Is party over for unruly short-term rentals?
Occupancy limits, noise meters part of the new proposal
Short-term rental homes in places like Temecula Valley Wine Country would have to limit sleepover guests and install noise meters in a sweeping overhaul of Riverside County rules targeting so-called party houses.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider updating the county’s shortterm rental ordinance, which applies to unincorporated communities. The proposed changes touch on a long-running, sensitive issue involving property owners’ livelihoods and neighborhood tranquility.
Some of the county’s most popular tourist destinations, including wine country and Idyllwild/Pine Cove, are unincorporated areas where the county has land-use authority. Shortterm
rentals also are popular with those attending the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio.
For years, residents of unincorporated areas have complained about raucous, late-night revelry, mainly on weekends, at short-term rental houses advertised on websites such as AirBnb and Vrbo for guests seeking a getaway or a venue for weddings, family reunions and other events.
The parties disrupt sleep, gobble up neighborhood parking and leave trashstrewn lawns in their wake, residents said. Those living in rural, wildfire-prone areas worry a wildfire could lead to panic-stricken guests clogging narrow escape routes.
Rental owners registered with the county say they want to be good neighbors and don’t condone disruptive guests. But they argue the problem isn’t with them, but with unregistered rentals that don’t follow the rules now.
While about 1,000 rentals are currently registered,
officials estimate as many as 2,000 or 3,000 operate illegally in the county.
The county has hired a private company, Deckard Technologies, to handle online short-term rental permits and search online listings for unlicensed properties with the goal of getting them licensed.
The new rules raise rental permit fees with automatic 4% annual increases. The initial fee would go from $250 to $740, while renewals would cost $540 instead of $100.
A request attached to the revised short-term ordinance would set aside 50% of transient occupancy tax revenue generated by rentals to pay for rental enforcement efforts. Another request asks county officials to study a cap on the number of rentals in wine country and Idyllwild.
The revised ordinance also limits those who can stay at a rental to two guests per bedroom plus an additional guest or 10 people in total, whichever is less.
“Responsible operators” can have up to 16 people if they file paperwork with the county’s building and safety department. Rentals with at least five bedrooms located on at least five acres also could potentially have up to 16 occupants.
Alexandra DeCarlo, who owns several rentals in Temecula Valley Wine Country and is a member of a vacation rental owners’ group, has opposed occupancy limits, saying they would cost her bookings and that the limits don’t solve the problem of large groups showing up for a party.
Rentals would have to install on-site noise monitors on the inside and outside. Owners also would have to post a sign outside the rental with a 24-hour phone number for callers to report problems.
DeCarlo in March said the signs could encourage break-ins by thieves looking for unoccupied homes.
The new rules include a “three strikes” provision that could revoke a rental’s certificate if it gets three separate violation notices from code enforcement. Rentals could be fined $1,000 for their first violation, $3,000 for a second offense within a year of the first one and $5,000 for each additional offense within a year of the first citation.
Within the past year, code enforcement officers have started working at night and on weekends.
A special team of code enforcement officers is now focused on party house complaints as they happen, and the county also has a 24-hour call center with a live operator to handle complaint calls and send out code enforcement or sheriff’s deputies, according to a county report on the rules changes.