Does the increasingly popular practice of renting property in residential areas to short-term vacationers add unwanted noise and trash, reduce parking and create havoc in otherwise placid neighborhoods? Or does it inject excitement and new perspectives, exposing neighborhoods to far-flung voyagers and cultures, benefiting businesses with more customers and providing a badly needed second income to property owners? Regardless of where you stand, the effort to regulate the practice is about to kick into high gear. A draft ordinance that seeks to both define the enterprise and rein in its perceived abuses has had its first hearing by the San Diego Planning Commission. On Dec. 3, the city Planning Commission directed city staff to return to them Jan. 28 with an entirely new set of proposed regulations for Short Term Vacation Rentals.
\nThe Ocean Beach Planning Board, which recently sent a letter to District 2 San Diego City Councilmember Lorie Zapf calling for strict limits on the practice, also discussed the issue at its monthly meeting on Dec. 2.
\nIn recent years, online rental services such as Airbnb or VRBO have allowed property owners to rent out their homes and condos to short-term occupants. Predictably, the practice has become especially popular in neighborhoods adjacent to the coast, such as Ocean Beach.
\nZapf, who has overseen development of the ordinance in her role as chair of the City Council\u2019s Smart Growth and Land Use Committee, favors imposing a minimum stay of 21 days for whole-home rentals in single-family zones. Her office has stressed, however, the ordinance is still considered a work in progress.
\nInstead of a duration limit, the board has called for placing a 3 percent limit on the number of all city residential units \u2013 both in single- and multi-family zones \u2013 that could be allowed for use as vacation rentals.
\n“It\u2019s time for Ocean Beach to take a stance,” said board chairman John Ambert before the board voted unanimously to approve the letter at its November meeting.
\nIf the ordinance only applies to single-family zones, most of Ocean Beach \u2013 where multifamily zones dominate \u2013 would go unregulated, Ambert said.
\nNot addressing multifamily zones is “particularly troubling, given the number of renters we have in Ocean Beach,” Ambert said. “The more short-term vacation rentals, the less opportunity for long-term renters. It will exacerbate the affordability of housing.”
\nWithout saturation limits, it could become too easy for property owners to turn homes into short-term rentals \u2013 displacing families, driving up rents and property values, encouraging real estate speculation and degrading community character, board members said.
\nSome even wondered out loud if the practice may have fueled the need to terminate two teachers at Ocean Beach Elementary School, where enrollment is down more than 15 percent since last year.
\n“What we\u2019re worried about is losing our neighborhoods,” vice chairman Blake Herrschaft said.
\nAs for “homesharing,” the practice of renting a room to a vacationer while the owner lives on premises, both Zapf and the board agree the practice should be permitted to continue with minor restrictions. The draft ordinance calls for a limit of two boarders per home at any given time and for the homeowner to provide one parking spot for boarders.
\nIn addition to the 3 percent saturation limit \u2013 which was inspired by a law recently approved in Austin, Texas \u2013 the letter also calls for an annual licensing fee, with the proceeds earmarked for code enforcement resources.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Does the increasingly popular practice of renting property in residential areas to short-term vacationers add unwanted noise and trash, reduce parking and create havoc in otherwise placid neighborhoods? Or does it inject excitement and new perspectives, exposing neighborhoods to far-flung voyagers and cultures, benefiting businesses with more customers and providing a badly needed second income […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Ocean Beach planners urge strict limits for short-term vacation rentals","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11593,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-no-images","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297809","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=297809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}