“The End Of The Wild West” For Vaca Rentals In Malibu
Written by 991KBU on July 10, 2018
Bed and breakfasts … and other vacation rentals … will be legal in Malibu.
But highly regulated … the city council decided early this morning.
Council members stopped just short of banning short term rentals … bit it’s the end of the wild west … says the mayor.
At the meeting … Jefferson Wagner said that was one possibility.
NEWSCART 77634 WAGNER AAA :11 QQQ: SANTA BARBARA … IT’S BANNED.
You can go down to other communities, very successful communities, that have banned short term rentals.
If you look at Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and parts of Santa Barbara, it’s banned.”
But a total ban on overnight rental fell just short of consensus … as Wagner himself said he thought that would simply get tied up in the courts forever.
In the end … and by a 4 to nothing vote … the council approved a drastic crackdown on short term dwelling rentals in Malibu.
Laura Rosenthal abstained … she is the lone council member who has in the past rented out her home for short term visitors.
Several technical changes were made … and the ordinance will come back for a second public hearing and vote in September.
Speaking of public hearings … it was two hours of testimony last night
Not much new ground plowed there … but the council debated the matter for 2-1/2 hours after that … to just past midnight.
One major sticking point was the proposed requirement that units could only be rented by the primary occupant of that same residence … who would have to be on the property.
That is aimed at preventing companies from buying up units … to trrn the coast here into Hotel Malibu.
That raised objections from some longtime Malibu families … who have homes inherited by a bunch of kids and grandkids … and who need to rent out their family beach house once in a while to vacationers to pay the bills.
Mayor Rick Mullen had bery little sympathy … he said the so called primary residence rule is there to prevent cheating.
NEWSCART 77636 MULLEN AAA :17 QQQ LAWS THAT ARE CHANGING.
“The reason we want it to have the primary residence is so that there’s a not a lot of monkey business.
“It’s great that these people have inherited these houses and the use them part time, and they want to rent them out a little but, but maybe there are some tough decisions that they have to make now with some laws that are changing.”
City staff said they will come up with some sort of appeals process or other procedure to account for heritage property owners … who have been following the rules and not amassing complaints … to continue absentee ownership of beach rental property.
The proposed ordinance does not place a limit on the total number of days in any year that a room or house can be rented out.
As we said… city staff has some work to do cleaning up some changes … and coming up with a way to allow vacation rentals in some apartments and condos on the beach … in resort areas near existing hotels or bars.
But council members want to restrict vacation rentals in apartment buildings on the land side of P C H … part of the city’s housing stock.
