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SLO to reconsider vacation rental ban

November 11, 2013

bedThe San Luis Obispo City Council will consider lifting a ban on vacation rentals during a special meeting Tuesday.

Since March, San Luis Obispo city staff have sent cease and desist letters to more than 50 homeowners who list their homes for rent on popular websites like Airbnb.com.

The vacation rental ordinance, crafted in the 1980s and revised in 2006, bans renting a home in San Luis Obispo for less than 30 days at a time. Homeowners who do not comply can face fines of up to $500 per violation.

A group of homeowners, known as SLO Hosts, is currently petitioning the city to amend the ordinance. The group is not requesting an overturn of the ordinance, but rather a provision allowing home stays.

Home stays are short-term rentals in which the homeowner lives in the residence and rents out a part of the house.

If the council chooses to allow home stays in the city, it may require homeowners operating them to pay for use permits, business licenses and annual inspections. Transient occupancy tax, or hotel tax, may also apply.

The city could raise approximately $45,000 annually, just from transient occupancy tax, if it allows home stays, according to the staff report.

Staff also suggest it will require a quarter-time position with a $25,000 annual salary to regulate the home stays.

The council will meet Tuesday at 6 p.m. at city hall.

 


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“The San Luis Obispo City Council will consider lifting a ban on vacation rentals”…


Lift a ban on vacation rentals? What in the world gives the city counsel the right to tell anyone they can’t rent a room to someone. If you’re running your home like a business then pay the fees and taxes involved and tell the city to cut bait. It’s your home. Big brother is everywhere but his vacation home is in San Luis Obispo.


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Parking is going to be the key issue here. Are they going to allow room rentals if no off street parking is available?


You can’t add a granny unit to your property if you don’t have enough parking, so would it be fair to allow short term rentals?


I’m all for allowing people to do what they want with their property, but we have to be consistent.


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If they are staying in a bedroom that is already part of the house, why would the parking requirement be any different than for any other occupant of that room?


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Come on now, if you are going to use logic………..


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Ah, slow thinker, never a name more apt. Parking is not an issue, these are bedrooms in existing residences that could be packed with students, a family, or house a single person or couple.The BNB’s are typically the latter. Also this is not a new granny unit, or unit of any kind subject to parking requirements. Let’s have the City do a review of ALL rental arrangements’ effects on parking. And so what if everybody on the block rents rooms, they could rent them anyway to whomever for more than 30 days. These were never concerns while the city failed to enforce the code and in the absence of NEIGHBORHOOD complaints…look higher. They sure weren’t hiding like they’re doing something illegal. I went on AirBNB for the first time and recognize a couple of houses within half a mile. Had no idea. All kinds of incompatible and illegal uses effecting the quality of life are standard in SLO and ignored. Why do you think this non-quality of life issue is at the forefront? “Buehler, Bueller….”. Follow the money.


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“consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”


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The phrase is: ” a FOOLISH consistency” etc. Try and have a clue about what you think you’re trying to say.


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