limit on the number of hosts? Can they be husband and wife?”
In previous comments following issuance of the mayor’s vacation-rental plan, Wonacott commented: “The mayor’s STRO proposal is a ruse, a plan to proliferate short-term vacation rentals all over the coastal communities, covered up by a very effective PR campaign.”  
Concerning the mayor’s proposed short-term plan, District 2 Councilmember Lorie Zapf said: “I share the concerns of the Mission Beach Planning Board and do not believe that the community should be excluded from the mayor’s draft proposal, with no host limits. I plan to request that the same citywide restrictions on hosts apply equally to Mission Beach, as they do to the rest of San Diego.”
Asked why Mission Beach was exempted from the mayor’s vacation-rental plan, Craig Gustafson, the mayor’s senior director of communications, replied, “There are no limitations on the number of licenses available to hosts within Mission Beach, given the long history of vacation rentals and unique character of the community.”
Giving his take on why Faulconer left Mission Beach out of his reform vacation-rental plan, Noah Mechanic, of Sea Breeze Vacation Rentals in La Jolla, said, “The reason it makes sense is that Mission Beach is very unique, with easy access from the freeway and safe, lifeguarded beaches with no rocks and a family friendly boardwalk.” 
Pointing out that Mission Beach “has more multi-family duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes than anywhere else on the coast,” Mechanic noted Faulconer’s proposal would be unfair to existing Mission Beach vacation-rental owners with multiple properties.
“If an owner had three or more rental units in one building, they could only get one permit under the mayor’s plan,” he said. “What about the other two (or more) units?”
Concluded Mechanic: “Mission Beach’s history and architecture is so unique that it deserves a carve out. It just does not fit into the rest of San Diego.”
Faulconer’s proposal is available at sandiego.gov/short-term-residential-occupancy.