Tuesday, May 17: City Council Expected to Approve Short Term Rental Regulations for San Diego

Known short-term rental complex on Abbott Street in OB. The building once held affordable units.

Today, Tuesday, May 17, the San Diego City Council will make history by voting in new regulations for short term vacation rentals. It’s been a long haul — some say 7 years the battle over STVRs has been going on in the city.

Once the the Coastal Commission approved the new rules by a 12-0 vote in March of this year, it was a green light for Jen Campbell’s proposal to go back before council for its final approval.

Campbell, in fact, at this moment, is out in Mission Beach celebrating its passage. Mission Beach is special for Campbell, as it gets a “carve out” with a 30% cap of the neighborhood’s housing units, which is about 1,100 STRs for that area.

Under the new regulations, whole-home rentals will be capped at 1% of the city’s total 540,000 housing units. Altogether, about 6,500 licenses will be available. Two-year licenses will be allocated through a lottery system with only one allowed per person. The new rules could go into effect as early as this fall.

There would be no limit on the number of licenses given out to anyone who wants to rent out their whole home for less than 20 days per year or to anyone who wants to rent out just part of their home.

As part of the plan, all those STVRs not in compliance and for all those property owners who don’t get licenses, all those residential units should theoretically return to the market. And with the market flooded with all those units now available for long-term rents, the average rent per unit should drop … right? Don’t hold your breath.

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A former lawyer and current grassroots activist, I have been editing the Rag since Patty Jones and I launched it in Oct 2007. Way back during the Dinosaurs in 1970, I founded the original Ocean Beach People’s Rag - OB’s famous underground newspaper -, and then later during the early Eighties, published The Whole Damn Pie Shop, a progressive alternative to the Reader.

7 thoughts on “Tuesday, May 17: City Council Expected to Approve Short Term Rental Regulations for San Diego

  1. The obrag of all places, should know better than to repeat Campbell’s unfounded claim that this will return long-term housing stock.

    1. Neither the city nor coastal commission at any point made a determination of the number of current operations that fit her Tier 3/4 definitions.

      The numbers they used for comparison was the total count of every listing in the city, regardless of booking frequency, property and host criteria, multiplied by an 80% assumption. 3rd party data showed this to be grossly incorrect.

    2. I thought it was obvious I was being sarcastic. Next time, I’ll add “s*” for sarcasm warning.

      1. I didn’t see any sarcasm in this statement:

        “As part of the plan, all those STVRs not in compliance and for all those property owners who don’t get licenses, all those residential units should theoretically return to the market. “

  2. “About 6,500 licenses will be available.”
    Where do you think those units will predominantly be? Jen Campbell ignored community recommendations to regulate STVRs in our district, she refused to listen. Vote her out!

    Tell her why you will not vote for her May 18th at the Liberty Station Conference Center at 7pm:
    https://fb.me/e/3b3vF4Iqy

    1. 6,500 licenses!! When this was first proposed that number was 3,500. This is f&*king insanity.

  3. Since I don’t trust anything this slimy politician does…she certainly is a piece of work, eh? But yes maybe a S/ tag is needed to make sure people don’t get the wrong idea!

    By the way, that 1% of the city thing should be a 1% of an entire neighborhood but I imagine they aren’t talking about that. 1% of OB housing, 1% of MB housing etc etc sounds much more ‘neighborhood’ building but then it seems that it’s the investment firms and hedgefunds and LLCs that are buying up housing all across the country in huge gulps (entire neighborhoods) and boy are they politically powerful having bought enough politicians to do their bidding.

    It’s all about maximizing profits not human needs and equitable wealth distribution. Nope, I wouldn’t hold my breath either!

    I really hope she gets voted out. But then tweedledum keeps being replaced by tweedledee…

    sealintheSelkirks

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