Hermosa Beach currently has 320 STVRs, averaging $443 a night, according to the aggregate STVR website AirDNA. Image courtesy of AirDNA.com)
by Kevin Cody
Hermosa Beach City Attorney Patrick Donegan signaled the city’s intention to fight a lawsuit challenging the city’s ban on Short Term Vacation Rentals (STVRs) in the residential coastal zone (between the Greenbelt and the mean high tide).
“We are subject to a (STVR) lawsuit. It’s not the first STVR suit. The other time was in 2018, when the city was triumphant. My position is the city’s STVR ordinance is valid and enforceable,” Donegan told the City Council at its Tuesday, March 25 meeting.
The City Attorney’s comment came during a council discussion about relaxing the city’s STVR ordinance in the residential coastal zone by allowing STVRs in owner occupied residences.
The lawsuit was filed March 7 by attorney Frank Angel on behalf of Hermosa Beach resident Todd Koerner, whom the city fined $2,500 for advertising a room in his Manhattan Avenue home for rent as a short term rental. Koerner’s appeal of the fine was denied by a Hermosa Beach administrative hearing officer.
In 2019, Angel filed a similar suit against the City of Manhattan Beach, on behalf of client Darby Keen, who rented a STVR in Manhattan’s residential coastal zone. At the time, Manhattan also banned STVRs in its residential coastal zone. Angel prevailed in the lower courts on the basis that a Coastal Commission permit is required to regulate STVRs in the coastal zone. In 2022, Manhattan appealed Keen v. City of Manhattan Beach to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Angel’s client was awarded approximately $150,000 in attorney fees.
After losing the suit, Manhattan Beach stopped enforcing its ban, and now collects approximately $1 million annually in Transient Occupancy Taxes from STVRs.
Angel said, following Tuesday’s Hermosa council meeting, he would suspend his suit if Hermosa suspends its STVR enforcement until it obtains a Coastal Commission permit for regulating STVRs.
His case, Koerner v. Hermosa Beach, is scheduled to begin in June in Los Angeles Superior Court Judge before Judge James C. Chalfant, who issued the initial ruling against Manhattan Beach in the Keen STVR case.
Hermosa’s Council at its Tuesday night meeting, also signaled its intention to fight the Koerner case by rejecting Councilmembers Michael Keegan’s and Dean Francois’s suggestion that STVRs be allowed in owner occupied residences on a trial basis.
Councilmember Raymond Jackson presented the case against relaxing STVR restrictions during a 10 minute, prepared speech.
“We did not ban short term rentals outright. The City struck a balance, allowing them in the commercial zones while preserving residential neighborhoods for long term housing,” Jackson said.
“The city has 148 potential short term rentals (in the coastal commercial zone)… yet only 20 are legally licensed. That means that every Airbnb in this city, outside of those 20, operates illegally,” he said.
(Hermosa currently has 320 STVRs, averaging $443 a night, according to the aggregate STVR website AirDNA.)
“That’s 300 homes that could be rented by people who live, work, play and send their kids to schools here, strengthening our neighborhoods. …illegal short term rentals have drastically reduced affordable options, making it even harder for those looking to put down roots in Hermosa Beach,” Jackson said.
“It’s time to get those 300 plus homes back on the long term rental market. Hermosa Beach doesn’t need nor does it want more mini hotels scattered throughout our neighborhoods,” Jackson concluded.
Following Tuesday night’s council meeting, attorney Angel said, “The council majority’s professed concern for affordable housing is a bit rich, coming from elected officials who, when it came to updating the city’s housing element, fought the state’s demands for new and more diverse housing opportunities tooth and nail. ER
