This Tuesday night, the OB Planning Board will review proposed changes to the Short-Term Rental Ordinance. This review is in anticipation that the San Diego City Council also plans to review the ordinance in May.
And at the Pacific Beach Town Council meeting on Feb. 21, there were discussions on ways to close loopholes that let property owners violate the spirit of the law. PB Monthly reporter Madison Beveridge wrote up an account of PB community member Iain Richardson presentation on the impact of short-term rentals in and around Pacific Beach at that meeting.
Richardson said that since the ordinance passed in 2021, no major changes have been reflected and what was stated in the city’s initial press release is not the full picture or reality. He said:
“Currently, in Mission Beach, 30 percent of all housing units are full-time vacation rentals. But how is this really going? Well, as of Dec. 2, 2023, there are 8,000 rentals in San Diego. A great deal of those are full-home rentals. There has been a lot of growth in this, but most of the growth has been in Pacific Beach.”
Here is the rest of Beveridge’s report:
The problem, according to Richardson, is that the laws and rules outlined in the ordinance are not being followed. When units are not rented, they sit vacant, waiting for the next round of visitors to come, he said. When a host or owner is not living on the rental property, it increases the likelihood that the unit will be used for parties.
“Here in the coastal area, we continue to be the favorite destination. In Pacific Beach, there are around 900 rentals where they are full-time, so no one is living there unless it is being rented,” Richardson said.
In Pacific Beach, noise, litter and disrespect to the region are top concerns for Richardson and other residents.
“A recommendation we have is to limit whole-home rentals by planning area,” he said. “The city cap can stay the same, but areas like Pacific Beach should have a maximum whole-home rental number of no more than 2 percent. With these whole-home units, too much housing for residents is going away.”
If this suggestion is accepted by the City Council during its May review of the ordinance, roughly 1,000 units would be returned to the open housing stock, Richardson said.
“That is a huge amount of housing when the city is desperately short of housing of all kinds,” Richardson said. “If you return these housing units to the city, it takes the pressure off of having to build affordable housing.”
Another factor is the cap of units that an owner can have a license to rent.
According to the ordinance, any owner renting for less than 30 days is allowed one license, for one unit.
“The culprit of this issue is the ghost host,” Richardson said, explaining a ghost host allows loopholes in property rentals. That is when an owner finds someone, such as a family member or friend, willing to use their information to “host” the home on a site such as Airbnb or VRBO. This allows the owner to have well over the one allowed short-term property listing.
“Another part of all this is bad actors and enforcement,” he said. “If you have a problem property, with lots of parties, the city can revoke the license. But if I own that property, I can just get a new host.”
According to Richardson, the host loses the license, not the property owner.
Richardson’s recommendation is for the ordinance to be changed so that the city can revoke the license from the property owner, not the host listed on the rental site.
Richardson said that he, along with community members from Ocean Beach, Mission Beach and beyond, plan to continue analyzing the situation so they can present the city with a sound solution for rentals. Their goal is to present their findings to city officials prior to the council’s May review.
In other business, police Lt. Matthew Botkin introduced himself as a newcomer to San Diego Police Department’s Northern Division, which covers Pacific Beach.
“I like to be responsible ahead of time,” Botkin said, before explaining his primary pledge is to offer locals a family-friendly and clean beach experience this summer.
Government representatives also shared efforts in response to the recent storms and the surge of flooding.
“Our communities were hit very hard, our team has been on the ground for the past several weeks making sure our residents have the resources they need,” said Emily Piatanesi, speaking on behalf of Mayor Todd Gloria’s office.
Here is a statement by Ian Richardson and his pal Charlie Nieto about his presentation at the PBTC how changes to the City’s STRO could add hundreds of more affordable housing units across San Diego and increase housing availability in worst affected areas.
Advocates of changes to the City’s May 2021 Ordinance regulating Vacation Rentals described in detail how proposed changes could improve housing availability and affordability at Wednesday’s Pacific Beach Town Council meeting.
Though the ordinance implemented a city-wide cap on Short Term Residential Occupancy (STRO) licenses, just a few areas have seen the majority of actvity. For example, Pacific Beach has lost over 4% of its housing to whole-home vacation rentals and Ocean Beach a massive 6%.
This housing would be enough for over 3,000 long term residents in these two areas alone.
Across the city, just 13 areas exceed the city-wide cap by a staggering 1,800 units of housing. A 2% cap on licenses by planning area could see more than 1,000 housing units returned to long term use in the affected areas.
The Ordinance has also allowed some apartment buildings to be converted into “Apartment-hotels” using STRO licenses. Long term residents have been evicted. These units are generally smaller than other rentals and more affordable. By closing loopholes in the Ordinance and limiting licenses to a maximum of 25% of a property’s units, over 500 more affordable units could be returned to long term housing across the City.
Kevin Hastings from Ocean Beach, interviewed by Fox 5’s Jaime Chambers, said “If the City is serious about housing, then they need to get serious about this issue.”
The City Council is expected to review the STRO Ordinance in May 2024 and changes could be implemented thereafter.
For more inform contact Iain Richardson — icr64@yahoo.com — or Charlie Nieto — charlienieto06@gmail.com.
One of the key issues so far over-looked is the moral and economic injustices of short term rentals. While 10 percent of the STR owners rake in 53 percent of the revenues (mostly in Council Districts 1, 2, and 3), the ratio of K-12 homeless children in Council Districts 4, 8, and 9 is three times greater than for Districts 1, 2, and 3. The intent of the regulations was that licenses not convey when property is sold, and yet, according to Matt Wood in the City of San Diego STRO, the host concept, mostly likely negotiated by AirBnB, allows just that. This puts property value in play for STRs, resulting in an artificially high value that reflects the higher rents and revenues for STRs (four to eight times the equivalent rate for long term rentals). Eliminate hosts or ghost hosts. Lastly, add penalties to platforms for advertising unlicensed STR owners. This will substantially decrease enforcement costs.
Thanks for this information.
I have never, and will never, use a short term rental platform.
Their growth, and the overall cost increase since I came to Ocean Beach in 2010, are pricing me out.
At my advanced age, it’s quite something to have to relocate to a less expensive state and town, but I am laying plans to do so now.
I live next to an AirBNB and it sucks, especially in the summer. Is there no organization that is lobbying our city to stop the growth of short-term rentals? Other CA cities have outlawed them entirely. https://www.unfairbnb.net/airbnb-bans1