Hermosa Beach moved one step closer to a ban on short-term rentals Tuesday night.
Residents packed City Hall Chambers for the Planning Commission’s meeting, and 30 different speakers addressed the commission on the topic. Commissioners unanimously instructed staff to return with an ordinance that would ban temporary housing arrangements, like those organized through websites like Airbnb and VRBO, in all residential neighborhoods.
A public hearing and vote on a recommendation to the City Council is scheduled for the commission’s April meeting. And while no policy action took place, the meeting revealed where the commissioners stood. The four commissioners who were present all said they were comfortable with a complete ban in residential areas. (Chairman Peter Hoffman was absent from the meeting, but has previously expressed concern about short-term rentals.)
“We do need to take it to the next step,” said vice chairman Kent Allen. “That’s very clear to me, and it’s an outright ban.”
Currently, residents may call the police or code enforcement to deal with loud parties that can accompany short-term rentals. City Attorney Michael Jenkins and the Community Development department interpret existing code as prohibiting the arrangement. But the relevant ordinances were crafted long before companies like Airbnb and VRBO came into existence, and they are too ambiguous to effectively prohibit the activity.
“Our codes need to be unambiguous, whichever direction we go,” said Community Development Director Ken Robertson.
The law also has enforcement problems. Short-term rental websites have resisted efforts by municipal governments to obtain lists of hosts in a city, and the mere presence of an advertisement is not sufficient evidence of violating the ordinance. Additionally, the current fine of $100 is considered too small to deter the practice, which can be highly profitable for landlords and occupants.
Updating the code has added urgency for the city as it works toward an August deadline to update its general plan. The city is also trying to adopt its Local Coastal Program, which governs how cities apply the California Coastal Act to local development, and must be approved by the Coastal Commission.
The Coastal Act requires that, “where feasible,” development in the coastal zone provide lower-cost accommodations; roughly half of Hermosa Beach is within the coastal zone. The Coastal Commission has previously indicated that short-term rentals are a potential source of affordable beach-side lodgings. (Several residents disputed this, noting that homes in Hermosa regularly list for thousands of dollars for a single weekend.)
Staff presented commissioners a possible proposal to permit short-term rentals in commercially zoned properties with currently existing non-conforming residential uses. There are 47 such parcels in the city, many of them along Pier Avenue, containing 75 housing units. Such properties, staff noted, might have less impact on residential neighborhoods.
Commissioners asked staff to return with more information on the alternative proposal, but remained skeptical, noting that neighboring Manhattan Beach has enacted a complete ban. Commissioner Mike Flaherty visited 20 of the properties and said that 10 had no on-site parking, potentially increasing congestion.
“A lot of the issues [come from the fact that] you have eight people in a two-bedroom,” Flaherty said.
Although written communications with city staff have tilted in favor of an outright ban, with some 300 residents writing and e-mailing to that effect, almost half of the speakers at Tuesday’s meetings came out in support of permitting them in some fashion.
Brandon Brawner, associate director of public engagement for the Los Angeles Short Term Rental Alliance, said that visitors staying in short-term rentals boosted city coffers by spending money in local businesses, and that regulating the rentals could eventually provide transient occupancy tax revenue.
Short-term rentals also boost the income of some permanent residents. Joshua Frederick, a life-long Hermosan and teacher at Redondo Union High School, said that being able to rent out his home makes his rent more bearable, especially during summers when he is not collecting a paycheck.
“My concern is that I’m having an increasingly difficult time affording to live in the place where I grew up,” Frederick said.
But some studies have shown that short-term rentals tend to drive up rates for permanent residents by removing rental units from the market. Renters in other areas popular on Airbnb and VRBO, such as the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, have reported being pressured by their landlords to leave so that the unit can be converted to a short-term rental.
The most common concern raised at Tuesday night’s meeting was that the practice frayed traditional neighborhood bonds, upending the investment-backed expectations of people who bought homes in residential areas.
“There are thousands more people who are opposed to [short-term rentals],” said resident Mike Glassman. “They just don’t know it yet, because they haven’t had one move next door to them.”
