After countless failed attempts to reach a deal, there could be a new proposal to help regulate short-term vacation rentals in the city of San Diego.
Wednesday, Councilmember Jennifer Campbell (District 2) was joined by a hospitality worker's union, Unite Here Local 30, as well as Expedia, which owns VRBO and Home Away, to announce a four-tiered short-term rental proposal.
"We want to make housing more available to the people of San Diego who live and work here," said Campbell.
Campbell's plan includes new rules like a minimum two-night stay and one rental permit per resident. There is a “good neighbor policy” that redistributes permit fees to fund enforcement for those that violate regulations and or receive noise complaints.
The details of the proposal include:
- Capping whole-home STRs at 0.7% of the City’s housing stock, which would equate to 3,750 permits today
- Establishing two-night minimum stays for most whole-home rentals
- Allowing residents a maximum of one permit, per person
- Adopting the Mission Beach Town Council’s recommendation to permit up to 30% of the housing units in the community to be used as whole-home STRs (1,086), which will be in addition to the city-wide cap
- Allowing all residents to home-share
- Allowing part-time STR operators to obtain a permit at lower annual fees to accommodate high visitor events such as Comic-Con, Pride or December Nights
- Creating a detailed Good Neighbor Policy with strict enforcement guidelines, a fine structure for violations, and a permit revocation standard for repeated violations
Short term rental host Jeff Macgurn said the proposal isn’t perfect, but it’s a start.
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“You’ve got people on both sides of the aisle that feel very, very strongly and it’s really difficult to get people to come to the table and compromise,” said Macgurn.
Macgurn said the industry has gotten a bad name because of just a few bad actors, whether they’re hosts or renters.
“A few bad apples are spoiling the bunch. The vast majority of folks that are short-term renting are doing so in a really positive and beneficial way,” he said.
An opponent of short term rentals and spokesperson for a group called Save San Diego Neighborhoods told NBC 7 they feel it is bad timing and claim Campbell is listening to the wrong stakeholders, not her constituents.
The City Council would still need to approve the proposal later this year in order for it to potentially appear on a city-wide ballot.
