Revised Palm Springs Vacation Rental Ordinance (№1918) Comes Back to City Council for Vote — And Other VR Developments

Update: 7/28/16: Those who are interested in the results of the recently-updated Palm Springs Vacation Rental Ordinance №1918 might be interested in my analysis of Vacation Rental Hotline logs over the past 6 months. You can find it here on Medium at:

Vacation Rentals in Palm Springs

Or on our dedicated website:

Palm Springs Vacation Rental Hotline Infographic

In the aftermath of rescinding Palm Springs vacation rental Ordinance №1907 — apparently fulfilling the requirements of a referendum petition launched by Citizens for a Better Palm Springs — a new, somewhat revised version of that ordinance will come before the City Council at its March 15, 2017 meeting (agenda and details found here).

The revised ordinance is now known as Ordinance №1918, and you can find the full text of it detailed in this City Manager’s report. Should the Council find the new ordinance acceptable without changes, it would take effect 30 days after the vote. If the Council desires to make amendments, it would come back before them on April 5.

As with the previously considered “Urgency Ordinance,” the City Attorney states that revised ordinance 1918 is, “a new regulatory ordinance that is not essentially the same as rescinded Ordinance №1907.” To most lay people, this assertion might not ring true. The core regulations which form the bulk of law are essentially identical, but there are some small (apparently significant-enough in the eyes of the City) differences, which I outline below.

If you’re feeling a sense of deja vu after reading those, it’s because the modifications are, again, very similar to the adjustments proposed in the “Urgency Ordinance” that had previously come to a vote, but that did not achieve the required Council votes to pass. (Those adjustments were detailed in my previous article on this topic and are described again below. They are not 100% the same as previous and in some areas — such as the hosted check-in requirement — there are some small but important differences.)

Two Groups Oppose New Ordinance, for Opposite Reasons

I’m told via the Citizens for a Better Palm Springs Facebook page that their organization’s position is that Ordinance №1918 is essentially the same as №1907 and, if adopted, may constitute a violation of the referendum law.

As has been reported elsewhere, Protect Our Neighborhoods, a citizens group in favor of limiting short-term rentals is also opposed to Ordinance №1918, but for entirely different reasons (feeling that it is too lenient). At the time of this writing, their organization’s homepage features a “notice of intent to commence litigation” if the City does not impose a moratorium on the issuance of new vacation rental permits.

[Update 3/14/17: As reported in this article from the Desert Sun, the Protect Our Neighborhoods group has filed their previously-threatened lawsuit.]

In the Meantime: Better Enforcement is Already Happening

At the risk of editorializing, I want to draw your attention to some very important recent developments at the Vacation Rental Compliance Department (“VRCD”). The increased Vacation Rental Permit fee (now $900) has already taken effect and there is evidence that the better-funded, better-staffed and better-equipped Vacation Rental Compliance Department is already having a positive impact. (Note also that the funding for the City’s expanded Vacation Rental Compliance department comes entirely from these annual permit fees.)

Currently, ordinance number 1848 — the “previous” Vacation Rental Ordinance — continues in effect and my impression is that VRCD is very effectively enforcing that ordinance (both in terms of ensuring compliance and in mitigating disturbance-type issues) as well as doing an improved job of communicating important information.

• The VRCD website has been significantly enhanced with up-to-date information about vacation rental policies and prodedures, including new FAQ documents and other useful information.
• A new Vacation Rental Department Reports page is a very welcome addition. VRCD is continually publishing new information there, including Vacation Rental Hotline Summary reports (published weekly), historical/trend data about citations, number of properties under suspension (there are currently 6 of these, according to that page) and other facts.

As an aside, I’ve used some of the data now provided there to visualize the weekly Vacation Rental Hotline data on a map. If you’re interested, see my “Palm Springs Vacation Rentals Map & Hotline Calls” project. On that page, I also provide some more detailed insights into the many types of citations issued by VRCD.

As I’ve studied the Hotline reports, I see that, while many calls to the Hotline do not find actual disturbances or citable guest offenses, that doesn’t mean that some other citation or enforcement action does not get taken. On the contrary, the most recent reports show that citations for a manager’s “failure to respond” are very common.

Often, it seems, enforcement officials respond to a hotline compliant, find no noise or other disturbance, but the owner or manager responsible for responding to the initial call fails to respond in a timely manner. (Visit my map and click on the big red bubbles to quickly get a sense for this.)

Though much less frequent, we also see that response to Hotline calls sometimes turns up more serious violations, such as vacation rentals that are operating without a valid permit, or in one recent case a home with a suspended permit continuing to operate.

Some weeks, there are very few calls to the Hotline and even fewer citable issues found. It’s still unclear to me whether the Hotline is under-utilized or if, in fact, the number of disruptions caused by short-term rentals are much lower than one might expect (given that there are 1,976 vacation rental permits in the City as of December 2016). At any rate, when used, the Hotline seems to work — issues seem to be resolved quite quickly.

In working on this project, I quickly discovered that citations from Hotline calls are just a very small part of the overall number of citations/enforcement actions taken by the department. On my map page, I explain the wide variety of enforcement actions taken by the department.

The Vacation Rental Compliance Department should be lauded for their continuing work on enforcing whatever ordinance is in effect. I will let the reader draw their own conclusions about whether an entirely new ordinance, with many new compliance requirements, would have a positive or negative effect on the department’s effectiveness.

Recent Growth in New Vacation Rental Permit Issuance Unclear at the Moment

There has been some concern that, with Ordinance 1907 on hold and then rescinded that there could be a rush of new vacation rental permit applications. The total number of vacation rental permits (and also citations) is reported monthly in a report from the City’s Finance department (which isn’t posted publicly, but is available via a distribution list). The latest report — which should contain permit data for February 2017 — is not yet available as of the time of this writing. I’ll update this article when I’ve seen it.

[Updated 3/14/17 with January 2017 permit data.] The most recent data that I’ve seen includes permit activity up to January 2017, shows that there have been two months of small, net negative decline in the total number of registered Vacation Rental Permits. In November 2016, there were 1,974 such permits. This number fell by 7 in December 2016 (to 1,967) and fell by 1 in January 2017 (to 1,966).

It will be interesting to see if the events of February (when 1907 was rescinded) led to net growth in permits. I will update this section as soon as that data becomes available.

(If you’d like to see what one of these reports looks like, by the way, a summary from January can be seen here — it was linked from a very interesting article from the NY Times on the Palm Springs vacation rental issue.)

With that, let’s move on to the details of Ordinance №1918!

Differences Between Ordinance 1918 and Ordinance 1907

Key changes from ordinance 1907 include the following. There are several changes I would interpret as being “more lenient,” which are:

• Holders of multiple vacation rental permits (who otherwise meet the requirements of being an “Owner” as defined in the draft ordinance) are allowed to continue to renew their permits until they sell or otherwise choose to dispose of each property. (That is, they are “grandfathered in” as multiple permit holders.)
• Ordinance 1907 allowed a maximum of 32 rental contracts per year. Ordinance 1918 allows an additional 4 vacation rental contracts during the third quarter of the year (that is, July, August, September) so long as the entire duration of such contracts occurs during that period. (As with the №1907, all stays, even if they are not-for-compensation, are to be contracted and count toward the cap. Owners can annually designate 5 individuals who are allowed to stay at the property free of charge and who are not subject to a contract, though they must abide by other terms of the ordinance.)
• Ordinance 1918 has a provision for larger “Estate Homes” that allows those with an active vacation rental certificate as of February 8, 2017 to be issued a land use use permit allowing continued use as a vacation rental. New estate home vacation rental permits, “shall be subject to the applicant applying for and receiving a land use permit under the provisions of Section 94.02.01 of this Code.” The Planning Commission is meeting in advance of the City Council meeting (at 1:30 p.m.) to make changes to the zoning code related to these Estate Home provisions. Details and agenda for that meeting can be found here.

There are also some new requirements proposed which I would interpret as being “more restrictive.” These are:

• Owners and their agents and representatives would be required to have periodic training and testing on the rules governing vacation rentals. This would be rolled out by VRCD at some point.
• There are prohibitions on non-emergency gardening and property maintenance (including pool service) on weekends (defined as 5 p.m. Friday to 8:00 a.m. Monday), apparently to minimize perceived disruptive impacts of vacation rentals.
• A requirement for what I call “hosted check-in,” or an in person meet-and-greet between the owner or property manager and guests to occur prior to, or within 24 hours of, check-in. The Owner or Owner’s agent/representative must meet the “Responsible Party” (renter who signed contract) at the property or Vacation Rental office “prior to commencement of the occupancy and verbally explain and describe all rules and regulations applicable to the use of the property as a vacation rental and the responsibilities of the Responsible Party to the neighbors and the City as well as the Owner.” Further, “the Owner shall secure the signature of the Responsible Party and all adult guests to a statement of rules and regulations prepared by the City Manager.” Again, those are to be collected prior to or within 24 hours of the arrival of the guest(s).

Other Key Components of Ordinance 1907 Remain Unchanged

Aside from the modifications described above, the new ordinance is roughly equivalent to Ordinance №1907 and key differences between that ordinance and the less restrictive (currently in-force) Ordinance №1848 remain. These have been described well in other venues, but to summarize once again, they include:

• A “City led” approach to disturbance response/hotline complaints. Ordinance 1918 gives city enforcement officials the primary responsibility for enforcement and response to complaints. City enforcement personnel may respond to hotline complaints by a face-to-face meeting with guests, prior to asking the Owner/agent to respond. The Owner or their designated local contact person must be available 24/7 to respond when contacted by an Enforcement Official. They must respond by phone withing 15 minutes of contact from an enforcement official and respond in person within 30 minutes to any additional or successive complaints.
• Occupancy and parking/vehicle limits: Overnight occupancy of vacation rentals would be limited to 2 guests per bedroom, no more than 8 persons total (with exception for 2 minor children). The Owner may allow up to 4 additional daytime occupants. The Owner may also allow up to two (2) minor children, age 12 or under, to occupy the Vacation Rental in addition to the maximum number of (adult) occupants. Vehicles are limited to no more than 1 automobile per bedroom. The responsible renter must provide a list of guest vehicles including license plate numbers.
• “Business Entities” (which do not consist of natural persons) are not allowed to obtain Vacation Rental Permits. An “Owner” entitled to a Vacation Rental Permit includes a personal or family trust or LLC composed of natural persons (any such natural person can have interest in only one permitted vacation rental property at a time). A deadline of June 1, 2017 is defined for disclosure of business interests and/or trust/LLC composition.
• An abstract of each written rental contract (to be defined by the Vacation Rental Compliance department) must be filed with the City prior to occupancy and must be posted within the vacation rental and made available should enforcement officials request it. (Even stays that are not in exchange for monetary compensation are to be governed by a contract and count toward the limit on number of contracts. Owners can annually designate and file the names of up to 5 persons that may occupy the vacation rental without cost/impacting the contract cap.)
• The City Manager (or presumably Vacation Rental Compliance) will define requirements for insurance that cover the property for use as a short-term rental as well as defining requirements for annual “building and fire and safety inspection” prior to renewal of a Vacation Rental Certificate.
• Condos/HOA covered homes: Permit applicants must provide “Written acknowledgement… that there are no covenants or other deed restrictions on the property that prohibit or limit the use of the property as a Vacation Rental.” Essentially, this means that applicants whose homes are condominiums or otherwise controlled by an HOA, should supply a letter from their HOA board certifying that short-term rental use of their unit is allowed. (As the ordinance has it, VRCD will accept “a written consent from the governing board of a homeowners’ association with jurisdiction over the property in satisfaction of this requirement.”)
• Other stipulations of the ordinance which might impact an Owner’s contract (such as authority to evict a short-term guest at the request of an Enforcement Official) are also present in the new ordinance. Information that must be gathered from guests are well-defined and include a government issued ID. Contracts are to be retained by owners for a period of 4 years and must be furnished to enforcement officials upon request.
• Significantly increased fines and penalties for violations of the ordinance are preserved. Of particular note, operating a Vacation Rental without a Vacation [Rental] Registration Certificate is a very serious violation with a fine of $5000 and permanent ineligibility to operate a vacation rental. As for other types of citations, there’s a “three strikes” type of policy: Three violations in any 12-month period will result in a 2-year suspension of the property’s vacation rental permit.
• “Clustering” of vacation rental homes is prohibited. (These are when, “two or more Vacation Rentals that operate on a unified or shared basis where residents of such Vacation Rentals have exclusive access to more than one Vacation Rental and/or the facilities of such Vacation Rentals, including by way of example, a swimming pool, tennis court, or cooking facilities.”) Presumably, such properties will have to reorganize as a “small hotel or inn” type business.
• The Ordinance addresses false reports of disturbances: “The filing of knowingly false claims against a Vacation Rental or the guests staying in a Vacation Rental is prohibited,” and subject to fine.
• In terms of implementation of the new rules, Section 5 of Ordinance 1918 makes it clear that the City Manager has reasonable discretion in introducing the new policies during its first year. Various policies may be phased in over time.
• Section 7 or Ordinance 1918 notes that it’s the intent of the City Council to monitor and review the implementation of the ordinance and says the Vacation Rental subcommittee will endeavor to meet monthly with concerned stakeholders. A full report on the overall implementation and administration of the ordinance is to be provided no later than April 1, 2019.
• Section 8 notes that the provisions of Ordinance 1918 are severable, meaning that any parts held to be invalid do not impair the validity of the rest of the Ordinance.
• As in 1907, “homesharing” types of rentals are permitted and Ordinance 1918 defines the requirements for homesharing rental permits. (Such permits are already available from the City.)

As with any item under consideration by the Palm Springs City Council, feedback can be sent to the Mayor and council members in advance of the Wednesday, March 15th City Council meeting via the email addresses shown at http://www.palmspringsca.gov/residents/mayor-city-council.

Previous Updates About this Article

[Update 5/16/17: Owners of vacation rentals in Palm Springs will be interested to know about VRON-PS (“Vacation Rental Owners and Neighbors of Palm Springs” — info at http://home.vronps.org/), a new organization dedicated to preserving Palm Springs’ rich history of vacation rentals and home-sharing through education, awareness, and the promotion of responsible vacation rental ownership and management. While I am not a founder of this organization, I am one of its first members and urge other short-term rental permit holders in Palm Springs to join.]

[Updated 3/14/17 with note about PON lawsuit having been filed and January 2017 data about number of registered VR permits. Updated 3/11/17 with info on condo/HOA covered homes, which I’d forgotten to include previously. Update 7/13/17: I continue to update my Palm Springs Vacation Rental Hotline Map project. I recently wrote a piece which explains some of this for travelers in a new article “Vacation Rentals in Palm Springs: Tips for the Savvy Traveler.”]

[Update 3/15/17: At tonight’s Palm Spring City Council meeting, Ordinance №1918 was approved. The Council voted 3–1 in favor with Mayor Moon voting against. He also explained his votes in the past meeting (which had been intended to send previous draft 1907 to a vote). The Mayor made a plea to reject 1918 and implement a moratorium on new permit issuance until 1907 could come to a ballot vote, stating that certain elements of 1918 — specifically the grandfathering in of all existing permits — went too far beyond what he could accept.

With this, implementation of Ordinance №1918 will begin in 30 days. It will likely be a phased “roll-out”. I’m sure the latest details will be communicated quite well on the Vacation Rental Compliance Department’s web pages at http://www.palmspringsca.gov/government/....]