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Home My WebLink About11-12-2013 acrowley ss1Goodwin, Heather From: Sent: To: Subject: Attachments: Mejia, Anthony Tuesday, November L2,20L3 LL:L0 AM Goodwin, Heather FW: SSI- Vacation Rentals Study Session LL-L2-201-3.doc RECET\IËD NO\/ I 2 2013 5LÛ Cffi\'CLERII. AGENDA CORRESPONDENCEAnthony J. Mejia I City Clerk ctt;\, ()l s¡r: lu¡s (]lì:.9p(] -99o Palnr Slrnct San Luis 0bispo, CA g34or te I | 8u5.78':..7ror From: Johnson, Derek Sent: Tuesday, November L2,20L3 10:03 AM To: Mejia, Anthony Subject: Fwd: SS1 Vacation Rentals Sent lì'om nlr'Vc'r'zoll Wirclcss 4C L'l l:, Stnartphone Original message From: Sandra Rowley <macsar99@yahoo.com> Date: 1lll2l20l3 6:35 AM (GMT-08:00) To: "Johnson, Derek" <djohnson@slocity.org> Subject: SS1 Vacation Rentals Your copy, second try No\/ I 2 2013 RE CETVE D Residents for êuallty Nelghborüoods P,O. Box 12604 . San Luis Obispo, CA 93406 November 12,20L3 Dear Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, On November 6, 2013, the RQN Board voted unanimously to oppose any alteration or exceptions to the City's prohibition of vacation rentals - and to recommend Council uphold the current ban. Our vote came after discussions with staff, receiving a presentation from SLO Hosts, listening to comments from residents, and doing internet research. Our concerns include: L)the further commercialization of residential neighborhoods, 2)the effects a relaxation of home occupation requirements for this type of home business could have on existing and future home businesses, 3) the question of fairness in allowing the opportunity to pursue this business model to only a select few, and 4)the negative effects a decrease or elimination of uniform active enforcement could have on neighbor-to-neighbor relations and Neighborhood Wellness. The City currently allows certain business uses in residential neighborhoods, and disallows others. ln our opinion, adding in-home, short-term room rentals to the list of allowed uses would alter the balance of businesses that exist in residential neighborhoods and, in time, destroy their residential character. Changing in-home, short-term room rentals to an allowed use opens this business opportunity to residents who otherwise would not pursue it if it were prohibited. We believe adding this use would have an overall negative effect on Neighborhood Wellness. The operation of in-home, short-term room rentals should be viewed as a home occupation, not as residential rental property. They operate like a B&B or small hotel, and the homeowner functions as an innkeeper or hotelier. B&B lnnkeepers perform the following tasks: reservations and guest interaction; guest check-in/out; breakfast set-up, preparation and clean-up; maintenance of guest rooms and common areas: making beds, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, changing linens, laundry; grounds work and property maintenance. Hoteliers perform all of these tasks, except some do not provide breakfast. The primary differences between an in-home, short-term room rental and a B&B or small hotel appear to be the number of rooms available for rent and the location of the business, Also, everyone agrees that the proprietors of in-home, short-term room rentals should pay TOT, a business expense for B&B/hotel operators. Current home occupation permits restrict the number of customer visits (trips) to a home business, prohibit customer visits between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., and require that activities be conducted entirely within the dwelling, as well as require parking be provided for the business in addition to that required for the residence. For the in-home, short-term room rentals we are considering tonight, the number of trips to/from the residence cannot be regulated and the hours of operation are necessarily expanded past the allowable time frame. Additionally, it is unclear if all activities are conducted entirely within the dwelling or if they include outside access. Therefore, this business cannot meet the standards that we require of home occupations. L We believe that if this use is allowed, it will undermine the standards currently in effect for home occupations. lfthisbusinesscanoperatewithnorestrictionsonthenumberoftimesacustomer may visit the dwelling and no restrictions on the hours of operation, why should other businesses have to conform to the current rules? We think allowing this business use will certainly weaken, possibly erode, the neighborhood protections provided by the standards that currently define the parameters of allowed commercial uses in neighborhoods. We wonder about the fairness of allowing the opportunity to pursue this business model to only a select few individuals, those who own and reside in a single-family home who, also, commit to remaining in the home throughout their customers' stays. Will others in the community, like owners of houses in medium density areas, long-term renters, local owners of rental properties, etc., view this as a discriminatory practice? Willthey, too, request to be allowed to operate in- home, short-term room rentals? We currently have a ban that is legally enforceable and, in our opinion, imminently reasonable; exceptions to it should not be made, We note with interest how the conversation about allowing nightly rentals in neighborhoods has evolved from being a social good, a way to bring people together to learn about other cultures, to being a way to supplement personal income by using one's residence as a home business. iust as there are legal options available to host people from other countries in the home, there are, also, legal options for renting rooms in one's home for 30 days or longer, for instance: to students, including international students; to single, working men and women; to visiting nurses and professors; to summer visitors from the Central Valley or other hot, summer regions. ln fact, some of our RQN members rent, and have rented rooms to students, including those from other countries, to young and middle-aged professionals, to a visiting nurse, to Cal Poly employees looking for or waiting to move into permanent housing, and for summer-long stays. RQN members definitely recall what complaint-driven enforcement was like with neighbor-to- neighbor conflicts and instances of retaliation, and we worked very hard with City staff to put in place a sufficient number of code enforcement personnel to be able to transition to proactive enforcement. Of course, that was before the proliferation of in-home short-term room rentals. However, we cannot ignore the continued increase in illegal in-home, short-term room rentals that staff has identified. The fact that staff has found that many SLO listings have removed owners' names, addresses and exterior photographs of the residences since enforcement efforts began should tell us that a serious problem affecting our residential neighborhoods is developing. This problem cannot be solved through complaint-driven enforcement. lt is too difficult to prove that someone's houseguest is in reality paying for a room. We need code enforcement personnel acting proactively, ln years past it was thought that problems created by students were insignificant, not worth actively pursuing. Not only did residents begin moving away, potential new residents chose to locate elsewhere and commute - and it was not solely due to the cost of housing. lf 4 hours per week is all that code enforcement personnel can dedicate to this effort and still adequately handle other code violations, then we must supplement their efforts with additional 2 paid personnel, ¡nterns and volunteers. As we have so clearly learned from instances of illegal conversions, etc., it is easier to confront a problem early than to wait and try to solve it later. ln summary, RQN strongly recommends that the current prohibition of vacation rentals be retained without exception and that some relief be provided to the code enforcement staff until a significant dent in the instances of illegal vacation rentals can be made. There are some things we should not compromise, and the health and stability of our neighborhoods both for current and future residents of our city is one of them. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter Sincerely, Sandra Rowley Chairperson 3