Though its economy relies heavily on tourism, San Diego doesn\u2019t have rules on the books that directly address vacation rentals.
\nCity Councilman Chris Cate and Councilwoman Lorie Zapf want to change that. Cate plans to propose new city rules clarifying that San Diegans can rent out their homes or individual rooms for up to 30 days and giving those who do a handful of new mandates.
\nAmong those requirements would be to have vacation rental hosts \u2013 whether they use Airbnb or another service \u2013 post contact information for a local person who could handle neighbors\u2019 complaints and list their city tax certificate number on websites where they advertise their property.
\nCate\u2019s proposal would also allow the city to reach an agreement with Airbnb or other vacation rental platforms to have those companies collect and pay taxes, an option he said the city\u2019s current rules don\u2019t allow.
\nCate\u2019s measure also aims to give the city more room to police hosts who allow more than a dozen guests to stay in a single apartment or home, a practice that angers homeowners in some beach communities.
\nZapf, who chairs the City Council\u2019s land use subcommittee, announced earlier this month she would hold an April hearing to discuss updating the city\u2019s outdated vacation rental laws.
\nZapf said many of her constituents in Pacific Beach and Mission Beach \u2013 the two city neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of Airbnb rentals \u2013 have complained about unruly visitors and homeowners who have converted their properties into full-time rentals.
\n“You can just imagine living next door and the constant rotation of people coming and going,” said Zapf. “Some Pacific Beach residents who voiced concerns at a recent town council meeting were near tears,” she said.
\nZapf learned of Cate\u2019s work on the issue when Voice of San Diego contacted her office about the city\u2019s Airbnb crackdown two weeks ago. The two have since met to talk about their respective work on the issue.
\nBut the two are approaching the issue from opposite ends of the spectrum \u2013 with Zapf trying to alleviate concerns of aggrieved neighbors who complain about short-term renters and Cate working to clarify the rules for those renting out their homes.
\nZapf said her office has been researching vacation rental enforcement elsewhere, particularly in beach communities, and is waiting on more neighborhood input before proposing new guidelines. Pacific Beach residents are set to discuss the issue again March 3.
\nA spokeswoman for Zapf\u2019s office said Friday the Council\u2019s land use subcommittee will likely discuss Cate\u2019s proposal at its April meeting.
\nCate\u2019s announcement follows months of confusion among local Airbnb hosts. The city has been mailing letters to dozens of hosts, informing them they\u2019ll need to charge hotel bed taxes, and in some cases, owe back taxes on past stays. It also threatened a Burlingame woman with up to $250,000 in penalties if she continued to rent out two rooms through Airbnb.
\nThe city\u2019s actions left hosts even more confused, especially since Airbnb doesn\u2019t allow them to collect taxes directly. Airbnb, which hosts more than 3,100 San Diego rentals, collects payments from guests and doesn\u2019t currently give hosts a straightforward way to collect the city\u2019s required 11 percent tax.
\nThat\u2019s not the case in cities such as San Francisco, which last week collected tens of millions of dollars in back taxes from Airbnb rather than hosts. The website has also started paying hotel bed taxes in San Francisco and a couple other cities.
\nSan Diego\u2019s mishmash of regulations spurred Cate to create the new rules.
\n“Some of the ordinances were adopted 40 to 50 years ago, and (they) just left a lot to the imagination in terms of how folks who want to rent out their properties on a short-term basis would have to comply with the law,” Cate said.
\nIt should be easy for vacation rental hosts who want to follow the law to figure out what they need to do, he said.
\nCate said his proposal doesn\u2019t include stepped-up enforcement for vacation rental owners who aren\u2019t following the new rules. Cate said he hopes Zapf and residents will lead the conversation about penalties.
\nAn Airbnb spokesman welcomed potential reforms.
\n“San Diegans deserve clear, fair laws that make it easy for people to share their homes while contributing to the community \u2013 and the council\u2019s decision to begin considering new regulation is a welcome sign of progress,” spokesman Christopher Nulty said in a statement.
\nThe new rules, if approved, could bolster talks between the city and Airbnb.
\nNulty described conversations with the city treasurer\u2019s office as “productive” but didn\u2019t comment on whether Airbnb might pay back taxes to the city or when the startup might make it easier for local hosts to pay city taxes.
\nA city spokeswoman didn\u2019t elaborate much more when I asked whether San Diego could seek back taxes from the company, as San Francisco officials did successfully last week.
\n“The city of San Diego code is very different from the city of San Francisco\u2019s,” city spokeswoman Amelia Brazell said in an email. “We are currently monitoring those developments and working towards a solution that meets our laws but continues to welcome new and innovative technologies.”
\nLisa Halverstadt is a reporter at Voice of San Diego. Know of something she should check out? You can contact her directly at lisa@vosd.org or (619) 325-0528.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Though its economy relies heavily on tourism, San Diego doesn\u2019t have rules on the books that directly address vacation rentals. City Councilman Chris Cate and Councilwoman Lorie Zapf want to change that. Cate plans to propose new city rules clarifying that San Diegans can rent out their homes or individual rooms for up to 30 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":257869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Zapf, Cate working to amend vacation rental laws","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}