Editor,
Maybe I’m wrong, and I hope I am, but the council seems to be positioning for a defeat of those who oppose short-term rentals.
It’s clear that people are fearful of allowing this change in use in our neighborhoods.
Residents voiced concerns for 90 or more minutes.
Dicterow says “short term rentals are inevitable; prohibition is harder to enforce.” His stance seems to be to give up. It doesn’t have to be inevitable, unless he’s saying people will break the law, which we know they will and are currently doing; laws need to be enforced. No matter the effort or cost. That’s what I pay taxes for. I’ve lived here for 45 years and I expect our community and neighborhoods to be protected.
The penalties for breaking the law need to make people think twice.
Common sense says that greed will take over if we permit short-term rentals.
To heck with our neighborhoods; that seems to be the council’s stance. We need to double down on this issue and make enforcement paramount.
I want to see someone from the council take a strong stand against STR.
I don’t care about visitors finding affordable places to spend their vacation. I care about those who live here, whose children go to school here, work here and who cannot find affordable housing. The Coastal Commission has it all wrong. Short-term lodging drives up monthly rental costs. I own a rental property and have kept my rents very reasonable. One renter has been there for over 10 years; I respect my neighbors and care about them. I know this is a powder keg to allow. You think it will be hard to enforce; just wait if you allow this to happen. Our police will be called overtime. Who pays for that?
We have such a limited amount of rentals, period. Take a look at the ads in the local papers. The costs monthly for an apartment is astronomical. How are we going to address the needs of monthly renters or those who want to lease when you factor in the short-term rentals?
You are taking out rentals for people who live, work, and contribute to our community when you okay short-term rentals.
Pat Carpenter, Laguna Beach
It is interesting to see how Pat and the Village Laguna crowd decide to selectively hear only what they want to promote their now evident agenda and somehow try to turn back time with the aim to turn away the millions of tourists visiting Laguna.
As part of a large number of residents that has defended home sharing, home exchanges, and summer rentals (all long standing traditions) let me state for the record. None of these activities reduces the rental stock market. When I host someone in my house, I’m not going anywhere. When anyone does a home exchange, this is not a home that would have ever been in the long term rental market. If someone wants to rent their house in the summer for 3 weeks in order to fund their vacation somewhere else, this in no way means that this home was removed from the long term rental market.
Mr. Carpenter estates the obvious, the homes in Laguna have gotten really expensive and anyone that has come to LIVE in the city over the last few years faces a big financial load. One of the few alternatives still open for the younger families (that did not buy 45 years ago like Mr. Carpenter) is to leverage their home making it available for guests and summer rentals. What is so bad about this? Nothing, except for the fact that what Village Laguna, and the people posting signs on their yards, really think is that by reducing the lodging offer in Laguna, there will be less people coming to Laguna. Now, funded by a local hotelier that is happy to have wiped out the competition, our City Council will have the chance to show us if they can lead or let the bureaucrats like Ann Larson be the ones dictating the policy of our City.