Part two of two.
Last week the Avalon City Council approved the introduction of an ordinance updating the rules or short-term rentals. The adoption of the ordinance will return to the council at a future date.
There were a lot of questions from members of the public who spoke at Aug. 5 meeting. Due to space limits, the Islander couldn’t include those comments last week, so we’re taking a look at what people had to say this week.
Some of the new rules
The proposed changes include requiring applicants to attend Planning Commission meetings in-person or remotely. There would also be fines for violations of short term rental regulations. Three adjudicated violations would result in a license or permit being revoked. Most revocations would be permanent, according to City Attorney Scott Campbell.
The city also proposed a cap on the number of licenses/permits that would be allowed for short-term rentals. The cap: 410 units.
On Aug. 5, City Manager David Maistros anticipated being close to or exhausting the 410 unit cap in the next six months, based on the receiving six or eight applications a year.
Comments
The following is not a transcript but highlights from the meeting. Fourteen people in all spoke.
- Debbie Wright said they have no alleyway or backyards behind them in their neighborhood. “We have had condoms over the fence multiple times, not to mention all the alcohol cans. And yes, I have photos,” Wright said.
She said people in the Flats have to sleep with earplugs. She said there were two illegal vacation rentals that were not displayed on the city’s map. “These rentals do not have a TRL, they do not pay TOT and they have lock boxes,” Wright said.
She asked the council to clarify what they mean by over-saturation before voting on the transient rental ordinance. “We need over-saturation that considers neighboring vacation rentals, not just an overall cap and not a cap just on our property lines,” she said.
She said a cap on vacation rentals should take into consideration the number of vacation rentals were within the radius of a vacation rental property.
“We live in a town on an island where everyone is on top of each other,” Wright said.
She also called for property owners to attend meetings in-person.
Wright wanted to know if the council would require notice to neighbors about applications for transient rental licenses.
She said she has never received responses from the city to the complaint forms she has submitted.
She called for concrete consequences.
Mayor Anni Marshall said the city had covered Wright’s concerns in the ordinance.
Wright argued the council had not made decisions on a few of the issues.
She said the council needed to give the Planning Commission clear and concise rules for revoking transient rental licenses.
- According to a woman identified as Sandy, the ordinance implies that a unit has to be available 365 days a year. She asked the council to think about how many nights are lost when someone has to have a unit available and cannot rent it for 30 days or more.
She said there was a demand in the off season, but not by the month.
“The 30-day requirement is when you apply,” said Maistros.
According to Maistros, you cannot get a transient rental license if you’ve been renting year round without a two-year absence.
Campbell said: “State law governs this.”
Sandy said that as she read the law, if you rent a property for more than 30 days you could lose a transient rental license.
The city attorney and city manager both said no.
“You’re good to go,” Campbell said.
- Melanie Owens said 28 years ago, there was no such things as Airbnb and mainland ownership of Island properties with no ownership on the Island. She argued that the issues were caused by mainland ownership.
Owens objected to the minimum 10-day requirement. “Or do we really have to be renting it?” Owens asked.
“There are other towns in California that require Airbnb, Vrbo, to pay the taxes directly to you,” Owens said.
- Bob Martinez, a vacation rental owner, asked what evidence do they need to prove to the city that they have done their due diligence within the 30-minute response time to a complaint. He also asked if they would get a “strike” if they receive multiple calls.
Marshall said if he was getting three calls a night, he was not doing something right.
Maistros said difference is that there is documentation on the city side.
- James Weatherall said he thought everyone had a good heart and was trying to work together to get something done. Weatherall was concerned that the wording as described over the phone (by City Attorney Campbell) didn’t seem clear.
“He’s just reciting what’s in the ordinance,” Maistros said.
Weatherall suggested tightening up the language of the proposed ordinance.
Weatherall said it would be good if council could figure out a way to keep taxes here in Avalon.
“Our TOT stays here,” Maistros said.
Weatherall said there are ways around that.
He said he was once in a situation in which he did not have a property in Lake Arrowhead but someone was complaining about noise violations.
He asked if the “three strikes policy” reset annually or if he could get a strike now and a second strike 10 years from now.
Maistros said the city was going to review the ordinance within a year. He said they would have data to show where the city was at and then the city can determine if the city wants to make it a year or have certain issues reset.
- Dave Thompson said: “What we’re trying to do here is make more local housing.” He suggested the city give vacation rental owners an incentive to come off of offering vacation rentals. One suggestion he offered was for the city to pay for their trash and sewer.
- Cindy Howser, an owner in Hamilton Cove, said they rent out her unit about 100 nights a year. “We are both finally and personally and completely committed to our unit and this community and we love it dearly,” she said.
“I want to know how we’re not going to weaponize the complaint hotline,” Howser said. She wanted to know how if anyone could make a complaint.
“It could be anybody,” Maistros said.
Howser said they had seen people who are extremely anti-short-term rentals.
Maistros said the city recognized the potential problem. “That’s part of the obligation on all of us and through host compliance to be able to document what’s being reported and to be able to have follow up and to be able to allow the property owner, the property manager, to show evidence contrary to what the complaint showed in real time,” he said.
Howser suggested the city look at Hamilton Cove as unique because it was developed as a short-term vacation spot.
Maistros said there was evidence contrary to that.
Councilmember Lisa Lavelle asked if the city needed to have a penalty for false calls..
Maistros said staff was going to try to make this work. “I am confident we’ll be able to document that,” he said.
“But right now, we recognize it as a possibility, but it’s not a reality,” Maistros said.
Lavelle said making false calls would border on harassment. “Please don’t consider doing that,” Lavelle said.
Councilmember Mary Schickling asked if there was a way to track who was making the complaint. She was told yes.
- Bobby Hire, of Hamilton Cove, thanked the council for their work. Hire believed the new rules would help curb a lot the problems. Hire was concerned about the three strikes rule over a long period of time. He expressed concern that property owners could lose their licenses after three to five years when they have generally had good renters.
“We’re going to look at that,” Maistros said.
- Rick Lebach of Hamilton Cove said he was a retired real estate attorney. He said Mammoth Lakes addressed the problems with short-term rentals by increasing the regulations time and time again. “We’re a responsible short-term renal owner. I come down here when I get sick of the snow. But I have to be able to rent it out in the summer to be able to afford it,” Lebach said.
He said he applauded the council for trying to enforce this. He said staff did a phenomenal job drafting a detailed ordinance years ago.
“Don’t be surprised if that didn’t solve the problems,” he said.
“What did solve the problems was to hire a code enforcement officer whose only job was to enforce these regulations because the staff in Mammoth Lakes was buried up to their eyeballs in doing their existing work,” Lebach said.
Still another speaker predicted that the ordinance would have a negative effect on jobs in Avalon.
Responding to complaints about lack of city action on issues with vacation rentals, Maistros said that often the city is getting complaints 48 to 72 hours later. According to Maistros, the 24/7 complaint line is a way to track what is happening.
Schickling said she was feeling a little bit of negativity. “I’m surprised at some of it,” Schickling said.
“We are not vindictive,” she said.
“We care. That’s why we’re here,” Schickling said.
Someone in the audience apparently said something to the effect that the council members were monsters. (This person didn’t speak at the podium.)
“That really hurts my heart,” Schickling said.
She said a transient rental license is not a right.
“I agree with the woman that said earlier, back in the day before Airbnb and Vrbo, it didn’t feel like this,” Schickling said.
The said CIVR has always done a great job.
Schickling said there have been entities that bought up several properties merely to rent them out as vacation rentals.
“I think that’s what we’re it’s gotten out of hand. That’s what we’re trying to get a handle on,” Schickling said.
Schickling said the council was not trying to instill fear in everyone.
“How many times have the rentals that you own, or the ones that you manage, really get that out of hand that you’re really that scared about?” Schickling asked.
She said Avalon has a finite footprint.
“Our sense of community is going away,” Schickling said.
She argued that the council was trying to preserve quality of life.
