City Staff Comments in Daily Pilot Article Shows Bias Against Small Property Owners and STR Permit Holders
We included this article from the Daily Pilot in yesterday’s News You Can Use Blog post, but wanted to highlight this article again to highlight some comments from Newport Beach City staff that has us concerned.
The issue highlights the City approval of creating 75 new STR permits in Mixed-Use Zones.
While NBSTRA fully supports STR permits in the mixed-use zone, we have expressed three concerns on this action:
That these are only allowed for property owners who own 20 or more units,
Because of number 1, the City didn’t even bother looking at mixed-use areas like the Balboa Village where there aren’t even 20 total mixed-use units, or on Balboa Island, and
That these permits were moved to the front of the waitlist line ahead of other property owners who have waited patiently for years on the wait list and who have now had their wait extended by several more years.
These concerns were raised at the Council Meeting by NBSTRA’s representatives, members, and by other property owners who would like to seek permits in mixed-use zones in the currently allowed areas, and the City Staff response in the article was dismissive and concerning:
Mario Sustayta, a Newport Beach resident who invested in an oceanfront duplex to rent, argued that the 20-unit permitting restriction is unfair.
“I work very hard to make my properties look nice,” he told the City Council. “You don’t have to have 20 units to be able to get a short-term lodging permit [in residential areas]. I just don’t feel that it’s fair to the rest of us. It’s discriminating.”
Newport Beach allows for 1,475 short-term rental units citywide without the 20-unit requirement outside of the coastal zones.
Jaime Murillo, deputy director of community development, told the Daily Pilot that regulatory efforts in Newport Beach have tried to balance the positive economic impacts of short-term rentals while curbing noise, trash and parking issues raised by neighbors.
The move to mixed-use zoning — and the 20-unit requirement — is an extension of those policy goals.
“We’re trying to be more proactive with enforcement of short-term lodging,” he said. “Last summer, the City Council authorized us to hire more code enforcement staff. The 20-unit [requirement] gives us an opportunity to promote more accountability [where] we’re dealing with one property owner versus multiple property owners.”
Jean Batley, a member of the Newport Beach Short-Term Rental Alliance, wrote to the City Council the day of their July 22 meeting, stating other mixed-use zones are being left out.
“It would be nice if other mixed-use areas, like on Balboa Island and the Peninsula, would be allowed [short-term lodging] permits, also,” Bately wrote.
Murillo told the Pilot that the mixed-use zones in the upper Balboa Peninsula area have enough units that meet the 20-unit requirement, something that other such zones, such as Balboa Village, can’t similarly claim.
“There’s a lot less units there,” he said of Balboa Village. “It’s not like they could meet that criteria anyhow.”
City staff do important work, but the comments from Mr. Murillo are dismissive of legitimate comments from the public and troubling in their bias against small property owners who make up the vast majority of STR property owners. These owners work hard to be good neighbors in the community, pay millions of dollars in taxes to support City services, and support thousands of jobs through the spending of their guests.
Frankly, this attitude is why we formed the Newport Beach Short-Term Rental Alliance. And our ability to have some clout at City Hall to ensure fair treatment of STR property owners and permit holders. We expect our influence to only grow if we have more members and can speak with ONE VOICE on behalf of the vast majority of property owners and permit holders in the City.
If you’re as concerned as we are with this attitude from the City, please join NBSTRA today and ensure we have the power of our industry behind us when we interact with the City staff and City Council.