Rental Restrictions Rely on Residents as Enforcers

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Editor,

The short term lodging (STL) issue is coming to a head at next Tuesday’s (Aug. 9) City Council meeting.  Both the Planning Commission’s proposed ordinance and the City Council’s alternative place the burden of enforcing the STL rules on the neighbors of future STLs.

Under the Planning Commission’s proposal, any STL activity in a residential area would be a violation.  A single STL use would be relatively easy to detect either through tracking of an internet site or discussions with an honest lodger.

However, the subcommittee’s watered down version would allow a scofflaw property owner to repeatedly falsely claim that the detected STL use fell within allowable limits.  Such a falsehood could be uncovered only if a concerned member of the community continuously monitored STL websites and surveilled the purported STL property over a long period of time.

The subcommittee’s plan, therefore, exponentially increases the resident’s burden of enforcement, making it nearly impossible to bear.  Residents will be put in the position of either suffering cheaters in their midst or becoming the present day equivalent of Mrs. Kravitz, something that nobody wants.  The City Council should adopt the Planning Commission’s proposed STL ordinance and reject an alternative that will turn residents into frustrated, full-time enforcers of an ill-conceived STL policy.

Lester J. Savit, Laguna Beach

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