Limits on rentals win approval
The Santa Monica City Council votes to back rules that would block full-time vacation rentals. Above, Jennifer Kennedy supports limits.
Tough new rules to rein in short-term rentals took a big step forward in Santa Monica.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to support regulations that would block full-time vacation rentals in the beach city, while imposing new regulations on people who want to rent out a spare bedroom or backyard cottage. A final, largely procedural, vote probably will come next month.
The measure is the toughest yet in Southern California to regulate the booming industry, which is growing fast on the back of online platforms such as Airbnb. While popular with tourists and “hosts” who earn spare cash by renting rooms, short-term rentals have drawn the ire of some neighborhood groups and of housing advocates, who say scarce apartments are being taken off the residential market to rent out to tourists.
City staff found 1,700 homes advertised in Santa Monica on three major short-term rental websites, and say about 1,400 of those would be banned by the new regulations. The rules permit “home-sharing” — arrangements in which the property owner stays on site — as long as the hosts get a city business license and pay Santa Monica’s 14% occupancy tax. They would block “vacation rentals,” arrangements in which property owners are not present — a bid, city officials say, to preserve housing stock.
“It’s important that we focus our enforcement on people who have apartment buildings and are basically turning them into hotels,” said Councilwoman Sue Himmerlich.
Although the council’s vote was unanimous, sentiment in the room was anything but.
Public comment on the measure ran for 2 1/2 hours, with about 60 speakers split evenly for and against the new rules.
Too many apartments are being taken off the market to rent to visitors, said Jennifer Kennedy, a member of Santa Monica’s Planning Commission.
“It really pits resident dollars against tourist dollars,” she said. “Residents can’t win that competition.”
But several hosts said it is cash from renting to tourists that enables them to stay in pricey Santa Monica. Cortland Connell started renting his one-bedroom apartment on Airbnb last year after losing a job.
“I was able to cover my rent while I was out of work,” he said. “It saved me from financial catastrophe.”
Absent from the debate, at least on Tuesday, were the hosting services themselves.
Airbnb had no one at the meeting but issued a statement Wednesday calling the measure “unnecessarily restrictive” and criticizing provisions that would require hosting services to share address, rent and other personal data with the city.
In an interview Wednesday, Carl Shepherd, cofounder of vacation rental site Homeaway, said the proposed rules would hurt vacation property owners who have invested in and run good units. And they would be very hard to enforce.
“This law is the equivalent of a 3-year-old closing their eyes and saying, ‘I want it to go away,’ ” he said.
Still, some on Tuesday said the city was trying to strike the right balance.
Andrew Nicholas has made about $7,000 each of the last two years renting space in his downtown Santa Monica apartment. The cash helps him live close to work, and he meets lots of interesting travelers. He was glad to hear that, as long as he stays in his place, he can keep renting it.
“I’m pro-Airbnb,” he said. “And I’m pro this law.”