Lawsuit targets Hermosa Beach’s short term vacational rental ban

by Kevin Cody

A lawsuit that contends Hermosa Beach’s ban on short term vacation rentals  in the coastal zone (1,000 feet east of the mean high tide) is unlawful has been filed by Hermosa resident Todd Koerner.

Koerner was issued a $2,500 fine for advertising a room in his Manhattan Avenue home as a short term vacation rental on Airbnb and VRBO last October. Hermosa banned short term rentals (under 30 days) in 2016. Non conforming residences in commercial zones are exempt from the ban.

Manhattan Beach also passed a ban on short term rentals in the coastal zone in 2016. But it lifted the ban, after losing a suit against the ban that went to the California Supreme Court in 2022.

Frank Angel, the attorney who prevailed in the case against Manhattan’s short term rental ban  (Keen v. City of Manhattan Beach), is representing Koerner in challenging Hermosa’s ban.

Angel told the Hermosa Beach Council during its Tuesday, March 11 meeting, “Manhattan Beach found out the hard way, after listening for too long to their city attorney selling them on the hoax that their local police power somehow allowed them to enforce a categorical ban throughout coastal zone…without securing Coastal Commission approval.”

Last August, Angel successfully appealed two short term rental citations issued to Hermosa property owners, resulting in the city refunding $8,000 in fines. 

But his appeal of the $2,500 citation issued to Koerner was denied by a city administrative hearing officer on February 6. (See related story).

“I know fighting citation after citation won’t stop city officials who feel unbound by rules of law they don’t like. That’s why we filed a lawsuit on Friday,” Angel said at the conclusion of his address to the City Council.

Tuesday night’s council agenda listed a discussion about exempting owner occupied residences from the short term rental ban. But the item was removed from the agenda at the start of the meeting.

Hermosa Beach City Attorney Patrick Donegan could not be reached for comment about Koerner’s lawsuit prior to press time.

Koerner’s suit asks the court to order his fine refunded, and to prohibit the city from enforcing its short term rental ban in the coastal zone. Hermosa’s coastal zone extends along the ocean, from the north to the south end of town, and east to the Greenbelt. 

The suit also asks the court to exempt from the ban, short term rentals anywhere in the city that were rented prior to adoption of the 2016 ban.

The suit contends the city lacks authority to ban short term rentals in the coastal zone without Coastal Commission approval.

Hermosa retained Host Compliance last year to help identify illegal short term rentals and has been issuing 10 to 12 citations a month, according to the suit. Citation fines range up to $20,000.

There are currently 127 Airbnb listings, averaging $391 per night in Hermosa Beach, according Rabbu.com. ER

Hearing officer expels Councilmember Keegan from short term rental appeal

Hermosa Beach Councilmember Michael Keegan was expelled from an administrative hearing in the Hermosa Beach City Council Chambers by the hearing officer, Coleen Berg, on Thursday, February 6.

The hearing involved an appeal of a $2,500 short term vacation rental citation issued to Hermosa Avenue resident Todd Koerner.

“I went to the hearing because I wanted to learn more about Short Term Vacation Rentals (STVRs). I told the hearing officer, ‘I’m staying.’ She said she’d get someone to remove me. I didn’t want to get into a fist fight, so I left,” Keegan said. 

Berg did not respond to a request for comment from Easy Reader.

Hermosa Beach City Attorney Patrick Donegan, who represented the city at the hearing, responded to a request for comment with an email sent by Public Information Officer Ryan Walker.

The email stated: “The Administrative Hearing Officer conducts hearings in the manner they deem appropriate. In this instance, the Hearing Officer made it clear the appeal hearing was not open to the public. This is consistent with past City appeal hearings, as well as standard practice for appeal hearings in other jurisdictions.” 

Attorney Frank Angel, who represented Koerner, disputed Donegan’s reasoning. Angel said his client had not requested a closed hearing.

“The issue is not whether excluding anyone … is ‘standard practice’ with the city. The question is whether this so-called ‘standard practice’ is legal. It is not. Nothing in the Hermosa Beach Municipal Code concerning appeals of administrative citations bars any third party from attending these appeal hearings, let alone gives the city attorney the power or right to show a council member the door.”

Keegan’s expulsion was the second time in recent months a councilmember has been asked to leave a city meeting in council chambers.

Councilmember Rob Saemann was asked to leave a Civic Facilities Community Advisory meeting in the Council Chambers last November. 

“I refused to leave and stated I was there to observe and agreed not to participate. I stayed quietly until it was over,” Saeman said of the meeting.

During the February 6 STVR hearing, Angel argued the citation issued to his client for renting out a room in his house, which is in the residential coastal zone, is illegal because the city’s ban on STVRs in the residential coastal zone is illegal. A ban would require the city to have a Coastal Commission-approved Coastal Development Permit, which the city does not have, Angel  contended.

Angel made the same argument last August, on behalf of two other clients cited for illegal STVRs in Hermosa’s coastal zone. In both cases, before a different hearing officer, Angel prevailed and the city refunded the appellants’ $8,000 in fines.

Following those two decisions, City Attorney Donegan said in an email to Easy Reader, Hermosa would continue to enforce its STVR ban. 

The email read, in part, “Hearing officers cannot invalidate or overturn duly adopted ordinances by the City. As such, the City will continue to enforce the short term rental ban as currently constituted.”

Hearing officer Berg, in her decision issued Tuesday, February 18, denied Koerner’s appeal.

Berg noted Koerner did not dispute violating the city code, and that the issuance of the citation… “is deemed valid under the scope of these proceedings.”

Upon receiving Berg’s ruling, Angel said “This is an atrocious decision, flouting state law — the Coastal Act — while enforcing an unlawful local STVR ban in the coastal zone.” ER