Some coastal civic leaders and citizens argued enforcement regulations in the City’s new Short-Term Residential Ordinance, which took effect May 1 are flawed.

That message came across repeatedly during a 90-minute STRO Zoom enforcement community briefing presented by the City’s Development Services Department Code Enforcement Division (now called BLUE) on April 27.

“I really appreciate everything that you (City) are doing,” testified Janie Emerson, president of La Jolla Shores Association. “But you obviously have never lived near a party house. In many instances, you have people passing out in the middle of the street. This happens in the Shores on a regular basis. Calling the local contact, in most instances, they don’t even live here. They are not going to respond. This is not workable.”

“They (STR operators) understand that the party is over and that there are consequences for not following the rules, that their license, and the renewal of that license, is at stake,” replied Norma Medina, program manager for the City’s new STRO Enforcement Program.

Following the STRO Zoom meeting, Kevin Hastings, Ocean Beach Planning Board vice chair, said he concurred with criticism of the new ordinance’s shortcomings. “The tools to be made available to residents are encouraging, and give transparency on the STR licenses for once,” he said. “But the City’s enforcement plan is dead on arrival. This seemed to be the consensus of everyone in attendance, except city staff.”

Added Hastings: “The new STR enforcement staff will go home at 11 p.m., and have no staff at all on Monday and Tuesday.  And even when staffed, they are going to rely on SDPD to respond to loud parties and rely on code enforcement for illegal unit complaints. We already know those two mechanisms do not work. SDPD does not prioritize nuisance complaints and cannot respond in a timely manner. And code enforcement can take 6-12 months to address illegal construction. These failures were precisely the reasons for needing dedicated STR staff.”

Concluded Hastings: “The City is handcuffing themselves right out of the gate. Unless they restructure their enforcement strategy, it will be very difficult for them to confirm the biggest violations and hold irresponsible hosts and guests accountable. But at least they’ll be effective at making sure the font size on the signage is correct.”

“We’re going to be working very collaboratively with the City Attorney’s Office,” said Medina during a presentation on the new STRO Enforcement Program on April 27. “We’ll have a four-member investigation team starting on May 1, in addition to the City Attorney team, which will be providing support.”

Medina noted the initial schedule for enforcement teams implementing the STRO will be Wednesdays through Sundays from 1:30-11 p.m., with administrative support working Mondays through Fridays from 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

“The STRO team will reply to complaints with our own STR protocol in the Get It Done (City app), to make sure this is user-friendly,” said Medina. “The City is committed to working collaboratively with members of the community and the short-term rental industry. Our primary goal is always to achieve voluntary compliance.”

Medina said the STRO has 24 different possible code violations, which enforcement teams will be focusing on in evaluating licensed short-term rentals in legal, safe, and sanitary dwellings with proper permitting and no code violations.

There will also be an all-hours local contact designated who will be the first point of contact for anyone wishing to register an STRO violation complaint. “One of the most important ones (enforcement regulations) is whether the local contact is being responsive and actively taking action to resolve matters dealing with parking, trash, noise, and disturbances,” Medina said adding, “When the case (complaint) is closed, there will be a notification sent to the complainant telling them what the result was.”

Medina added the City will be sharing information with the San Diego Police Department, which she said will be “citing some of the nuisance properties” under the STRO. She added the complaint process will be “local contact first, then Get It Done (City app) and after 10 p.m., it will be the San Diego Police.”

“Nuisance is kind of vague, there is (supposed to be) no noise after the 10 p.m. period,” said PB resident Scott Chipman during an extensive Q&A session following the City’s initial presentation. He added: “I thought the entire reason for having an STRO enforcement team is that the police would not be called. We’re trying to avoid burdening the police. It makes more sense to have code enforcement calling the police.”

Responded Medina, “The host local contact is always the first person that should be contacted, and if the local contact did not respond in one hour, that is a violation of the STRO that we are going to be following up.”

“We’re in a better place than a year ago because we had nothing (then),” testified Larry Webb, president of Mission Beach Town Council. “If the local contact does not respond, and there’s going to be no investigation at the time, how is it going to be substantiated that they (local contact) did not respond and that there was a (code) violation?”

“This is a new ordinance, we have to test various methods,” responded Medina. “The City has the burden of proof. Determining whether our investigative methods are effective, I cannot answer that right now because we have to get started. We want to make sure that we are making a difference in the quality of life for everybody. It takes time.”

“The person who complains should be called,” contended Marcella Teran of Pacific Beach. “Otherwise, people are not going to feel like they’re being heard. And then people will stop calling.”

“When I called the (STR) owner, I was told to go to the devil,” said Tom Coats of Pacific Beach, who has lived next door to a problematic STR for years. “The system you have now is not going to work. I would suggest that the first call to the local contact should come from City staff, not from the citizens. The citizens should call the vacation rental hotline. The hotline should then call the local contact. This will allow you to verify when the call was made. A call coming out from the City to the local contact will have far more impact.”

STRO ORDINANCE REQUIREMENTS

The Short-Term Residential Ordinance now requires a license for all STRs of a dwelling unit, or part thereof, for less than one month within the City of San Diego. There are four license types with varying requirements on the number of days and type of dwelling available for the STR. A host may only hold one license and may not operate more than one dwelling unit for an STR at a time. Licenses are not transferable between ownership or location/dwelling unit.

A host may obtain a maximum of one license at a time in one of the following four STR license tiers: Tier 1 Part-Time – Rented for an aggregate of 20 days or less per year. The owner or permanent resident does not need to reside onsite during the STR; Tier 2 Home Sharing – Renting a room or rooms in the home for more than 20 days per year so long as the owner or permanent resident resides onsite; Tier 3 Whole Home (excluding Mission Beach) and Tier 4 (Mission Beach Whole Home) – Rentals for more than 20 days per year where the owner or permanent resident does not reside onsite. Guest two-night minimum stays are required both inside and outside Mission Beach for both Tiers 3 and 4. For more information, visit sandiego.gov/treasurer/short-term-residential-occupancy.