Sacramento, California Local News
This might be the new way California cities ban short-term rentals like Airbnb
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A group of California residents unhappy with their city’s weak restrictions on short-term rentals are determined to remove most of the rental properties from Long Beach — even if it means taking them out block by block.The Long Beach City Council passed an ordinance in 2020 allowing up to 800 unhosted short-term rentals (STRs) to operate, after discovering that more than 1,000 of these STRs were operating illegally in the city. The law also allows individual neighborhoods to petition their census block, and if more than half of the neighbors sign on, residents can ban unhosted short-term rentals — rentals where the host does not live on-site — from operating in that area.In the Long Beach neighborhood College Estates, resident Andy Oliver spearheaded the community action group called Long Beach Safe Neighborhood Coalition to ban unhosted short-term rentals. The group went door to door in College Estates asking neighbors if they’d support booting these rentals. Last week, the petition prevailed, and now the neighborhood is the first in Long Beach, and the state, to run unhosted short-term rentals off its block.“It’s time to fix the problem and end the civil war that’s raging in our neighborhoods over short-term rentals that are destroying our communities and eroding our housing market. It really boils down to this — what do we want our neighborhoods to be?” the organization wrote in its plea to the city. Oliver co-founded the coalition with Christina Nigrelli and started organizing with other Long Beach neighbors who had undesirable experiences with vacation rental guests from companies like Airbnb and Vrbo. They said vacation rental companies were not always reachable when problems arose with guests. “If you go to a hotel, there’s someone always on staff — a security manager or staff that you can always reach out to. Someone’s available 24/7 at a hotel,” Nigrelli said. “But I live next to a revolving door of guests and no one to really communicate with.”During an April 2 city council meeting, the Long Beach Community Development Department found that hosts were meeting the city’s compliance standards.Right now, Nigrelli said nine other neighborhood petitions are circulating or have been submitted to the city.“We’re hoping that all 10 of these petitions are successful so that we can send a message to the city council that they need to make a change, that this burden of responsibility to get short term rentals, at least unhosted out of the city is falling on the backs of the residents,” Nigrelli said.Airbnb told SFGATE that it implemented a party ban in August 2020 that has seen an over 50% decrease in parties reported to the company. The company added that it has implemented a neighborhood support team where neighbors can report concerns about homes hosted on the platform and a law enforcement portal for law enforcement. Vrbo did not respond to a request for comment.The list of California cities fighting back against short-term rentals is growing. In the Bay Area, Danville and several cities in Marin County, including Sausalito, Larkspur and Belvedere, adopted bans. Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:17 p.m., May 17, 2024, to include additional information on the Long Beach short-term rental ordinance and unhosted short-term rentals.
A group of California residents unhappy with their city’s weak restrictions on short-term rentals are determined to remove most of the rental properties from Long Beach — even if it means taking them out block by block.
The Long Beach City Council passed an ordinance in 2020 allowing up to 800 unhosted short-term rentals (STRs) to operate, after discovering that more than 1,000 of these STRs were operating illegally in the city. The law also allows individual neighborhoods to petition their census block, and if more than half of the neighbors sign on, residents can ban unhosted short-term rentals — rentals where the host does not live on-site — from operating in that area.
In the Long Beach neighborhood College Estates, resident Andy Oliver spearheaded the community action group called Long Beach Safe Neighborhood Coalition to ban unhosted short-term rentals. The group went door to door in College Estates asking neighbors if they’d support booting these rentals.
Last week, the petition prevailed, and now the neighborhood is the first in Long Beach, and the state, to run unhosted short-term rentals off its block.
“It’s time to fix the problem and end the civil war that’s raging in our neighborhoods over short-term rentals that are destroying our communities and eroding our housing market. It really boils down to this — what do we want our neighborhoods to be?” the organization wrote in its plea to the city.
Oliver co-founded the coalition with Christina Nigrelli and started organizing with other Long Beach neighbors who had undesirable experiences with vacation rental guests from companies like Airbnb and Vrbo. They said vacation rental companies were not always reachable when problems arose with guests.
“If you go to a hotel, there’s someone always on staff — a security manager or staff that you can always reach out to. Someone’s available 24/7 at a hotel,” Nigrelli said. “But I live next to a revolving door of guests and no one to really communicate with.”
During an April 2 city council meeting, the Long Beach Community Development Department found that hosts were meeting the city’s compliance standards.
Right now, Nigrelli said nine other neighborhood petitions are circulating or have been submitted to the city.
“We’re hoping that all 10 of these petitions are successful so that we can send a message to the city council that they need to make a change, that this burden of responsibility to get short term rentals, at least unhosted [rentals] out of the city is falling on the backs of the residents,” Nigrelli said.
Airbnb told SFGATE that it implemented a party ban in August 2020 that has seen an over 50% decrease in parties reported to the company. The company added that it has implemented a neighborhood support team where neighbors can report concerns about homes hosted on the platform and a law enforcement portal for law enforcement.
Vrbo did not respond to a request for comment.
The list of California cities fighting back against short-term rentals is growing. In the Bay Area, Danville and several cities in Marin County, including Sausalito, Larkspur and Belvedere, adopted bans.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:17 p.m., May 17, 2024, to include additional information on the Long Beach short-term rental ordinance and unhosted short-term rentals.
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