by Kevin Cody
Hermosa Beach will not appeal a Los Angeles Superior Court ruling in March that found the city’s decade old ban on short term rentals (STRs) in the coastal zone is illegal.
The decision was made on a 4 to 1 vote by the city council in closed session Tuesday night. Except to announce the decision, the council did not discuss the issue in Tuesday’s open session.
Hermosa banned STRs in 2016 throughout the city, including in the Coastal Zone, which includes nearly half the city. But the ban has been rarely enforced and largely ignored. STR websites advertise 200 to 300 sites in Hermosa throughout the year.
Since 2016, Hermosa Beach has issued only nine STR permits, which cost $1,500 annually, according to a staff report to the City Council last September. STRs must also pay the City’s 14% Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), which amounted to $189,000 in the last fiscal year, according to the September 2025 staff report.
Tuesday’s decision not to appeal the ruling paves the way for the deficit facing city to collect a $1 million or more in TOT revenue from STRs.
Like Hermosa Beach, Manhattan banned STRs in 2016 throughout the city. But a court found its ban in the coastal zone to be illegal in 2019.
Manhattan Beach spent approximately $1 million in unsuccessfully appealing its STR case, up to the California Supreme Court.
During its last fiscal year, Manhattan received $1.7 million in TOT revenue from 191 registered STRs in its Coastal Zone.
Attorney Frank Angel was the plaintiffs’ attorney in both the Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach cases.
In both cases, he made the same argument — cities can’t ban STRs in the Coastal Zone without Coastal Commission approval, which Hermosa does not have. ER
