CITY OF PACIFICA
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
Council Chambers
2212 Beach Blvd
Pacifica, CA 94044
Mayor Sue Vaterlaus
Mayor pro Tem Sue Beckmeyer
Councilmember Mary Bier
Councilmember Tygarjas Bigstyck
Councilmember Christine Boles
City Council Special Meeting 1 December 05, 2024
SPECIAL MEETING
December 05, 2024 (THURSDAY)
www.cityofpacifica.org
Mayor Sue Vaterlaus called the meeting to order on December 5, 2024 at 6:15 PM 6:00 PM - OPEN SESSION
Call to Order
Mayor Vaterlaus called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m.
Attendee Name Title Status Arrived
Sue Vaterlaus Mayor Present
Sue Beckmeyer Mayor pro Tem Present
Mary Bier Councilmember Present
Tygarjas Bigstyck Councilmember Present
Christine Boles Councilmember Present
City Clerk Coffey took a verbal roll call.
Staff Present: Kevin Woodhouse, City Manager; Denise Bazzano, Asst, City Attorney; Alan Cohen, Asst. City Attorney; Kavitha Kumar, Interim Director of Community Development (Zoom); Mike Janusek, Contract Planner; Sarah Coffey, City Clerk; Emily La, Dep. City Clerk.
Reading of Land Acknowledgment
Mayor Vaterlaus read the Land Acknowledgment.
Salute to the Flag led by Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer
CONSIDERATION
1. Direction on Potential Revisions to the City’s Short-Term Rental Regulations PROPOSED ACTION: Receive updates on the Short-Term Rental Program and provide direction on potential revisions to the City’s Short-Term Rental regulations based on City staff’s consultation with Coastal Commission staff.
City Council Special Meeting 2 December 05, 2024
City Manager Woodhouse stated he was assisted by Contract Planner Mike Janusek for the presentation, alongside Interim Community Development Director Kumar via Zoom as well as Asst. City Attorneys for discussion. He began the staff report.
Contract Planner Janusek continued the staff report.
City Manager Woodhouse completed the staff report.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked if it was possible that certain provisions that will go in effect during the rollover period would not be able to go into effect in the coastal zone until after the Coastal Commission heard them and, if approved, then take effect in late 2026.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated, when we draft the ordinance, we will have to consider which provisions we think can go into effect immediately and what provisions we think will need to wait until the renewal and either craft that into the ordinance or not and figure out some other way to bring those into the fold. She thought he was asking if we can take into account those provisions in the coastal zone that are dependent on approval of LCP amendments into the timing so we do not have to wait for that process once the LCP amendment is approved. In other words, when the LCP amendment is approved, those provisions that had to wait can go into effect immediately. She thought it could happen, but we need to craft it in a way that says that.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated, as he is hearing that there are certain provisions that might take up to a year to go into effect, he considers that certain neighbors in certain residences might think that is a very long time and that some STR permits may remain for additional time.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano thought the argument could be made that they had, at the time that their renewal comes up, they will have known that the ordinance has been adopted and the LCP amendment is in process and they will be on notice that these provisions will change the permit once the LCP amendment is approved. She thinks we can make an argument that they would not be entitled to another waiting period essentially once the LCP amendment is adopted, if adopted by the Coastal Commission.
Councilmember Bigstyck assumed his worst-case scenario might not be as dire as he thought.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano agreed and emphasized that we need to think about it and try to draft it in a way that makes sense so everyone is aware of timing and constraints; when the renewals come up and, if the LCP amendment has not been approved, we may be able to include some sort of requirement that they acknowledge that the LCP amendment is in process and they are taking the permit as soon as the LCP amendment is approved, those provisions go in to effect in the coastal zone at that point and there will not be a second waiting period for those provisions to apply in the coastal zone. She asked if that is addressing his concern.
Councilmember Bigstyck agreed.
Councilmember Boles asked the City Manager if he talked about the strikes provision.
City Manager Woodhouse stated he did not mention that specifically but acknowledged the correction from the staff report. Staff know from past experiences that Coastal Commission staff will not be concerned about two strikes versus three strikes in a provision.
City Council Special Meeting 3 December 05, 2024
Councilmember Boles clarified for the public that it is a two strikes provision.
City Manager Woodhouse agreed, stating that the Council majority direction was a two strikes violation revocation.
Councilmember Boles added an immediate revocation if someone is found to be lying on their application or fraudulent information they shared.
City Manager Woodhouse responded affirmatively.
Councilmember Boles stated Council directed 90 days unhosted and the Coastal Commission staff was asking why not 60.
City Manager Woodhouse agreed that they had asked and did not have a problem with 90 days unhosted and said the Coastal Commission might be supportive of 60 days unhosted but Council directed 90 days unhosted.
Councilmember Boles asked if HdL is available.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that HdL is not present for this meeting. He stated that any questions Council have can be asked of him and anything we need to follow up on we will.
Councilmember Boles stated that one thing she is curious about now that they have gone through the new cycle of permits is how many are hosted and how many are not.
City Manager Woodhouse thought that was part of the system that was going to rely on selfreporting and other verifications. The current process does not have that. He stated that it is a question in the registration form that she is referring to and staff can follow up on that. He stated that, generally, a very small percentage is hosted STRs in Pacifica.
Councilmember Boles stated we were given a list of the 132 that are permitted and she has a number of questions on this list. She stated that it is important for us to understand how many units are in multi-family buildings.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that HdL is not going to be able to answer that question as the multi-family related information is from research by City staff based on North County Fire multifamily dwelling inspection database, as well as county records. As he said in response to Council questions, the only way to validate the number of units in a building would be an inspection because it is not as readily available and verifiable.
Councilmember Boles stated that this list is from HdL. She understands the additional information that he sent them about number of units for a few of the addresses was prepared by staff. She appreciates that, but this list with the apartment numbers is from HdL’s list of 132 STRs that are permitted.
City Manager Woodhouse responded affirmatively. He stated that is the current compliant list of STRs, as of November 14, when that list was made.
Councilmember Boles stated she would give him an example. She stated that 1581 Beach Boulevard is listed just once as Apartment 1. She stated that the staff report lists four units at City Council Special Meeting 4 December 05, 2024
that address that are STRs.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated 1581 Beach Boulevard, Apartment 1, but there are four units in that building based on the staff report.
City Manager Woodhouse sees that and he will offer the caveat that this Figure No. 1 is from the August and September reports, so he would look at the current list that HdL provided as the current status, more than the Figure 1 list of multi-family. He stated that we can verify that in case there is a discrepancy.
Councilmember Boles stated that there are others. She wanted to make sure we are okay with our total numbers and she wanted to be sure that we are permitting one permit per unit and that one building, even if they have multiple units, would get a permit per unit.
City Manager Woodhouse agreed, one unit per STR permit.
Councilmember Boles stated that is why she is trying to understand how many units are affected. She stated that 423 Northup is a duplex and it is listed as one unit when it is two.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano reminded Council that this information about STRs, as they said before at different meetings, changes fairly frequently because units come on as STRs and they come off as STRs. Some of this information, as City Manager Woodhouse mentioned, the Figure 1 list of STR properties with multiple units is not as current as the list that he provided of compliant STRs in Pacifica for this Council meeting.
Councilmember Boles stated she sees discrepancies on this list that was provided today. She stated what she counted, and adding the ones that seem to be missing, we seem to have about 50 in multi-family units now and there are at least four of those that were on a different list that are not permitted.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked, in terms of contacting HdL to go over the verification of the list, who ordinarily does that work in our city staff.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that the whole team communicates with HdL with Asst. City Manager Carter as the lead but Code Enforcement is working with them as well. He stated that, if there are discrepancies in this information, please send them to him and staff will confirm with HdL what the status of those addresses are. As of November 14, this list of 132 compliant is what we are working with.
Councilmember Boles stated that he mentioned that the Coastal Commission staff is looking to apply this to condominiums also. She asked if any of staff’s numbers or theirs define which are condominiums on top of these 50 multi-family units. She stated that, before, Council was looking at these in apartment buildings and she thought Council’s direction had been not to include condominiums and now she is hearing that the Coastal Commission staff wants us to consider condominiums, along with multi-unit buildings. She is trying to understand, in addition to these 50 units, how many more units might we be talking about in terms of this ordinance.
City Manager Woodhouse does not have an immediate answer to that unless condominium complexes from the data staff looked at in the last day are categorized on the Fire Department’s multi-family inspection list.
City Council Special Meeting 5 December 05, 2024
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked how that works in terms of APN.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that they are individually owned. She asked how you can limit one person in a condominium complex when they are individually owned. Terra Nova and Rosita are not townhouses, as they are planned unit developments. If you look on a preliminary title report, they come out as a single-family home.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano thinks the question was, for purposes of fire inspections, are they considered multi-family dwelling units and that was the information that city staff was given to identify multi-family dwelling units. She understands that they are individually owned but what staff are not sure of is whether Fire considers them to be multi-family dwelling units for purposes of fire inspection and thus identified as multi-family dwellings for purposes of STRs.
City Manager Woodhouse stated the reason he mentioned that is that is the database on which this additional information about the multi-family dwelling data, like how many multi-family complexes are there that just have one STR in them. He mentioned it related to condominium complexes because, if it is included, this applies to those as well. He cannot look at this list and tell Council how many of them are condominiums versus single-family homes. He stated that Council should keep in mind what is on the table when talking about multi-family is whatever you want to define. Council’s direction has currently been to apply the 10% rule to condominiums.
Councilmember Boles stated that what she remembers is that we were not counting condominiums at all.
City Manager Woodhouse stated, related to condominiums and townhomes, etc., what would be good at this time is when we talk about multi-family that Council gives clear direction about that.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated she has a question about parking. She asked if the PowerPoint mentioned one on-street parking spot.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer thought it said that in the report.
Councilmember Boles stated that was one of the things Council directed where there was not enough parking as there could be one in the driveway and one on the street.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that you cannot protect an on-street parking spot.
City Manager Woodhouse stated it was not a designated spot on the street.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano agreed that it would not be designated as there was no way to reserve a spot. She thinks Council’s concern was allowing some variation and reliance on onstreet parking, if there was on-street parking available in the neighborhood.
Councilmember Boles was hoping we can see the map before public comments.
Mayor Vaterlaus thought they can put up the maps before public comment.
City Manager Woodhouse introduced the interactive map related to the neighborhood density discussion, which was a way of showing graphically in Pacifica where these 132 STRs are in the coastal zone and outside the coastal zone.
City Council Special Meeting 6 December 05, 2024
Mayor Vaterlaus called for a break. She then reconvened the meeting and stated we would open public comments after we put up the maps showing properties in and outside the coastal zone and the amounts in each area which are the compliant STRs from their list.
Council reviewed the map and made observations on STR neighborhood density, alongside any differences between the map and the list of 132 permitted STR units.
City Manager Woodhouse reminded Council that Figure 1 is old from August/September.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if he meant Figure 1 in the staff report.
City Manager Woodhouse responded affirmatively.
Councilmember Boles stated she would like to have the maps and be able to study them and look in her district where she knows the houses and knows if something is missing. She stated that these are important ones as it is where low-income tenants have been evicted and it was important to know things are changing and permits are being granted.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked which specific items are we thinking may be a concern.
Councilmember Boles stated that it is about having information and she would like to have them to be able to study them.
Councilmember Bigstyck suggested that we look at the map as much as we would like now and have deliberation after public comment such as about density and for some of them, the considerations may have less to do with the data points.
Councilmember Boles asked is this just Airbnb data or another platform data.
City Manager Woodhouse stated this is all STRs as HDL scrubs all the databases and it can be constantly changing. It is not a perfect system and there are legal operations out there, as well as noncompliant ones that are being worked on to bring into compliance. The ones on this map are all the compliant ones.
Mayor Vaterlaus thanked the person who put the map together very quickly with the information they got this afternoon.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated it can be refined.
Mayor Vaterlaus opened public comment.
Gary Chinca, Pacifica, stated there has been discussion about the distance between STRs, such as 250 feet apart, and expressed concerns about overcrowding and loopholes. He asked Council to consider a distance of 250 feet in any direction between any STR.
Bob O’Donnell, Pacifica, explained that there were unintended consequences from the 2017 effort to establish an STR ordinance. He added that citizens of Pacifica feel that STRs have been foisted on them. He stated that Pacificans felt like they were collateral damage as a result of this issue. He encouraged Council to work with staff to do the right thing.
City Council Special Meeting 7 December 05, 2024
Bryan Reinero, Pacifica, shared his thoughts on Building Codes, platform accountability, density restrictions, and one parking spot per bedroom to help Council in their discussions. He expressed concern that STRs are not suitable in some neighborhoods due to capacity.
Cindy Abbott, Pacifica, shared her thoughts on discussions between staff and Coastal Commission staff and emphasized that STRs have negatively impacted affordability, character, and quality of life in Pacifica neighborhoods. She shared her thoughts on parking, affordability, and neighborhood density, and expressed support of the Coastal Commission staff’s feedback.
Lyla Reinero, Pacifica, stated support for proof of residence, automatic reasons for disqualification, fines for false advertisement, Coastal Commission staff recommendation of 60 days unhosted, platform accountability, and publicly available STR information.
Stephanie Robbins, Pacifica, emphasized the importance of quality of life and reducing requirements, i.e. parking, would reduce qualify of life and property value. She also voiced support of 60 days unhosted instead of 90 days unhosted.
Caitlin Quinn, Pacifica, stated support of one parking spot per bedroom and reducing 90 days unhosted to 60 day unhosted. She also suggested a possible amnesty period for compliance of permit ordinance requirements that may go in effect after Coastal Commission approval.
Joanne Gold, Pacifica, expressed her gratitude to Council for listening to the community and encouraged them to follow their instincts, take more control, and give the community guardrails.
Gary Furlong, Pacifica, thanked them for hearing the community’s concerns and what they do will make a difference in Pacifica for decades, and shared his thoughts on reducing the number of unhosted nights of STRs from 90 to 60 and not adding off-street parking to requirements.
Leo Leon, Pacifica, stressed the need for updating the map and sharing the public resources with the community. He shared his thoughts on limits for districts and for streets, homing in on the physical reality of street layouts in Pacifica.
Mayor Vaterlaus closed public comments.
Councilmember Bigstyck referred to the primary residence requirement and stated a utility bill may not adequately provide residency. He thought we could make it three or more documents or provide more stringent criteria.
Councilmember Boles agreed about the utility bills and would like to strike that. She stated one public comment letter shared what the school district requires, such as a driver’s license with a current address and then other documents.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated, regarding the primary residence requirement, what types of evidence is submitted to prove primary residency can be worked out in the draft of the ordinance. Those examples for evidence that can be used to show primary residence are examples and not meant to be an exclusive list. She hears that some types of evidence may not be as valuable as others but that would be worked out in the draft of the ordinance, and it may be better for Council to focus on the topics that staff has requested direction on. She stated we can then circle back to the issues that staff have gotten direction on but Council may want to add a couple of other notes or comments.
City Council Special Meeting 8 December 05, 2024
Councilmember Bigstyck thanked the City Manager for clarifying that the two strikes provision.
Council began review of the four items submitted to the Coastal Commission.
Councilmember Boles stated, regarding off-street parking, she agreed with the Coastal Commission staff that we should not be making an exception for substandard lots.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated he thought he spoke to that at the original meeting. He stated that we have a history of allowing variances for substandard lots because we want people to live there and, because of a long history of Pacifica allowing those lots, we now have to make them work. At that time, he suggested that it was fine if someone was living there, but he was opposed to it in terms of STRs.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer and Councilmember Bier concurred.
Councilmember Boles stated that the question is that, if someone applies, they are supposed to have a certain number of parking spaces per bedroom. If they have three bedrooms and one parking space, are they allowed to apply and just rent one bedroom or are they not allowed to have a permit at all. She asked if that becomes too hard to verify compliance.
Councilmember Bigstyck thought it becomes too hard to verify compliance. He is aware of what our staffing looks like now. He referred to Coastal Commission staff’s input of one parking space per bedroom, and he asked if that goes beyond what our code says if we eliminate the variance language. He is comfortable eliminating the variance language and he could go along with the Coastal Commission staff, but he has also been fairly outspoken in terms of his desire to limit STRs in general.
Mayor Vaterlaus states she originally proposed two per house only. She thinks one per bedroom is a lot and that can be worked around with a 16-person van.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated assuming they can fit on the designated parking spot.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated no one else thought two parking spots.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer remembers that Council got into this conversation about variances.
She thinks this meeting’s goal is to think about getting this thing resolved and submitted so it can be approved. If Coastal Commission feels strongly about one per bedroom, she supposes they would like it even more if it was more restrictive. She is hearing Council say, if it is more restrictive, maybe STRs are less plentiful.
Councilmember Bier agrees with Coastal Commission’s comments.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked if there is consensus regarding the Coastal Commission staff’s recommendation of one per STR bedroom. He asked if this applies to hosted STRs.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated it says at least one space available for hosted rentals.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated that we have a consensus to go with the Coastal Commission staff recommendation and he asked for clarity if the recommendation is related to hosted STRs.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated the staff report says they recommended a provision City Council Special Meeting 9 December 05, 2024
requiring one parking space per STR bedroom as a requirement that would be more likely to be supported by the LCP amendment approval; thus, if it is a hosted unit that has two bedrooms, they would only need to have one parking space for the STR bedroom.
Councilmember Bigstyck wondered about a circumstance in which there are three bedrooms, one with the owners, two of the rooms being rented out as hosted STRs.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated, if two bedrooms are used as STRs, they would have to have two parking spaces according to this recommendation.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated it is not differentiating between hosted and unhosted but focusing on the bedrooms.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that you would have to have one room for the host so whatever bedrooms being used for the STR would be the requirement, whether hosted or not.
Councilmember Bigstyck is comfortable with language that aligns with our code minus the variance. He thinks that, given that the language also applies to hosted, he is becoming more uncomfortable with that. He feels the direction we have given is that, for unhosted STRs, we are trying to clamp down on it and, for hosted STRs, it is not necessarily something we are trying to reign in as robustly.
Councilmember Bier stated that it is still about parking spaces in our neighborhood and the lack of parking in our neighborhood.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated he is comfortable with that.
Councilmember Bier asked if she can talk about the multi-family properties.
Councilmember Boles stated she is fine but she wants to ask for a definition of a legal bedroom somewhere in the ordinance and for that to be added.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if the phrase would be “legally permitted bedroom”.
Councilmember Boles suggested “legal per Building Code”.
Mayor Vaterlaus asked today’s Building Code or the Building Code when the building was built.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer thought that is why they are getting into variance.
Councilmember Boles stated that we can say “legally permitted bedrooms” and that would cover previous codes.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano thought, by permitted, Council meant the STR permit.
Councilmember Boles stated no, a bedroom and a house that is being used as an STR and to confirm what is a legal bedroom with a definition in our ordinance. She stated that the Building Code defines a certain minimum size, it needs to be heated, etc.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated staff would need to confirm that.
City Council Special Meeting 10 December 05, 2024
Councilmember Boles concluded a legal room.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated a legal room is different than a bedroom and asked if the Building Code says bedroom and define bedroom.
Councilmember Boles stated we do not need to say exactly what it is here was asking if it would be possible to include it.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano understands and, to be clear, we have a consensus on going with the Coastal Commission staff’s recommendation of one parking space per STR bedroom and she has direction on defining what a legally permitted bedroom is. She wants to be clear that this would be different than the City’s parking standards in the Zoning Code. She stated that it is within Council’s discretion to do something different to define the parking requirements as different for STR permit.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated that was what Councilmember Bigstyck was alluding to.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano agreed.
City Manager Woodhouse asked if we had clarity on hosted requirement.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated that they said it is the same with no differentiation, even though the last time Council did say differentiation. She stated it was based on the feedback from the Coastal Commission staff. She stated that Council knows parking is a big item for the Coastal Commission and complying with what they suggested is a sensible strategy.
Mayor Vaterlaus concluded we are done with parking and the next item is multi-family.
Councilmember Bier stated she would like to start with this one because she has felt so passionately about this topic from the very beginning. She stated that we can see on the maps that there are full buildings with all the units that are being rented, and units she has rented in the past. She stated that it is not easy to live in the City.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer agreed many cannot afford to rent and live in and raise your child.
Councilmember Bier stated that she did not think there should be any STRs in multi-family properties. She is happy that the Coastal Commission staff feels the same way.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated she likes the 10% as it means one in any building. Thus, she thinks it means between one and 19 units, there is one STR allowed.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked what is it about including them in multi-family, such as is it an equity issue around the type of building, the configuration, the built form, etc.
Councilmember Boles stated that we have to remember that they also have the primary residency requirement. She stated that wealthy owners are not living in their 10-unit buildings.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that they are not necessarily wealthy owners.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated one of the recommendations is one per multi-family residential.
He isn’t comfortable with the 10% but more comfortable with the one.
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Mayor Vaterlaus stated one on any piece of property because any legal property makes it one any time.
Councilmember Boles stated even if it is just two.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated like a duplex.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that is what the 10% would be also.
Councilmember Bier implored Council to think about what it would be like to go out in Pacifica and try to rent a space and you go to the property and one of them is an STR. She stated that is not keeping the naturally affordable unit.
Councilmember Bigstyck agreed as someone who has lived here for over four decades and could not afford to buy a house here.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated she would reiterate what she said about the parking. She sat in the room with Councilmember Bigstyck at Coastal Commission meetings when the issue of affordable housing has come up in various forms and fashions and specifically in regard to short-term rentals. She stated her takeaway from that is that this matters to the Coastal Commission as she heard them say, i.e., going into this STR ordinance process, you have expectations or assumptions that informed what is happening. It was clear for many years that the Coastal Commission liked STRs and it was a consideration as their view was it provided more affordable accommodations to more people to enjoy the coast, but the assumption was that it was affordable and that was valuable to them, and then they found out that many times it is not affordable at all and the counter impact of reducing affordable housing. Having heard from the public, the likelihood of getting this approved is strengthened by agreeing with this point. She wonders if there is a counterargument that she is not thinking about.
Mayor Vaterlaus mentioned owner occupancy, i.e., how many owner occupants are occupying their four-unit buildings. She stated that her point is usually personal property rights to take into consideration and she felt that was a hard one.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer agreed and thought it was our goals for creating more housing in our City, including the requirement from RHNA allocation. She thought it was counterintuitive to be wanting to create housing and taking away housing at the same time. She stated that Councilmember Bier stated that a few meetings ago.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated it would not contribute to their RHNA numbers.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer agreed.
Councilmember Bier stated it will contribute to someone who would like to come to Pacifica and live here with their child in our schools and shop at our stores.
Councilmember Boles stated that they are smaller units and more affordable and what we are learning now in terms of construction market is that it is very hard to build. She thought this was not the time to be losing those units and she is okay with the recommendations.
Councilmember Bier stated that was exactly the conversation at the HEART meeting on how City Council Special Meeting 12 December 05, 2024
extremely hard it is to build.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if this issue has come up in HEART meetings at all.
Councilmember Bier stated not STRs.
Mayor Vaterlaus asked if there is a consensus.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated she is hearing a majority of Council wants to go with the Coastal Commission staff recommendation of prohibiting STRs in multi-family properties, but she wants to be clear on what Council means by multi-family properties and whether or not that includes condominiums. She stated that the Zoning Code does define multiple dwelling as “a building or portion thereof, used and designed as a residence for three or more family living independently of each other and doing their own cooking in such a building, including apartment houses, apartment hotels, and not including automobile courts, motels, hotels or boarding houses”. She stated that is for context and Council can use whatever definitions in the STR ordinance but she wants to be clear about how Council wants to define multi-family dwelling units, whether more than two units or more than three units, and whether condominiums should be included or excluded.
Councilmember Bier did not think it was a good idea to have a duplex and not allow it to be affordable rent and affordable place to live. She would cover the two units, but she does not know how she feels about condominiums.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated that we have heard a couple of different things about whether that is multi-family housing or not in the Building Code and our standards. She would look to staff in Planning to help with that, regarding the definition if there is one, with condominiums.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated asked if we are talking about unhosted and hosted.
Councilmember Boles thought that was a good question.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated he is comfortable with someone who lives in the unit hosting out their second bedroom.
Councilmember Boles stated that was a distinction Council did not give staff before. She clarified that none in multi-family is related to unhosted, not hosted. If someone is living there and wants to rent a bedroom in the place where they are, that would be okay.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano assumed in a multi-family property.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated, if they have a four-unit building, they live in one and they want to rent out one unit, but they are still owner-occupied.
Councilmember Boles stated not if they are not in that unit.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that was not specific.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked Asst. City Attorney Bazzano if we need to address the definition of hosted in such a scenario for a four-unit building where it is owner-occupied in one of the units. He would think hosted would mean that the unit that the owner is occupying would be the City Council Special Meeting 13 December 05, 2024
unit that could house a hosted STR and the other three units could not.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated he is saying the definition of hosted STR, which we can draft in whatever ordinance is prepared, is a resident who is the operator and is acting as a host and is in the unit itself that is being rented as the STR. She stated, in his example, where he has an apartment with four units, a host would have to live in the unit that is being rented as the STR in order for it to be a hosted rental.
Councilmember Boles added that they have to be there during the rental.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano agreed. She stated that it sounds like a majority of Council supports a prohibition on multi-family STRs for unhosted rentals. In terms of the units, she heard one Councilmember say multi-family is anything above a single-family residence.
Councilmember Bier agreed.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano asked if there are any other Councilmembers who support that definition or interpretation.
Mayor Vaterlaus did not.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer thought differently when it came to duplexes. She imagines it is someone who owns a duplex and lives in one half of it and would be renting out the other half as a rental or operating as a STR. She asked about the difference between two and three.
She is trying to think about our built environment in Pacifica, not the built form of the building so much as how many duplexes do we have and what is the character of the people in general.
She remembers previous Councils talking about mom and pops with regard to apartments and she thinks about duplexes that way.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated, to address her comments, there is a middle ground. In Half Moon Bay’s ordinance, there are different tiers for single-family residential condominium dwelling unit: “One short-term vacation rental may operate as an accessory use to single-family unit for residential condominium dwelling units for duplexes and triplexes. Short-term vacation rentals may operate under limited conditions which requires at least one unit within the duplex or triplex as a primary residence for the property owner and no more than one unit in a duplex or triplex may be registered and operated for short-term vacation rental use.” They also have mixed use development restrictions but they ultimately prohibit short-term vacation rentals in multi-family developments with four or more units. She stated that Council can craft something like that which has different tiers to allow short-term rentals in duplexes or triplexes if that is Council’s desire.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated she likes it.
Councilmember Boles stated that there are a lot in her neighborhood and the people she knows who live in them live in a half of a duplex because that is what they can afford.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer concluded that it is not that they own the building and live in half of it, but that someone else owns the building and they rent from that person. She stated that is what she was saying before, i.e., the nature and characterization.
Councilmember Bier still feels the same way as she always did.
City Council Special Meeting 14 December 05, 2024
Councilmember Boles thinks it is easier to be consistent. She stated that there are still affordable units that are more affordable than a single-family home.
Councilmember Bigstyck had a similar consideration where he could envision someone buying a duplex and then trying to make it work with the other half, but he would agree with Councilmember Bier. His bottom line is, if you just bought it without being able to afford it, and if you have had it for a while, you probably do not need to make it an STR. If there is a middle ground somewhere, rent it out at market rate and try and get there through your investment.
Mayor Vaterlaus sees it as a way for people to get into the housing market that would not normally be able to do it because they can live in one and rent the other. She stated she had a short-term rental because she wanted to go there sometimes and it was open for her to go there when she wanted to go there. She could see it in the duplex also.
Councilmember Bigstyck struggles between the mentality of trying to get into the housing market and trying to afford a place to live.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated you still have to afford it, as you cannot move in if you cannot afford it.
Councilmember Bigstyck added that one version is a mindset where you are using the system to attain the aim. There is another mindset that they need a place to live and would like to be able to afford one. He understands that mindset quite well and would agree with that side.
Councilmember Boles stated that there is no stopping someone from buying half of a duplex who is struggling to pay the rent and renting a bedroom, either long term or STR, or building an ADU in the garage to get more income with a full-time rental.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated her point about being able to make it an affordable purchase is just possible for them to get into a housing environment when there is this rental opportunity and that can be that you are renting it at market rate and collecting that rent and using that toward their payment.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated it sounds like a majority supports unhosted multi-family prohibitions and the multi-family definition would be two or more units.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated she is looking at the County record now for a property at 1424 Terra Nova which is in the Terra Nova townhomes. The land use with the County says single family and, if she gave them a copy of the preliminary title report on that property, it would say a single-family dwelling, not a multi-unit.
Councilmember Boles stated that, if that is the case, it is a primary residency requirement and you can only rent it 90 days and only if you live there. She stated she is okay with that.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated, in a building on Terra Nova, if there are eight units in that building, each individually owned by individual owners, and if one person has a short-term rental in that whole block as an owner occupant, then you start to go to the restrictions on density and then they are out, even though they are all individual owners, which is not the same as the multi-family where one owner owns all units.
Councilmember Boles stated that we have not gotten to the densities so she suggested putting City Council Special Meeting 15 December 05, 2024
a pin on that.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated just, in general, it is not a multi-unit because, if it is called a multi-unit, we are eliminating them altogether.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated, if it is a unit owned by one person, it becomes a hosted STR, and what we are talking about is unhosted. In the case of condominiums, it is de facto hosted STR.
Councilmember Bier stated, when we studied any kind of rent control or stabilization, it did not include condominiums in the discussions we had.
Mayor Vaterlaus agreed that they are not multi-family buildings.
Councilmember Boles thinks Council is in agreement. She would like to point out again that Council talked about putting a question on the application as many condominiums are in an HOA and are you in an HOA.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that our rules take precedence over HOA rules.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that the City enforces its own code and ordinances and the HOA would enforce whatever CCNRs are developed for that condominium association. The City does not defer to those rules or regulations of the HOA.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that one of the HOAs in Pacifica decided there could be no ADUs, but they cannot do that. She asked if the City’s laws preempt the HOA.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that the City’s ordinances and code regulations apply to the properties within the HOAs regardless of what the CCNRs say or the HOA says. She stated that the same for the state as the state develops laws and they can decide if it is going to apply to HOAs the way they did for the ADUs and they preempt any type of agreements that condominium associations have with their owners.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated, with an HOA, you own the unit and again it is de facto hosted STR and the HOA may say they do not want STRs in their HOA and that would be in addition to what we are saying.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated she has not looked to see if they have any regulations in any of the HOA documents.
Councilmember Boles stated she talked to three and they have them but we are still granting permits for them.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated to clarify, we can have an ordinance that says you can have an STR and you just need a permit and someone in a condominium HOA can come and get a permit but, if their CCNR says that everyone agrees that there are no STRs in their association, that homeowner has to abide by those CCNRs and they can be held accountable for violation of those CCNRs.
Councilmember Bigstyck agreed and in the questions on the application they lied.
City Council Special Meeting 16 December 05, 2024
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated she is hearing from Council that there is a desire of the majority to exclude condominiums from the definition of multi-family dwellings and, to clarify, the majority wanted to prohibit multi-family STRs in unhosted but to clarify and confirm that hosted STRs in multi-family dwellings of more than one unit are acceptable to Council. She saw a majority for owner-occupied hosted.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer referred to the application form.
Councilmember Boles read one question, i.e., will the host be onsite during the STR activity.
City Manager Woodhouse asked for clarification regarding unhosted STRs in condominiums.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated we are allowing single-family dwellings.
Councilmember Boles stated it is okay but with the primary residency requirements.
City Manager Woodhouse added with the other things that apply.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer read from the application, i.e., is the applicant the owner of the property. If no, attach written consent of the landlord and/or agent, authorizing approval of the STR operations with the owner’s signature. She asked where we are going with that piece, and is it in their current one.
Councilmember Boles stated that was one of her questions about the application, as Council specifically said the last time it is not anybody who can apply but just the owner who can apply.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated we are moving on as we finished multi-family.
Councilmember Boles asked if there is no interest in having an HOA question on there even though we cannot enforce it.
Councilmember Bigstyck did have an interest.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if it is a trap for getting a lie out of them.
Councilmember Boles stated no, just hoping that people see the application and see that they have to get permission. She stated that there are some large condominium associations and some small ones. She stated that this is what happened with Pacific View Villas. She stated that we were encouraging people to do the right thing even though we cannot enforce it.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated she did not mind if there is a question asking that.
City Manager Woodhouse asked if, on the full page two on the application, there is a question about HOAs.
Councilmember Boles stated no.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer responded that there was not.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that staff will make that notation.
City Council Special Meeting 17 December 05, 2024
Mayor Vaterlaus stated next is density but moved to rental duration first.
Councilmember Boles stated that we can say two nights in unhosted and no minimum in hosted.
She stated that, if someone is renting a bedroom, it can just be for one night, but if someone is renting a whole place, it would be two nights. She stated that is not what the Coastal Commission is suggesting. She stated, from a person who rents short-term rentals quite often, she never stays for less than one night as all the fees can be expensive.
Councilmember Bigstyck appreciated differentiating hosted and unhosted. He agreed in terms of hosted.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated hosted can be one and unhosted a minimum of two.
Councilmember Boles stated we can leave it at one, knowing that there is a disincentive financially for people to just rent one night. She stated that the reason we did it was because of so much disruption for the people whose house is right next to them.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that people can do one night and have a party and leave. If they have two nights, then it makes them bound to do the right thing.
Councilmember Bier thinks the Coastal Commission needs to hear that as one of the biggest problems we have been having is the disruption from the parties.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated she is hearing a majority wanted to distinguish between hosted and unhosted and allow for a minimum of one night stay for hosted and a minimum for unhosted of two nights.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated, for the hosted, a minimum of one night stay is fine for him but he is curious what Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer’s opinion is of the considerations for Coastal. He is curious what the calculations look like if you are renting an unhosted STR on the coast, and is it going to be low income serving amenity, providing coastal access. If one night is not low-cost serving to begin with, does it matter whether we are saying one night or two nights, or is there a version of this where one night really is considered low-income serving.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer agrees with that, but relative to Malibu, our area is cheap. She asked if there would be some interest on the part of the Coastal Commission to require there be specific rates for low income to make more accessibility as we are seeing that happening with the hotels being brought forward and approved in the coastal zone.
Mayor Vaterlaus asked if it is for new hotels.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer responded affirmatively.
Councilmember Bigstyck thought he asked a question at the last meeting as to whether or not we can dictate if there is a price cap and what prices they could have and now we are talking about the makings of a tiered system. It sounds complex for a premise based on the fact we cannot tell people how much they are renting it out for to begin with.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer agreed.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated that, if we cannot tell people how much they can charge, he City Council Special Meeting 18 December 05, 2024
thought Coastal Commission also cannot tell people how much they can charge.
City Manager Woodhouse stated parameters around hotel rates relates to mostly new hotel development, which has to go through a permitting and negotiation process with the Coastal Commission, but STR regulations would not go through that. He stated that it was a good question and they could pin it. He has not heard of Coastal Commission going in that direction.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if this has come up in staff’s work with Coastal Commission staff on this other than the affordability piece.
Mayor Vaterlaus asked about rent control as they are renting the property for one night and the City has passed has a no rent control ordinance.
Contract Planner Janusek stated, for the record, he can clarify that setting rates was not discussed with the Coastal Commission staff in terms of a potential provision. Staff only discussed the provisions that were directed previously by Council. He stated that the affordability piece was more the basis for their concern regarding the two-night stay.
Councilmember Bier asked what will make our community safer.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated, compared to Malibu, we are far less expensive but compared to what low income could mean, in our area, a worker at Safeway would not be able to afford a one-night stay and consider it low-income serving. He thinks, given the nature of our STRs, not necessarily lowering to the point of low income serving, it is in those terms that he might be willing to push back a little on Coastal Commission and stick to the two-night.
Councilmember Bier assumed two nights for unhosted.
Councilmember Boles stated that the Coastal Commission can always tell them it is not acceptable and then it comes back.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated that they could approve with conditions.
Councilmember Bier stated two nights unhosted, and if we add in the hosted, one night.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked City Manager or staff, if we were to stick with the two night minimum for unhosted, is it still recommended that we define “event” to more specifically target.
City Manager Woodhouse agreed that we need to define events.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated to define events.
City Manager Woodhouse asked where we landed on the two nights versus one night.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated two nights.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated unhosted.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated one night for hosted.
Councilmember Boles asked if any other cities have definitions of “event” we can take from.
City Council Special Meeting 19 December 05, 2024
Mayor Vaterlaus suggested listing them and saying “these events are not limited to…”.
Councilmember Boles stated that we also defined how many people can visit.
Councilmember Bier stated that it goes to noise too.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if this is in the category of good neighbor policies.
Councilmember Boles thought one of our ordinances said no parties specifically.
City Manager Woodhouse asked if we are talking about definition of events.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer and Councilmember Bier responded affirmatively.
City Manager Woodhouse thought, in yesterday’s meeting, we talked about a definition, i.e., special events from Half Moon Bay ordinance.
Councilmember Boles asked if staff can read that.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that there is a definition in the Half Moon Bay ordinance that describes special events as follows: “Short-term vacation rentals shall not be concurrently used for any commercial purpose such as corporate retreat or conference or any event that is likely to result in violation of traffic, parking, noise or other standards regulating the residential use and character of the neighborhood. Such events include most weddings, concerts, and parties.
Home occupations conducted by the primary resident, compliant with subsection F of the section, are allowed, provided parking and all other requirements for both short term vacation rental and home occupation are met.” She stated that it is less definition and more regulations for special events. She stated that they do not have a definition of special events and that would be their regulations of special events which is applicable to the discussion now.
Councilmember Boles asked if they mention classes.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer thought it said no commercial.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano agreed, stating it says “shall not be concurrently used for any commercial purpose such as corporate retreat or conference”.
Councilmember Boles suggested someone may want to teach a class of 20 people.
Mayor Vaterlaus asked in a short-term rental.
Councilmember Boles did not know and sometimes they gather and they might go to the beach.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer mentioned the home occupation permit.
Councilmember Boles stated that we also limited the number of people who can visit during the day, half the number that are allowed to stay there. She stated we have not limited children and asked if we can make it half the number of adults who are allowed to stay there.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated that we had some public comment mentioning the number of City Council Special Meeting 20 December 05, 2024
children, such as if you are thinking of a soccer tournament and the whole team is going to stay there, i.e., bringing their sleeping bag and will be sleeping in the living room, on the floor, etc.
She knows Council spent a lot of time on that number of children but that example stopped her because we have sports and there is an interest in bringing more sports activities like that.
Councilmember Bier stated maybe we need an Embassy Suite.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that the existing direction from Council is that soccer tournament that serves under 12 would work in that situation but age 12 is the cutoff point.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked as many of children as you want under the age of 12.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that the existing Council direction is a maximum of two occupants per bedroom, and the max does not apply to children under the age of 12.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated then you can have as many kids as you want as long as they are under the age of 12.
Councilmember Boles stated she had issues with that before.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if she was correct. She stated that we have had public comment that there are loopholes. She asked what is worse for our community, per Councilmember Bier’s question, i.e., bringing sporting events or tournaments. She asked about the noise level when they had 10 softball players in the hotel room.
Councilmember Bier stated it was absolutely crazy.
Councilmember Boles stated we have limited the number of people for events.
Mayor Vaterlaus asked about limiting the numbers under 12.
Councilmember Bier asked what Half Moon Bay’s ordinance said about children.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated that another aspect of this, which is currently an issue, is we have noise ordinances in other parts of our code. She asked how we tie what is in other parts of our code to this ordinance so that it is an infraction, tracked if there is a write-up, a strike, etc.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that most of these things staff cannot track and it has to be done by the neighbors because there is no way staff can track any of these things, the nights, etc.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer suggested platform accountability.
Councilmember Bigstyck thinks that what this all hinges on is that we have the tools to bust the bad actors. He is saying that, when it comes to quality of life issues, we have the tools to address them when they come up as opposed to now where our toolset is limited compared to what we are putting in motion. He stated that the other consideration is trying to save our housing stock. He thinks this targets ultimate quality of life and, for him, is a helpful way to frame it.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated, if there are 12 under 12 in the place with six adults, it is going to be loud and the garbage is going to be overflowing, which is another problem.
City Council Special Meeting 21 December 05, 2024
Councilmember Bigstyck thought they directed to come back with noise monitor nomenclature and other tools. He had no problem with a limit on children but the STR may be so difficult to live next to that there are going to be enforcement mechanisms to take care of it, irrespective of who is there.
Councilmember Bier agreed.
Mayor Vaterlaus asked if we are going to leave it up to noise and not limit the children.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated that this can also come back to Council if it is not working.
Councilmember Bier stated it is like the number of people and unlimited children.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that is what it says, i.e., 12 and under unlimited.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that we are trying to confirm what Council would want. She thinks her understanding from the previous direction from Council was that the occupancy limits would not apply to the children. Half Moon Bay just limited it to two persons per bedroom.
Councilmember Boles stated a child is a person.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated there is no definition of person.
Councilmember Bier thinks that is fine to do it like that.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated two persons per bedroom without mention of people under a certain age. She recalls City Manager Woodhouse’s previous point about infants.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that Council did discuss this, and if you add together some of the various restrictions that Council is directing, a two-bedroom STR requires two off-street parking spaces, and if you are a family of four, with two kids that are not driving to the STR, you only need one off-street parking space, but it is a two-bedroom place so you have to have that parking. He stated that there will be loopholes.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated, if you have two families of four that are staying in those two bedrooms, then you have two cars, that is more likely than having a soccer team in your house every weekend.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano added that, to expand on City Manager Woodhouse’s example, if you have a family of four with two young children, a baby and a two-year-old, you could usually fit all squeezed into one bed in the unit you are renting but, because there are four, you would have to rent two bedrooms, with two persons per bedroom. She stated that you are forcing that four person family to get a two-bedroom STR.
Councilmember Bier asked if we can limit the number of kids to the number of adults.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated you may not even need that.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated, put another way, legislating to the extreme, he does not know the best way to create policy. He thinks that we can remedy that simply enough down the road City Council Special Meeting 22 December 05, 2024
and that is when it is easy to bring back.
City Manager Woodhouse added, regarding kids and families, this is likely to spin to the other Coastal Commission concern about affordability. If you have a family of four that is coming, the only way they can afford an STR is to come with a friend and rent a two-bedroom place but they would not be allowed to do that. He stated that it could be an issue that Coastal Commission raises as a concern related to affordability for families and environmental justice as part of that.
Mayor Vaterlaus asked if we leave it alone with what we originally said, two per bedroom, children under 12 not included. She asked if that is correct.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer thinks the issue of environmental justice is going to factor in here.
Coastal Commission spent a lot of time increasing sea level rise adaptation guidance by having a whole chapter on social justice and environmental justice. On the topic of events, she stated she liked the definition from Half Moon Bay.
Councilmember Bigstyck agreed.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated it is a non-exclusive list.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that the details of the definition of “event” can be drafted in the ordinance using Half Moon Bay’s definition as the baseline and then bring it for Council review.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer agreed.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated it is “including, but not limited to, the following”. She stated that the last item is neighborhood density.
City Manager Woodhouse explained that with the multi-family restrictions that Council has directed that is about 40-50 STRs that will be eliminated when it goes into effect, meaning they would no longer apply and be able to participate in the program. He stated that one of the concerns we heard from Coastal Commission staff is where are these impacts occurring, where is the limitation to visitor-serving options occurring. Many of those multi-family ones are in West Sharp Park and the baseline density is going to change based on multi-family. Additionally in West Sharp Park, with the parking restrictions, the baseline is going to change even more; there will be many STRs in West Sharp Park that will not comply with the parking requirement. He stated that whole baseline changes and, as Council thinks about this and talks about density, when staff presents estimates about the final numbers to Coastal Commission staff in highly desired coastal visitation areas, that is a question and viewpoint that they will ask.
Mayor Vaterlaus asked how we regulate and decide if four people apply on one day and they are all in the same neighborhood, who gets preference.
Councilmember Boles stated that there are two coastal cities that have done that through a lottery and it is not a matter of when you apply but all the buckets together and only if there is conflict. Without conflict, it does not happen. She stated those seem to be things the Coastal Commission has approved in other jurisdictions.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated we had to do similar things with the union at work as often, with the school year, it is efficient to hire a bunch of people on the same day to staff up for paraprofessionals. That means everyone has the same starting date and, if you end up in a City Council Special Meeting 23 December 05, 2024
layoff situation, who has the offer letter at noon versus 5 p.m. the same day.
Councilmember Bier mentioned like cannabis with the lottery overlay zone.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer did not remember the specifics of that.
Councilmember Bier stated it was staff-intensive.
Councilmember Boles stated that is why she wished we had a good map that showed the information of what is multi-family and what is going to change. She suggested that Council talk about what they might want that staff can draft and then when it comes back for approvals, there can be maps and they can decide if they think it is necessary to include that or not.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that the Coastal Commission regulated the number of days that people can stay there because they want more people to stay there and they want it available for a lot of people and now they are saying, if we do density, how many people can stay there. She did not think that made sense.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer reiterated that, if we have a lot of density constraints, it limits the number of STRs that are possible in a given area, such as the coast where people might want to come. She added that the idea is neighborhoods and quality of life that we are seeking to preserve.
Mayor Vaterlaus added quiet enjoyment.
Councilmember Bier stated there were some public comments that mentioned limiting by district or 1% per neighborhood.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated 1% of all dwelling units or 1% of what.
Councilmember Bier stated each neighborhood.
Councilmember Boles did not think that solves the problem as the problem is that there are too many next to each other. She thinks that would be harder to define what the regions are.
Councilmember Bier thought we could define the radius.
Councilmember Boles stated that we could define a radius. She stated that it was Pacific Grove and Seaside that had 55 feet and their ordinance was clear about the policies and how they go about their lottery and staff could look at that. She did not think we need to go to 55 feet as it could be bigger than that.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked how many vacancies we have in the Community Development Department now.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that the department is at 50% staffing now.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked how many people that is.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that there are four people in the department, adding that we are using interim and contract staff.
City Council Special Meeting 24 December 05, 2024
Councilmember Bigstyck asked what the descriptions of the four that are here, i.e., their titles.
He asked if two of them are Code Enforcement officers.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that we do have Code Enforcement.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked if that is considered outside of the four.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if the Code Enforcement positions are counted in the four.
City Manager Woodhouse stated no.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated, out of eight that we should have, we have four currently.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that there are four vacancies for planners: two Sr. Planners, Dep. Director, and Director.
Councilmember Bigstyck hears our community and he also feels, if we are going to plan in terms of what density means, we also need to think in terms of the resources we have to implement that. If we had the new Community Development Director in front of them, that would be a good start to having this conversation to have a more robust understanding of what implementation of this will take.
Councilmember Boles stated she is not saying we are committing to anything today. She stated that we did not make that deliberation when we were talking about the LCP and staff work for that either. She is not convinced that we need this right now because she does not know what is happening on the maps and what we are losing with the multi-family. She would hate to not do it and find we have a problem when we come back again.
Councilmember Bier stated with the maps it was obvious where the density issues are.
Councilmember Boles stated in Sharp Park.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated we have been hearing from our community for many years on that point. She mentioned Seaside.
Councilmember Bier stated Pacific Grove.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated it was interesting that the Coastal Commission could not locate those.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated we are the North Central District, not the Central District.
Councilmember Bigstyck thought Monterey County was our district.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated no. She stated there is not 100% consistency from region to region and maybe that us why they would not know.
Councilmember Bier stated Seaside is Monterey.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer thought Seaside is a little different and more inland.
City Council Special Meeting 25 December 05, 2024
Councilmember Bier stated that it is not, but right on Highway One.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated she stayed in an STR there.
Councilmember Bier thought it might be on the other side of Highway One, however.
Councilmember Boles stated that they also mention Marin and she asked if we have any information on what they do.
Councilmember Bier stated, even with Seaside, there is only a little bit of it on the west side of Highway One.
Councilmember Boles stated that, during the staff report, it might mention that Marin had a neighborhood-based policy and she asked if we know anything about their policy.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated they just did it.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that they established caps for townships or areas. He stated that the point of the neighborhood density is, from his perspective, if Council wants to go down that path and provide some broad parameters, there is a significant research and analysis and justification workload that staff will need to undertake. He stated that staff will not be able to do that and get to the Planning Commission with a draft ordinance in January. It is going to delay this ordinance development and may need to come back to Council. When staff look at how all of these restrictions are going to limit the program, we will start running into concern and need to consult with Coastal Commission staff again about what is happening in West Sharp Park with a number of alternative lodging options as there is only one hotel in West Sharp Park.
When we put all the data together, they are going to start understanding what the dynamic is in Pacifica. They made a recommendation about the parking standard they would like to see, and staff will go out, look at all the units in West Sharp Park, do an inspection and conclude 80% of those will not be able to meet this parking standard and, if it comes to ten STRs in West Sharp Park, City staff will have to consult with Coastal Commission staff and come back to Council and say this might be a concern from Coastal Commission. He is saying that there is a lot of work relating to development and that is just analyzing what should a density requirement be in a particular neighborhood and there is a lot of work to figure out how this will be implemented annually and how are we going to afford the staff or contractors needed to hire to implement that system annually. He stated, based on the cannabis lottery system, there is a significant amount of work to undertake that for six shops in three zones and that was just once, but this is annually to implement a lottery or to develop a rigorous and detailed time stamping application completeness review process that will not be subject to legal challenge; that is another operational aspect of implementing a neighborhood density program.
Councilmember Bier thinks all that information would be important for her to understand and have in front of her before she makes a decision about this. She thinks it will be necessary at some point for Council to look at density but she does not understand all of what he just said.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated that the part that came through clearly to him is that, for Council to have that information in front of them, it is going to extend this process by several months.
Councilmember Bier asked if we can move forward with what we have and then work on whatever this is in the future.
City Council Special Meeting 26 December 05, 2024
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer thinks that is what the City Manager is saying.
City Manager Woodhouse clarified that Council can make, in the future, any revisions they want to the STR ordinance after they see how the new regulations settle or not. He stated that the question is whether they want to frontload this more complicated provision and the work required to bring the information. He stated that there will never be perfectly accurate maps in an STR program as they change all the time.
Councilmember Boles stated that is why they should be updated regularly and be on a website where we can look at them, as well as the public.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer agrees.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that is one thing the Council has already directed. Looking at that from a staffing perspective, he is looking at an STR operator staff member as well as significant operating revenue reduction to the City. He asked if we are going to prioritize STR operator staff member over police officer.
Councilmember Boles stated that where we charge enough for the permit fees to cover that person and charge more in fines so we are making up for those costs.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that is one of the things we did not discuss today was the income to the city. That is part of Council’s obligation to help the public, but we need to look after the City, also. We have already removed 44 known units that we had in the multi-units, and that is quite a hit already on the budget.
City Manager Woodhouse stated, on the fiscal impact, there are many moving variables. It is complicated, and when staff have the final ordinance direction, we will do our best to develop a range of fiscal impacts ranges and estimates for limiting to 90 days compared to the amount STRs currently rent, in addition to cuts to the TOT revenue by half or two-thirds. He says that we are looking at a significant revenue impact to the City and Council will have to work on that during budget deliberations and we will make cuts where we need to make cuts to balance the budget. He stated that, to the Mayor’s point, that will impact services citywide.
Councilmember Bigstyck thought it may further complicate Coastal Commission review and, while it could take upwards of a year, it does not necessarily need to, but on top of the analysis that City staff would need to bring back to Council in order to make that determination on this particular point, presumably Coastal Commission staff would also need to do analysis to be able to bring this in fullness to the Coastal Commission. Given the breadth and scope of what Council has requested, it may be prudent to stick this on the backburner until we see how all the rest fairs and determine whether or not it is worth it to spend the time to fit in this piece.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer understands and she will pursue looking at what the other buffers are that they could not find. From the Coastal Cities Group point of view, the inconsistency of two cities within 100 miles having it and they cannot find it surprises her and their inability to understand the notion of buffer restrictions is surprising when they do not have a problem when it comes to wetlands; they know what buffers are when it comes to wetlands and mitigation easily. We have to take care of our neighborhood but also have to take care of our budget and fiduciary responsibility to the city and, in doing that, taking care of our neighborhoods to a degree.
City Council Special Meeting 27 December 05, 2024
Mayor Vaterlaus thought many restrictions we placed on hosted and unhosted will limit much of the income already.
Councilmember Bier added the restrictions will also change the density.
Mayor Vaterlaus added the parking part of it and it will change the density altogether.
Councilmember Boles asked, if we do not put this in the ordinance now, would it be possible when staff comes back to the Planning Commission and Council that we have a better map where we have crossed out all the multi-family units and we see the impacts. Perhaps at that point we can say at what point we want to work on it and not wait another year necessarily and not wait until the whole renewal period again in the fall to determine, as a point to touch base, if it is something we want to pursue even if it is not the immediate ordinance we are submitting.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer thought, at some point, we have to put the project to bed and she wonders if it then becomes goalsetting again. She stated that we have had fixing the STR ordinance on our goalsetting for two years, alongside zoning, Housing Element, etc.
Councilmember Boles stated she is not opposed to making the decision at that point but it would be nice to have more information presented to Council. Right now she does not feel she has enough information to know if this is needed or not. She stated that it is mostly the map so we know what is getting crossed out because they do not have parking or it is a multi-family.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated that what we will not know is how it reconfigures from that point and where new ones will pop up because we are not as saturated and maybe others want to get into the market. He also feels that what a Councilmember could do independent of staff is start investigating those ordinances in other places.
Councilmember Boles stated that she has read a couple herself but, until she has a map she can look at, she cannot do that research.
Councilmember Bigstyck thought the map she is looking for will be formed after we put all this into motion.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated it is a version of the map we saw at this meeting.
City Manager Woodhouse stated he can guarantee that one of the information requests Coastal Commission staff will ask is what do we predict that all these regulations as Council has adopted in the ordinance will do to the existing STR stock. He stated that we will have to develop maps to the best of our ability, such as parking requirements, number of bedrooms in each STR, etc. Staff will have to do significant work in finalizing the ordinance to take it to the Planning Commission and have a better map that says here is what the package does currently to the STR program, as we have a certain number permitted for this year and estimate we may have 60 or another number. Staff will have to do that related to trying to estimate the fiscal or revenue impact of the program. He stated that we will develop more maps but the trick would be that we adopt an ordinance and then we start working on the Local Coastal Plan submittal to the Coastal Commission which will take a long time. We do not know what their decision will be about that for a long time and would it be prudent to be working in parallel on more revisions to the program at that time, given all the other priority work plans and strategic plan items that Council has directed. He thought that could be a goalsetting discussion at that time.
City Council Special Meeting 28 December 05, 2024
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked, in light of what he said about what Coastal Commission will want to see, if it was possible to do an overlay, i.e., parking restriction layer or multi-family layer.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that there are two major things we will not be able to estimate, such as who will stay in business with a 90-day limitation versus the current no limitation and who will stay in business with the primary residency requirements. He stated that we will not be able to estimate those, but they will both have a real impact and reduce the number of STRs from the current allotment that will be able to operate.
Councilmember Boles stated that we cannot estimate the primary residence but we know who the owners are that hold the permit.
City Manager Woodhouse stated he does not know the data and his guess is that it is a very low percentage that are primary residents. He asked how are they going to react to the new regulation, what loophole are they going to create to be a primary resident or not or are they going to do that, etc. It will take a year or two to see how the new regulations play out in reality and what new players might want to come into the game because they meet all these criteria.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer knows there are a few people in Sharp Park and in town that are already operating hosted and there may be people who want to join. She asked what Council’s decision is for today on this.
Mayor Vaterlaus did not think we can go forward with the density issue today and we do not have the staff to go through all the nuances that it would create.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if Council agrees.
Councilmember Boles agreed as she does not have enough information.
Councilmember Bier agreed also.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated that there is much to work on to see what the result is and then we reconfigure and he thinks a lot will get better as a result of this and we will see if we need to do more work at that point.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated she is okay with that.
Councilmember Bier stated she is fine.
City Manager Woodhouse asked if there were any other final clarifications on other matters that Council wanted to direct at this point that seemed ambiguous or not. He stated staff has clear direction to move forward and stated, for small details, those can be adjusted as the ordinance is reviewed by Planning Commission and Council as it rolls forward.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer referred to maps, and she thought about the way the maps look and the way they are created. She stated they look like the map we have for our voting district and some other map about parking an oversized vehicle on the streets. She asked if we will have a dynamic map available on the City’s website.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that it is up to Council if they want to direct that as part of the program. He stated it is a staff workload item that is constantly changing with Planning City Council Special Meeting 29 December 05, 2024
managing the map.
Mayor Vaterlaus added unless we only update it once a month and indicate that the map is as of a specific date and we will not change the map for another 30 days so it is not a current map.
City Manager Woodhouse agreed, but stated it will not prevent the people saying that the map is inaccurate.
Councilmember Boles stated people could be giving information about something not on the map. She stated it is helpful to get HdL enforcing and collecting TOTs if they can bring them in line. She added we are trying to empower our community which is what they want to do.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated she was thinking about it in terms of other examples with complaint-driven enforcement that we have in the City and this is along that line. We had a public comment at this meeting from someone active in the community and was disheartened to realize, based on this map, which might be inaccurate, that the STR causing great pain in their family is not a licensed registered STR. She stated that the pain is happening and zero dollars and zero cents is going to the city to help defray all the costs. She emphasized having access to some kind of information that allows our residents in neighborhoods to validate. She knows it will be a workload but, with some of our automated systems, there will be ways of reporting that do not necessarily require an instantaneous response from staff but can collect the information in a form that gets reviewed by someone at some point in time.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that one of the items is posting of information, including a sign with a QR code at the building for contact person and license at the STR location, that will be available. He stated that information being on a website, with or without an interactive map, will be a constant workload item and we will have to figure out how to manage that as part of the new short-term rental program manager that we will have to hire.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated that it sounds like a moving target when we have directed to put an actual QR code on a house.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked what he means by a moving target, i.e. having a map.
Councilmember Bigstyck responded affirmatively, as the map will constantly be changing which he thinks is what the City Manager is saying.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer agreed.
Councilmember Boles stated, whether it is a map or not, it is a link to check to see if an address is licensed.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked, if a resident currently sends us an email and asks if this is an STR, if there was any reason why we would not answer that. He stated that he feels like we have directed many tools and we should see what those tools accomplish and Council can direct more tools.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if he was saying no map.
Councilmember Bigstyck responded affirmatively.
City Council Special Meeting 30 December 05, 2024
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated, as City Manager pointed out, we have received prior directions to add a requirement to the ordinance about signage. She stated that a sign in front of a property is much more valuable in identifying whether it is a permitted STR or not than a constantly changing map on the internet. From her perspective, a sign in front of the property is an invaluable tool to identify whether or not it is permitted as an STR location.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated illegal ones will not have a sign.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that, without a sign, you know it is illegal.
Councilmember Bigstyck stated that we have enforcement tools available to enforce.
Councilmember Boles stated we will not have any signs until late next year because this is not something we are asking people to do now.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that we should also have the contact information on the sign to avoid calling the City for issues.
Councilmember Bier thought the map was valuable at this meeting.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer agreed and thought, when you give people what they ask for, they are happy and stop asking for more things.
Councilmember Bigstyck thought people will always be asking for more things. He also thinks we have given so much that people have been asking for. In terms of the snapshot we were looking at earlier, we were looking at three things that did not align and three things that were not today. He thinks we are looking at a snapshot in every instance, and a real time updated map is fine but who is doing the updating.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated HdL, as they handle the business license and verify with the City.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked, with the work they are doing in map form, how often are they going to need to update the map and will there be additional staff needed to update that map on a regular basis.
Councilmember Boles stated to post it and occasionally update it. Having something now would be helpful.
Councilmember Bigstyck agrees that a touchstone is helpful.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated it may be an interim tool as we will not have the ordinance with the requirement ready and being implemented for months to come. Creating the map could take time and work as well.
Councilmember Boles stated that they have done it and they are updating it.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer agreed, adding it was a very useful tool and helped having it. She thanked staff for bringing the map forward as it was helpful, although imperfect.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated it will never be perfect.
City Council Special Meeting 31 December 05, 2024
Councilmember Bigstyck stated that he has a final comment and an item he wanted to bring up regarding the STR cap specifically. As we implement these things, it occurred to him that there may suddenly be substantially fewer STRs in general and, as that number falls, it might be prudent on occasion to reassess whether or not the current cap is the right fit. He stated, if suddenly this falls to 80 STRs in town, and is consistent for six months, it might be prudent to revisit the 150 number and lower it to 100 so we do not wind up with an aggravated and unintended result in the future. He wanted to put that out there for consideration of future Councilmembers dealing with this item, i.e., that it might be worth it to consider whether or not we should lower the cap as we go along.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated through attrition. She stated that it did occur to her.
Councilmember Boles stated people brought up again today platform accountability and it was her understanding is that is something the City Attorneys will be working on, i.e. trying to get the platforms to take illegal STRs off, making sure they look at the license numbers, and whatever we can do so City staff do not have to do the enforcement that the platforms do. She thought San Francisco has a good model that we talked about before.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano clarified that it was discussed at previous meetings and the comment the City Attorney made was that we can do what Council directs in terms of including or not including some sort of platform accountability in the ordinance, but it was the enforcement of that requirement may be difficult because Pacifica does not have the same leverage that San Francisco or some other big cities do. She thinks there was also discussion about working voluntarily with platforms like Airbnb and VRBO and some of the others to get them to buy into compliance. She knows that the City has had numerous discussions with Airbnb so that was where it was left. She did not think there was any consensus on including that in the ordinance itself. She stated that staff can do what Council directs, but it might be something that we may not be able to use as efficiently as Council would like.
Councilmember Bier stated that it would be there in case we needed it.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano agreed.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated that we need all the tools we can have and, to the point about San Francisco has more leverage, if she is not mistaken, some of their accountability requirements were legally derived either through a settlement or judgment.
Councilmember Boles added some of that case law could be applied to us.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer asked if that is what Councilmember Boles is referring to, i.e., the analysis of case law as to whether it can be utilized as a tool.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that we can look at that and if there was a settlement there is not going to be any clear case law on that particular issue as both sides will argue.
Councilmember Boles thought we were looking for Asst. City Attorney Bazzano’s recommendations of the most that we can put on platforms so we are saving staff time and they do that for us. She will bring up the point of the license numbers, which is on their application now that they have to post their license numbers. She checked five around her and four had it and one did not, so who is following up. She asked if Airbnb should be checking now to see City Council Special Meeting 32 December 05, 2024
that they all have a license number, and is that their responsibility or HdL’s to go back and look at all the listings to make sure they include the license number.
City Manager Woodhouse stated it is not HdL’s. He stated another cost to the program is that we will have to redo the contract with HdL and it will be more expensive in the future. Staff could look at them playing that role but staff have had a good working relationship with Airbnb, as Asst. City Manager Carter has worked with them and Airbnb removed ones that had been revoked. However, we are going to get much less attention with much less leverage with Airbnb moving into the future as it is not a significant market for them.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated they have so little attention to it and the impacts can be so great for our community.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated this whole thing is hard altogether, weighing people, the money, the visitors, etc.
Councilmember Boles thought, to that point, Councilmember Bigstyck brought up the high fines for noise, starting at $1,500, and one of the things in the Pacific Grove ordinance is that they have a $2,500 fine per day to someone who lists the property that does not have the proper permit. She thought that may be something we can look into and we could be recouping that money.
Councilmember Bigstyck thought we directed staff to look into the fines that we could get.
Councilmember Boles stated that staff wrote about noise and did not know if it was about whether you are listed and have all your proper permits.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that there are state law constraints on what the maximum the City can charge for a fine and she can look at Pacific Grove. She stated that one thing distinguishable between Pacifica and other cities is that this is not a charter city so we have to stick with the constraints of state law.
Mayor Vaterlaus mentioned our $1,000 fireworks fine.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that we talked previously about at least reviewing the fines as there have been some changes to state law that allow for increased fines for STR violations specifically, but they have to relate to health and safety violations, not licensing violations.
Councilmember Boles wanted to confirm with Council that we are doing inspections of unhosted STRs. She stated staff is under the impression that we are not doing inspections of hosted STRs and she thinks we should. She stated that we can decide about how often an inspection goes, but this is to make sure that there are not building safety issues. When you get your permit at the beginning, you are doing your diagrams and you have an inspection from Building and Code Enforcement. She does not know why we would be trusting someone who is renting a room in their house more than someone who is renting a full house. She thinks it would still be helpful to do an inspection of anything we are renting out to the public.
City Manager Woodhouse clarified that staff went back and looked these other discussion items, and regarding inspections, there was not a clear Council majority about the inspections for hosted; therefore, unhosted has an inspection and there was not majority direction from Council that hosted STRs should be required to have more than a self-inspection requirement and City Council Special Meeting 33 December 05, 2024
permit checklist to confirm compliance with regulations. He stated that Council discussed that but did not provide direction, but if they want to discuss now and change that to require inspections for hosted, staff will add that to the workload.
Councilmember Boles stated that we are not charging any different fees or application fees.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated she was going to ask that there are some inspections that there is fee, such as fire inspection. She asked if we were thinking that would be rolled into the overall STR fee.
Councilmember Boles stated if it is a yearly inspection. She stated other cities she looked at do not do it yearly.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer understood and she was going to question yearly.
Councilmember Boles stated she did not think it was necessary for the others.
Councilmember Bigstyck asked if the other cities she was looking at doing inspections on hosted STRs.
Councilmember Boles responded affirmatively.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated we know there are properties in our city that, over many years, have evolved spaces that are occupied and we have no idea how they were done. In many cases now, we have two bedrooms and a bathroom and living spaces that have been created and it is not clear if it was permitted work or not. She has wondered, on the issue of housing, about some kind of amnesty program, as it concerns her that there may be unsafe conditions that have persisted because it has been that way for 40 years. She stated that people can have an STR and an unsafe space could be used as a hosted STR. She is looking for safety and if there is a cost to send someone to do that inspection, what is that cost and is that an additional fee the first time you do your application. She stated, if you meet your inspection, you self-report after that.
Councilmember Boles stated that it is also catching people who put in a tiny home in their backyard so they are living there hosted, but it is not something that’s legal. She stated it is an opportunity to catch things before it becomes an enforcement issue which becomes harder to pull back if you do that before a permit is issued.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated it sounds like we are creating a big workload.
Councilmember Boles did not know if it was for City staff. She stated some other cities have a list of who you can hire so you can hire somebody yourself and the City can always audit it.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated like when you are buying your house.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that when you are getting an inspection, you pay for it.
Councilmember Boles stated it is only a few hundred dollars.
Mayor Vaterlaus thought $700.
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Councilmember Bigstyck stated that the idea of $700 is not very much is a spectrum. He stated he does not disagree but he thinks that an unhosted STR in terms of safety is different than someone who is living in their own house and has concerns for their own safety. He thinks that is an important distinction between the two. He added, in an ideal circumstance, we would have inspections across the board, but he feels, if we are setting up a house with no oversight, he would like to be sure that whoever owns that house has set up their new guests to habit it safely.
Councilmember Bier thought, to get a license, you need an inspection.
Councilmember Boles stated that a host could have a legal bedroom, but that does not mean he is renting a legal bedroom. She stated staff could come back with an estimate of what it costs.
She stated that it is like looking at the bedrooms and the exiting, not looking at the structure of the house.
Councilmember Bigstyck agreed, but the more we are adding things on, the more it costs as the more work there is. He did not know if we all have a similar sense of how much has been directed at this point, but he gets the sense it is quite a lot and will make quite a difference. At the point in time when there is an issue, we can deal with that. He does not disagree that there should be inspections, but what it means on top of everything we have already directed, he feels like it is exponential, not additive.
Councilmember Boles does not think it is exponential but a tiny thing that keeps people safe.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated that this is the exact point we got to at the last meeting and why there was not clear direction in the record as Council did not come to consensus.
City Manager Woodhouse stated, regarding the hosted inspections, there is on the permit application and the self-inspection part of that a checklist that they comply and the risk, if they lied, that their permit will be revoked. Then, if the violation comes to the City’s attention from a guest at the hosted STR, they would have to go and inspect it via a Code Enforcement case and the permit would be revoked. There is that motivation to be compliant even when you are self-reporting.
Councilmember Boles asked if we are still requiring them to do a diagram of the house and the parking as we did not make a distinction about that.
City Manager Woodhouse thought that was part of the requirements.
Councilmember Boles stated that, as part of that, staff can check the building permit records.
She stated that we talked about that being part of the review before you issue a permit and you are checking the permit records that we have so they have not built anything illegally. She stated that an inspection helps where you cannot see.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer thinks we did talk about this and we agreed that checking the permit records is another workload issue.
Councilmember Boles stated that reminds her one thing not on the application that Council directed was asking people if they were aware of unpermitted work or incomplete permits so they have to self-report that.
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City Manager Woodhouse stated Council discussed that a bit as it is fairly complex to ask that from an applicant.
Councilmember Boles stated that we are asking if they are aware.
Councilmember Bier thought we did talk about that.
Mayor Vaterlaus stated that there two people with different opinions on this and the other three have not weighed in on the inspection. She thinks the inspection is a great idea but she does not think we can get into that now, but to later add on.
Councilmember Bier thinks so as well and she is tending to agree with Councilmember Bigstyck on that, but she agrees with the question on the application.
City Manager Woodhouse wanted to clarify the question about being aware of code violations or unpermitted work talked about by Council previously. He stated that we would have to go back and look at the record but he did not get the sense that staff were directed to add that and he thinks that it is a tricky and complicated question to ask. He wants to get clear Council direction regarding what that question should be.
Councilmember Boles is thinking of 315 Esplanade where people got STR permits and business licenses. They were doing work without permits, including major electrical work. She stated they knew they needed a permit and they did not get one and it was not until it was complained and red-tagged that they got that, but they should not be able to get a permit if they are doing work that is unpermitted. There has to be a way to check that.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano asked how does the question on the application address that particular issue.
Councilmember Boles stated that it is a place if we catch them.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated that they could say they were not aware and the City would not have any evidence to contradict that because awareness is subjective. She understands what Council is trying to get at, but the reality is that the City has that information and we should know if they have been receiving notices, citations, etc., so we have that within our documentations system. Staff do not need an applicant to confirm or deny that as we know whether their property is in the subject of enforcement action or violations.
Councilmember Boles stated, in this case, it was not until a next door neighbor who was afraid of being evicted made a complaint. The City did not find that themselves. Staff issued all the permits even though the space was all opened up and not habitable. She stated that makes her think of one of the buildings on the list that is permitted for four units and someone in the audience was telling her that it was one that has had open construction permits for a number of years. She stated that we should not be giving STR permits for places that are under construction.
Asst. City Attorney Bazzano stated you can have an outstanding permit for many reasons but the work is completed or it could have nothing to do with the STR on the property. She hears what she is saying that it should be looked at, but it is not necessarily a determinate factor.
Councilmember Boles stated that is where an inspection comes in. If you are seeing a place City Council Special Meeting 36 December 05, 2024
under construction that is not habitable, you are not getting a permit. She stated that is important to her, but she understands.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer understands why it is important to her because it is her work and what she does and knows. She concurs about her public safety concerns and she believes there are many instances where unpermitted work has gone on. She is struggling with the mushrooming impact of the additional regulations and concepts we are bringing forward at a late stage in terms of giving staff direction and getting the ordinance passed. She worries that she does not understand what the workload impact of what Councilmember Boles is saying is.
Councilmember Boles stated that she sees a lot of work being done illegally because permits are so hard to get. She stated that we do not want that to happen; if people are not getting permits, they are not paying the City fees or increased property taxes on their houses.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer thinks we are getting into a whole realm of concern that she agrees with. She mentioned earlier could there be an amnesty program and could we design a program in the world where we would have an inspection and we could bring things into compliance and we could expand our housing, the same way ADUs expand our housing. She stated that we do not have that program and she does not know what it would take to create such a program and how it would be paid for. She does not know that we can invent that now and attach it to this process.
Councilmember Boles stated we do not necessarily need the other ordinances or affidavit but a simple inspection would tell us a lot. She stated that is where she is afraid that we are missing information that would be easy to get in an inspection but then makes the enforcement hard and getting the City Attorney involved and revoking something later on which is much more difficult or it could be informing someone that they have an unsafe condition and they might want to fix it and they cannot get their permit until they do.
Mayor Vaterlaus took consensus with 4 no’s and one yes.
Councilmember Bier stated she does not understand it.
Councilmember Boles hopes the Planning Commission can opine when they hear the ordinance.
Mayor pro Tem Beckmeyer stated that was a reasonable place to bring it. She thinks she does not have enough information to make a decision affirmatively that we need to do as she does not know the cost implications.
City Council Special Meeting 37 December 05, 2024
ADJOURN
Mayor Vaterlaus adjourned the meeting at 10:55 p.m.
Transcribed by Barbara Medina, Public Meeting Stenographer.
Respectfully Submitted,
Sarah Coffey, City Clerk
APPROVED: 5 - 0; 1/13/2025
__________________________
Sue Beckmeyer, Mayor