Encinitas short term rentals; uncouth party pads or nice family vacation destinations?
Union Tribune story by Angela Lau today on the short term rental ban drama, click here
Excerpts from the article:
*The city's attempt to ban new vacation rentals leased for 30 days or fewer has been dealt another blow by the California Coastal Commission.
The commission's planners have once again rejected a citywide ban on short-term rentals and have recommended, instead, a partial prohibition covering just residential areas east of Coast Highway 10l.
*City officials had estimated Encinitas has about 110 vacation rentals and are now taking an inventory of how many are west of Highway 101.
*Yesterday, news of the rejection outraged ban supporters but instilled some hope among vacation rental landlords whose properties are west of Highway 101.
Harry Fund, a member of Encinitas Citizens for Residential Stability, which supports a citywide ban, said of the rejection: “That's ridiculous. You can't do that to a city. It absolutely goes against what the city believes. It's absurd.
*“There are not enough vacation rentals. A ban will decrease access to the coast,” Carrico said. “A lot of the complaints have not been validated. We had a very quiet summer.”
Murphy said he had expected obstacles in pushing through the proposed plan because Coastal Commission planners had rejected a similar proposal in February.
At the time, the city withdrew its application to avoid a definitive commission vote that would seal the fate of the proposed ban.
This time, however, the city will not back off. A gung-ho City Council decided in August to make its case before the commission, with Mayor Christy Guerin then saying the city will bus ban supporters to the commission meeting if necessary.
And in the North County Times a story about the new senior citizen complex Mayor Christy Guerin has this quip about the Coastal Commission: "The issue about the Coastal Commission really makes my blood boil." link
Okay first, the fact that a group of people named themselves Encinitas Citizens for Residential Stability is hilarious. What are we, San Elijo Hills now?
Boys, what we gotta do is form a committee. No wait, a task force. Yeah, that's the ticket.I always love a good compromise, especially when it leaves both concerned parties unhappy. I like this, new rentals should be at least 200 feet apart, similar to existing restrictions on bed-and-breakfast inns.
For those of you out there that believe the Coastal Commission does a good job of protecting our coast you need to be deeply concerned about the venomous hatred Christy Guerin has for them because she is going to work for your new congressman Brian Bilbray.
I fully support Banning any more short term rental on our coast. I like Encinitas being a mellow family orientated Coastal Town. Not an LA or PB party scene. If you want to party like a frat boy, or college girl go to PB!
ReplyDeleteI support everything the City Council is doing to try and address the issue.
Next they should start enforcing existing laws prohibiting running vehicals without mufflers. Our Coast is under full on attached from people who disrespect our Beaches. We have the will to perserve our peace and Beaches. Those that oppose this will want to sell out Encinitas and lessen its charactor as a peaceful laid back beach town. Thats the beach town I fell in love with years ago.
I agree. Thank you City Council for taking on a critical issue for our beach town. I know no comes the comments from the pro-party scene landlords selling out Encinitas for their personal gain.
ReplyDeleteThe facts are their is no shortage of places to rent for a beach vacation in Encinitas, why destroy our towns future?
Doped or duped, maybe both. All appointed politicians no elected officers a wacked out staff no book or rules all politics in closed door sessions, democracy, no just business as usual. Get your board and slide a few rights, the ony way to go.
ReplyDeletePrevious post, who could we be describing....give it a roll the California Costal Comission the supreme court of the coast, thats who.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a straight forward issue.
ReplyDeleteThese people are running operations that are closer to a hotel than a residence. It is a residential zone not a visitor servicing zone. The neighbors in many cases do have to suffer the parking shortage and parties thrown by people who could care less what the neighbor has to deal with. Maybe we need more laws to tell us how to behave instead of rental bans?
On the other hand the coastal commission did act a bit strange. Not long ago they allowed our city's only real beach resort that is soon to be at the end of La Costa Avenue to get a variance and run as Condo-tel instead of a full blown hotel. Less time/space for people to stay on the beach because of that choice that the city made and the coastal commission allowed.
Not to mention the lost tax revenue that would go to puting sand on the beach because of the change. Chrity and Dan were all for it and now they are whining.
How much tax revenue do short term rentals generate per year for the city?
ReplyDeleteThe short term rentals do not generate any occupancy tax.
ReplyDeleteSome people leave after we make our remarks because many of us find Bossypants Guerin to be extremely rude. When certain of us stay, she treats us rudely and does not answer our questions. We don't think she represents what the people of Encinitas want. She is acting as a lameduck, and her disregard of the Coastal Commission is not in the best interests of this community or our quality of life.
ReplyDeleteThis is a beach town and has a tradition of some vacation rentals. People like Charlie Marvin want sidewalks and "infrastructure" and so do we, to a point. But this City should not just support his rights to operate profitable businesses.
We each should have the right to rent out a room, temporarily, say during race track season, for a few bucks when we are retired, for example, to support our limited income. One shouldn't have to pay $150.00 annually to rent out a room once a year. That's abusrd. It's not going to happen.
Big Brother and Big Sister Bossypants Guerin want to stick their nose into every aspect of our lives. Don't tread on me.
Right, some, especially business owners, keep saying we need this, we need that (we are promised more sidewalks, cool), but then when it comes to maintaining the status quo, they say we are going to become Pacific Beach. I don't get it. We will never be Pacific Beach. We will also never be like we were in the old days.
ReplyDeleteRead the article. The complaints were not substantiated. There was no study on the number of complaints, and when people, opponents of the bad ban did check with the police, it turned out many of the complaints were against people with long term rentals, or against owner occupied residences.
This is taking the complaints of the few, in a particular area, who will be exempt from the rental ban, as they are pre-existing, and punishing those of us who would like, at some future date, to have owner occupied vacation rental rooms, perhaps once or twice a year. Big difference.
Again, Council is comparing apples and oranges, plowing ahead, disregarding what so many have said at City hearings, disregarding our petitions and our points of view.
If acted more professionally when you speak in front of the council they might respect you more.
ReplyDeleteOur General Plan says you cannot have a business in a residential zone. So enforce the General Plan. A rental here and there on your property while you live there is fine. "A business" run by a rental agent to rent 50 condos week by week is a business and not allowed in a residential zone. So get rid of the "business" and leave everyone else alone. Why doesn't Charley Marvin step up to this.
ReplyDeleteyou people are nuts. Short term rentals are not the problem. Rowdy behavior is the problem and can come from rental units of any duration. All the city is doing is going to make attorneys rich in a law suit they cannot win. If you west of 101 you have a different privlrdge than those that live east of 101. Give me a break.
ReplyDeletePerhasp the problem is with our law enforcement that are not enforcing the laws on the books.
Of course you haven't talked about the fact that the short rental people can call their units bed and breakfast and continue short term rentals.
All rental units are businesses so as one poster suggests we should ban all rental units in the city.
Some of you people on this blog are idiots with a capital I.
Well, I expect to speak to the Commission. I checked with the sheriffs department and short term rentals are not a problem in this city. We are not PB or OB with rentals right on the sand.
ReplyDeleteI do not support restricting short term rentals to areas west of 101.
It was the areas west of 101 that brought this on to begin with and the commission staff is not supporting exclusion in those areas. To my way of thinking that makes the whole issue absurd.
There may come a time when the availability of short term rentals in Olivenhain make sense. We have world class trainers of jumpers and polo horses based in Olivenhain and if the Olympics ever comes to our area it may make economic sense to rent to groups moving in for those events.
We have denied Mr Ecke the right to develop his agricultural land for homes but I would be remiss if I did not support his right to establish an agri-short term rental idea in his world class agricuktural production area.
The entire community of Cardiff is east of 101 and with the city purchasing the last parcel in Cardiff for a fire station that was designated as visitor serving commercial it will make accomodations even more limited in that community.
I know individuals who have purchased older "craftmen" properties west of 101 in Leucadia and restored them with the idea that they could be used as short term rentals some of the time. I support the restoration of some of the older cool houses in some of our communities.
People complain about new fenced developments within our communities and yet seem to support fencing of our entire city from visitors. I do not.
The council supported the conversion of what was supposed to be 130 units at the foot of La Costa Ave where the old Ark resturant used to be into a Con-tel removing even more available visitor housing.
The Sea Bluff units were built and sold with the express understanding that the units could serve visitors and the original advertisements even offered to help the buyers rent them short term. Many of the most vocal supporters of the ban live in this area. This acceptable use was NOT hidden from the purchasers of these units. Checking the security logs from Sea Bluff shows that short term rentals ARE NOT a problem in these units.
We are not a party scene town, we do have families that rent here because they have children that they want to expose to the coast. I must support that use, that's how kids learn to respect the coast, by vacationing on the coast.
Short term rentals of homes or duplexes do not generate TOTs, tri-plexes and up do. Amoung other things this allows those older residents renting short term to do so as a 'passive' investment activity.
I do NOT believe that a short term rental ban is the only solution to the occasional disruptive renter. We have laws on the books that are adequite to deal with these problems if they are a problem.
If this issue was as bad as some make out the sheriff would have a fistfull of complaints, and they DO NOT. I paid the money to get a sheriff report of responses in the city and the proof just does not exist. If it did I might feel quite differently.
I do expect to lose at coastal because Ms Guerin and the city's lobbyist have the commissions ear
and the sitting commission has a decided development bent.
Sad, but true.
I hope you loose Gil. I live next to a party short term rental on Neptune. I sucks. I call the Sheriffs all the time. If you lived here, you would see it my way. Just try and imagine living next to a short term rental. New people each week wanting to kickit up and party at the beach. They have no respect for the residents. The cost of allowing the short term rentals with all the enforcement needed is not worth the benefit to te City. I strongly oppose the short term rentals.
ReplyDeleteGil- Show some integrity and post the creditials of our finance director. How can you even blog here when you can be trusted to followup with anything you commit too. Because you have become unreliable, I don't beleive a word you say. I bet you never even called the Sheriffs. Come on Gil post Jeniffer Smiths qualifications. What's Her masters degree, from where? Where has she served as a director of finance? Come on Gil follow up with your committments.
Who is Charles Marvin? He is not in the article.
ReplyDeleteI live near former city council canditate "Paublo" a full time renter. His loud music and boorish behaviour would be better suited In PB instead of Beacons. We wish he were only a short term renter.
ReplyDeleteHey anonymous -- the one who just blasted Gil. You are a bit two faced - you give Gil crap -- yet you won't even publish your name -- whats with that --
ReplyDelete"Perhasp the problem is with our law enforcement that are not enforcing the laws on the books." Perhaps. Maybe there aren't laws on the books already. Do you suggest we add more?
ReplyDeleteWe should get rid of laws that dictate our behaviors! This is freaking America people!
If you don't like what your neighbors do ON their property don't go cry to government to help you out. YOU SHOULD have purchased that house next door and then you can decide what happens there. You didn't buy that property so don't complain now.
Hey different Lisa-
ReplyDeleteWait until your neighbors turn there house into a party hotel. Then we'll see how accepting you are, and post your last name chicken shit!
Geez people lighten up and enjoy the finer thing in life
ReplyDeleteToo Newbe- Welcome! and thanks for participating in the blog.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Marvin is a long time Leucadian that cares about our future. No I'm not Charlie, I'm Lisa.
I have to admit, this is an advisory vote I would have liked on the last ballot.
ReplyDeleteThe story goes...there is/was only one short term rental on Neptune that has a neighbor that "calls the sheriffs all the time". The story is that it got to the point that the sheriffs instructed the caller to stop trespassing on the rental property and stop calling or they were going to arrest him, yes the bitter, bogus caller. This little neighborhood blood feud between the OWNERS turned into a vendetta. The chapter ended with a moneyed man seeking allies. (See Chap.II-Allies)
As to the credentials of the City Directors, I posted long ago that they were available at Anderson's Stationers, Encinitas. Just ask for Mike or "Good Ol'Mark Anderson" and they will burn you copies.
The only thing I have not followed up on is the water/sewer/rates/bond financing. Those I said I would come back to after the Coastal Commission Meeting. I am very committed to lots of issues as well as my committments.
Our codes are sufficient to control rowdyness. Some restrictions so that homes are not run like hotels can and have been strengthened.
Without hard law enforcement reports to corroborate that short term rentals are a problem, I can not support a ban that might concievably force families out and/or aid in the likihood of a redevelopment district being formed in Leucadia and new McMansions springing up like weeds.
There is a feel, a part of the character of our city, that will be lost if everything old and with charm is sanitized; "Guerinized" so to speak.
It may be inevitible but I expect to drag my feet the whole way and to try to slow it down.
So, R,F, I will not go quitely into the night. But I do have to bid you all a good night. See ya for Chapter 2-"Allies", tomorrow.
Charles Marvin has many businesses, including hotel rooms, along No. Coast Hwy. 101. He is owner of the Gold Coast. He is recently retired as a lawyer.
ReplyDeleteHe has a lot of "connections" with City Council, and has obtained good deals for his clients by working in closed sessions. However, this is the job of good attorneys.
Last Council Meeting, in August, when Christy Guerin was getting Council all riled up, saying they should rent a bus of people who wanted to go to the Coastal Commission meeting in November, to speak to complete ban of short term rentals, EXCEPT those grandfathered as legal, non-conforming, Bossypants suggested Charlie Marvin could go on the bus too. He said "I'm retired." Maggie said to Charlie, "You could represent the City pro bono. This is an obvious conflict of interest, as Chalie Marvin has clients in the Sea Bluff Condos, and also, himself, has rental units that he complains are not filled to their maximum capacity. He does not want the competition of short term rentals.
So, in the name of Mr. Marvin's short term interests, he posts here, under other names, or has his younger wife do so. One give away is the question about "who is Charles Marvin?" He has only been referred to here, as Charlie Marvin.
Also, Mr. Marvin spoke up at several council meetings for sidewalks. This is self interest, but many business owners along 101 want them, and if the people want them, and the City is going to give us sidewalks, well, fine. But I'm not holding my breath. Just like Cardiff had to go ahead and let people sponsor sections of their sidewalks. I think the business owners could get it done faster, and for less. The City will hire consultants that will take forever.
Thanks, Gil. We don't always agree with you, but we did appreciate your posts on this short term rental ban issue, and on Prop A, of course.
ReplyDeleteOne thing, don't go into the meeting thinking that the Coastal Commission will go against its staff recommendation, again. I know it must get discouraging having the "Guerin factor," and her elitist hob-nobbing "closed sessions" going against the people's interests, but please, keep the faith.
Gil, a question, please. Will the letters some of us gave you, before, now be considered? That is will all the information already on file from the past meeting still be considered?
ReplyDeleteI'm asking because the Coast News article, which came out yesterday, 11/10, said that all info had to be at the Coastal Commission three days before the 11/14 meeting in Huntington Beach, right? I'm going to call Monday to see if I can fax, but I hope the past letters and possible exhibits will be considered. This came up rather suddenly, as far as our being noticed.
The mail didn't run today because of Veterans Day, and I thought it wouldn't be running yesterday, as the schools were out. I found out, too late, the mail was delivered yesterday, but not today.
Thanks for helping with the Coastal Commission, Gil, and I hope my previous letter will be part of the file that is considered.
I think the people who speak before Council, even Charlie Marvin, who is a trained speaker, as a lawyer, do show courage and are getting involved in community.
ReplyDeleteThat poster who said they should be more "professional" sounds like Guerin or Stocks. We are coming before Council as citizens, "average Joes." People wear Hawaiin Shirts and dress casually. People do their best, I think to give their input, feedback, and sometimes, impassioned views. An entire group of skateboarders came. The Council glorified in the PR of the red ribbon week. Those were grade school, jr. high, and some high school kids. Are you calling all the people who you don't agree with unprofessional Jerome? Donna Westbrook and Matt Walker are extremely well spoken, to the point, and they are basically shunned and disregarded. Why should they stay for a 5-0 vote? No one would have voted differently had they stayed, I'm positive. So were they.
I agree with previous poster.
ReplyDeleteKudos to Donna Westbrook, Bob Bonde, Sheila Cameron, Chris Wickman, and all the brave souls who do their best to "tell it like it is," who appeal to City Council, against all odds, usually, that someone, anyone, will actually address our questions and concerns.
This is why Teresa Barth got elected. People want Council to "change it's stripes," to start fresh, and engender a new manner of dealing with the public, as open, honest public servants. If they want to be respected, Council needs to listen, and to show respect for everyone, not just their behind-the-scene "buddies."
That would be professional, Council. So far, you are not, and you have no business judging those who come to you as being "unprofessional." We don't get paid to go to Council Meetings. You do.
I live next to a house that does short term rentals in Cardiff. We have become friends with most of the short term 1-2 week renters. We have never had a problem. Most come with their family and want an apt to stay in versus a hotel room at a greatly reduced price.
ReplyDeleteIf I had a problem I would call the owner and the Sheriff. It is ridiculous to restrict people from staying in our community for a week at a time.
Pat,
ReplyDeleteOne person's experience should not be used to describe everyone's experience.
lynn,
ReplyDeleteare you agreeing with yourself again?
The arguement I used to blow you off are the same ones four members of the City Council people love to pull out of their pocket. If you didn't like it, I hope you didn't vote for Dalager. Unless you have an inside connection he will use that on you. Are you guys connected to Dalager or something?
ReplyDeleteLisa what is your last name?
Last post directed to Lisa
ReplyDeleteI almost always agree with myself. lol.
ReplyDelete"I agree," aren't you being a jerk by posting anonymously, while questioning someone who sticks her neck out and posts under a name?
ReplyDeleteI call that being a hypocrite. But we can do it back to you, because you don't give your name, Christy, or is it one of your relatives/kids?
Why do you want to take away more and more freedoms of people, the ordinary guy? Is it so you can have more and more control?
Chapter II - "Allies."
ReplyDeleteThe Sea Bluff condo complex has always allowed short term rentals, it was designed with that use in mind. This complex has a Homeowners Association to address issues within the complex. For years the biggest issues were parking, maintenance, fees and the like. Association Board members are elected by the owners. For many years, owners were rather nonchalant about who was elected to the board.
The story goes...that was until a group headed by Harry Fund decided that it would be in the best interest of owners to discontinue short term rentals within the complex. Over the next year and a half the sitting board members tried their best to ban the practice. When forced to a vote of the owners the attempt to restrict short term rentals LOST in a landslide vote favoring continuation of short term rentals. The owners of the units woke up to the true nature of the sitting Association Board. The old board members were ousted in the next vote by owners of the association.
Those thrown out of their position were incensed at the humiliating loss and vowed to somehow change the policy. If unable to change it within the Association by-laws, they decided there must be another way, perhaps a city-wide ban. This group of unhappy campers were flailing around without direction when they heard of an individual as rabid as they were, upset about a situation on Neptune. The two camps joined forces and hammered Ms Guerin and other council members until they had convinced them that a problem existed when that was not really the case. With a substantial bankroll and the ability to make campaign donations thru ENCET the council quickly took up the cause. So ended Chapter II.
Next. Chapter III - The Keebler Elves, Redevelopment, MacMansions, the Lobbyist, and the Bigger picture.
To a different lisa --
ReplyDeleteNot sure who posted the chicken shit comment -- not me -- I only posted once -- just asking the anonymous not to give Gil crap --
it appears others like to pose as something they are not -- strange place
Leucadia was nicer before the Sea Bluff condos were built. A good place to watch the sunset with the family.
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Gil. Will the letters we submitted before be considered on the 14th???
ReplyDeleteHi Folks - I've jumped to the more recent Blog because this one was making my finger sore scrolling down.
ReplyDeletePlease jump with me. Thanks!!
How about an exception for Del Mar race season? I rent my place out and go to Hawaii every year during track.
ReplyDelete