From:[email protected]
To:City Council
Subject:Council Agenda #12A 5-2-2023
Date:Tuesday, May 2, 2023 11:39:30 AM
External Email
I am writing to express my concerns with:
Introduction (First Reading) of an Ordinance Modifying Chapter 5.22 of Title 5 of the Pismo Beach Municipal Code Regarding Short-Term Rentals (Downing)
MY first concern is that while the City formed a Task Force to address this issue, the task for di not have any open workshops to allow the residents to openly participate in the process. To my knowledge there was no notice of any meetings or any City-wide attempt to gather the resident’s input. I was involved in a case that ended up going to court and resulted in a very large fine the revocation of the individual’s license and I would have thought that the City might have been interested in my input to assist in lessons learned.
With regards to the proposed amendment, I have a few major concerns,
I would caution the City in using the owner’s income tax return as proof of residence. While the income tax return may list the owner’s legal residency, it does not validate occupancy. I can say this because in my career I experienced several times where I would have a temporary duty assignment of up to one year, both out of state and overseas, at which time, I had the opportunity to rent out my residence. Although I was not physically at my residence, I still claimed it as my “home of record” for both tax and voter registration purposes.
Regulations Not Proposed
Regulations Not Proposed During development of the proposed regulations, several regulations were discussed that staff did not recommend for inclusion. The first is the requirement for notice of pending STR licenses to be provided to neighbors for a comment period prior to action by the City.
The reason for not including this provision is due to the Coastal Commission previously Council Agenda 5-2-2023 12.A-3 viewing this type of action as a regulatory hurdle to the establishment of accommodations in the Coastal Zone.
I would request that this process be changed to provide notification PRIOR to the issuance of any such license and allow for a comment/protest. I do not feel that this would be a regulatory hurdle but should be considered part of the Citi’s due diligence in approving a license.
I make this recommendation based on my experience with the licensing of a non-eligible property.
In my case when I got the notice of licensing, I contacted that City and told them that the owner had not occupied the property for the required period of time. The City’s response was that the applicant said he had met the requirements and the license was issued and I had no recourse and the notice I had received was basically courtesy notification of completed action. If the City had
listened to my complaint, it might have prevented the lawsuit that occurred with that licensee.
I did not see any where that detailed how the City will be monitoring the number of days of rentals.
Are they going to just take the word of the licensee? I understand that some of the rental platforms such as ARBNB have agreed to provide such information to other municipalities.
I request that the Planning Commission deny approval of this Resolution and ask that the City provide for open workshop(s) for all the interested residents to participate in this process. This a very hot issue and should not be quietly decided by such a small section of the residents.
Thank You,
Alan Ormsby
920 Wadsworth Ave
Pismo Beach, CA 93449