Opponents of short term vacation rentals stepped up their pressure Wednesday on San Diego lawmakers, calling on them to protect single-family neighborhoods from what they say is the proliferation of “mini hotels.”

The plea for tougher regulations, which was made during a morning news conference outside City Hall, comes more than a year after San Diego City Councilwoman Lorie Zapf launched an effort to get new laws on the books regulating the operation of short term rentals popularized by online sites like Airbnb.

Despite multiple hours-long hearings held last year, no new regulations have come before the City Council.

A number of individuals, including several running for public office and community activists, expressed their frustrations Wednesday over the inaction but offered no specific proposal for regulating short-term stays in residential communities. Some even acknowledged that many among them have different views about how the issue should be resolved.


“Our group may have different approaches to resolution: enforce the current municipal code or establish thoughtful regulation as we do for ridesharing, but we all agree that the ongoing behavior of converting single family homes into mini hotels in residential areas must change immediately,” said Joe LaCava, former chairman of the San Diego Community Planners Committee.

Longtime North Park resident Vicki Granowitz said her community worries about the potential for year-round short-term rentals to forever alter the neighborhood character.

“Proposals relying on code enforcement, adding police officers, or even a three-night minimum stay in larger homes is not protecting neighborhoods but capitulating to corporations, private investors and special interests,” she said. “Who is looking out for us?”

Zapf, who represents some of the beach communities hardest hit by growing numbers of vacation rentals, also spoke at the news conference and pressed for action by the city. She made no mention, though, of her so far unsuccessful efforts to push a measure forward.


Where she at one time supported new rules that would limit short-term stays to no less than 21 days in single-family neighborhoods, she now favors an outright ban of whole-home rentals.

The rise of Airbnb and platforms like HomeAway has fueled a boom in short-term vacation rentals far beyond the coastal communities and fueled tensions between operators and neighborhood residents.

Unlike many other cities, San Diego still has nothing in its municipal code that clearly defines a short-term rental, although there are regulations that govern more traditional bed-and-breakfasts, board-and-lodging dwellings and rooming houses. The absence of specific language has led to much ambiguity as to what is allowed and what is not.

There are also deep divisions on the City Council, from Zapf’s support of a ban to those like Councilman Chris Cate who are calling for stronger enforcement of public nuisance violations but oppose restrictions on minimum stays for operators of short-term rentals.


Asked what she plans to do next to advance the issue, Zapf said she is waiting for city staff to draft an ordinance and “as soon as it’s ready, I’m willing to get it straight to council.”

Robert Vacchi, who heads the city’s development services department, said that an ordinance is currently being drafted that he hopes could be considered in the fall. But whatever emerges will have to go through the same process that began early last year -- hearings before the city Planning Commission and the council’s Smart Growth and Land Use Committee and eventually the full council.

“We are trying to make (the ordinance) as balanced as possible,” Vacchi said.

Last August, city planners released the framework for new regulations but they steered clear of addressing the issue of how frequently homes could be rented to visitors because there was no consensus among elected leaders.


Cate said Wednesday that his office has been working with Development Services on crafting his own proposal designed to crack down on those rentals that are driving complaints about noise, trash and disorderly conduct.

“We want to make sure the code is crystal clear in terms of this activity and enforcement,” said Cate, “but I don’t think the right approach is to ban any use, which will only make this go into an underground market.”

lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-2251 Twitter: @loriweisberg