MEMORANDUM. Mayor and Town Council. BobMcLaurin, Town Manager. DT: July 6, Town Manager s Report

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1 MEMORANDUM TO: FR: Mayor and Town Council BobMcLaurin, Town Manager DT: July 6, 2015 RE: Town Manager s Report Short Term Rental Information from CAST Attached to the Town Manager s report is an article from Forbes website regarding regulations in Santa Monica related to short term rentals. As you will see the reasons the City of Santa Monica is adding these regulations are due to the overall increase in housing prices and the fact that short term rentals decrease the housing supply and put more pressure on housing prices. Non Discrimination Ordinance on Agenda for July 20 Mayor Flitner has asked that a Non Discrimination Ordinance be placed on the agenda for first reading for the July 20 regular Town Council meeting. A similar ordinance was passed in Laramie, WY and the ordinance for the Town of Jackson is currently being drafted. Should the Council wish to take more time to discuss various aspects of this ordinance prior to adoption, they can schedule it for the August Town Council workshop or carve out some time at the July workshop and then see it for first reading at a later meeting.

2 New Regulations To Wipe Out 80% Of Airbnb Rentals In California's Santa Monica Comment Now Follow Comments The Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica has instituted the nation s toughest regulations on short-term rentals like Airbnb. Starting today, hosts will have to live on the property during the renter s stay, register for a business license and collect the city s 14 percent occupancy tax. The city estimates that this will shut down about 1,400 of the 1,700 short-term rental listings about 80 percent in this upscale beach town and major tourist destination, population about 92,500. Salvador Valles, the city s Assistant Director of Planning and Community Development, cites two main reasons for this move: The overall increase in housing prices in the city and region. Companies taking over multiple units and subleasing them as short-term vacation rentals, decreasing the housing supply and putting even more pressure on housing prices.

3 Airbnb rentals may fall off drastically in Santa Monica. Neighboring L.A. (pictured) is also contemplating shortterm rental restrictions. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) More than just driving up rents, Valles says, the decrease in owner- and long term renteroccupancy has the potential to change the character of the city. It becomes more of a transient community than a neighborhood where people are invested in the community. Our city council thought that it was important to intervene and return rentals to the housing market, he says. Violators will face a $500 fine. Although the new regulations ban absentee hosts, hosts are not required to be on site full time. Valles told me that hosts work, social and

4 personal business can go on as normal, as it would for a non-paying guest. Registration for the business license is free, and no business tax would be owed for any rental income below $40,000, though the occupancy tax would still be required. Enforcement won t begin in earnest for a few months, as many vacationers and homeowners had already made summer plans before the regulations were passed last month. The city is reportedly hiring three staff members to track down violations, not easy because listing services do not post addresses. Not surprisingly, there s been pushback. I think it s a tragic mistake and a missed opportunity, says Robert St. Genis of the Los Angeles Short Term Rental Alliance, which represents some 500 member stakeholders in the short-term rental market throughout L.A. County, from property management companies to housekeepers. The law hurts a lot of people that it s not intended to hurt, he says. It hurts the family that s used to being able to take a vacation or sabbatical using the money from renting out their home for the summer. There have been vacation rentals by the beach as long as there have been houses by the beach.

5 It may only get tougher for St. Genis and his allies. Down the coast, the city of Manhattan Beach is talking about a similar ordinance to Santa Monica s, and the big kahuna, Los Angeles, is also in the early stages.