opinion

Palm Springs voters, reject Measure C's vacation rental restrictions. It's overkill.

Palm Springs voters will decide the long-term fate of short-term rentals in the city on June 5. We strongly recommend that residents reject Measure C as an overkill solution to problems seen with vacation rentals that have divided the community, but are now being addressed smartly by City Hall.

Members of Palm Springs Neighbors for Neighborhoods (PSN4N) – the group behind the ballot measure – joined counterparts from a pro-STR group, We Love Palm Springs, and a contingent from City Hall recently for an Editorial Board discussion of such rentals and how Measure C would change things.

Vacation rentals have been a divisive issue in Palm Springs and other Coachella Valley communities for some time. During the discussion, PSN4N volunteer Marla Malaspina pointed to the 5,400-plus signatures gathered to force Measure C onto the ballot as a clear indication that many believe neighborhoods have been co-opted to their detriment and want voters to decide what to do.

This Editorial Board has weighed in previously on this topic. Our consistent message: This zoning issue, like many others, must remain in the hands of the elected representatives of the people – the City Council.

OUR VOICE: This type of ballot box micromanaging is wrong

VALLEY VOICE: Why the current city ordinance is bad

ANOTHER FACET: Rentals popular in desert during high season

Taking this aspect of zoning out of the council give-and-take compromise process that leads to the most equitable solutions would be a serious mistake. This is exactly the type of work councils are elected to do.

We criticized a prior, vacation rentals industry-pushed ballot initiative that had targeted the City Council’s earlier, more stringent rewrite of the STR ordinance, arguing that that similar, sledgehammer approach violated the representative nature of how cities must be run. That also was a signature-driven ballot measure.

Imposing an ordinance in this manner is extremely dangerous in that it unwisely leaves City Hall no room to correct problems that might arise. Only another vote of the people – or possibly a court order as part of a legal fight – could undo or modify it in the future.

Meanwhile, the current ordinance is changing the city’s vacation rental market in ways critics should be celebrating.

According to Palm Springs’ Vacation Rental Department website, nine properties currently are serving a two-year suspension of their STR permits. In addition, the number of citations issued after complaints to the city’s STR hotline has soared since the new ordinance took effect a year ago.

Violators are being dealt serious penalties and the ordinance is being enforced through the new, permit fee-funded Vacation Rental Compliance Department. This is what was supposed to happen.

Though the wrenching away of a city governance function via the ballot box alone should make Measure C a nonstarter, the potential ramifications of Measure C passing could be devastating.

A NEIGHBOR'S DECISION: Palm Desert council enacts phased-in STR ban

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While other cities have imposed even tougher restrictions on STRs, Bruce Hoban of We Love Palm Springs, who participated in the Editorial Board session, left no doubt that the city would face a serious legal fight on behalf of the hundreds of current STR owners if Measure C is enacted. You can expect that moneyed vacation rentals interests like the popular internet platforms Airbnb and HomeAway would bring their resources to bear in this battle.

At that point, Council Member Geoff Kors acknowledges, the city could be faced with either choosing to wage a court fight in defense of a new ordinance that City Hall had opposed, or looking to reach a settlement. In either case, the legal potential is unclear and likely to be expensive.

Another strike against Measure C as an STR “solution”: The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians -- which holds sway over the roughly half of Palm Springs’ that is on its “checkerboard-grid” reservation – has signaled that it doesn’t like the idea of a ban.

As a sovereign nation, the tribe might simply decide to ignore Measure C. Instead of City Hall capturing STR permit fees and compliance fines, and even the related millions in transient occupancy tax, the tribe could decide to take those substantial sums for itself rather than go along with phasing out STRs as in the rest of Palm Springs. City Hall and the tribe say about 770 of Palm Springs’ almost 2,000 currently permitted STRs are located on tribal-allotted lands.

In that scenario, the city could still have hundreds of STRs it cannot shut down with no dedicated resources to counter the problems that, no doubt, will continue to exist.

For the record, PSN4N disputes that tribal land STR number and points out that the Agua Caliente – despite the recent letter strongly objecting to a ban, deeming it as “onerous and unnecessary” – so far have allowed the city to handle STR regulation. PSN4N’s leaders expressed doubt the tribe would change how it deals with STRs regardless of the Measure C outcome.

As far as daily life for all residents of Palm Springs, the tourism-driven city has a budget that depends on many different revenue streams to provide the services and benefits that the community demands. The vast majority of currently permitted STRs would be banned after Measure C’s two-year phase-in. A study commissioned by City Hall found a ban could cost the city about $10 million in transient occupancy tax, sales taxes and other fees directly related to STRs. The same report put the ban’s overall economic hit to the community at $199 million.

Even setting aside the huge, overall economic impact figure that PSN4N says doesn’t paint a fair picture of what could come, it is clear the city will lose millions in direct revenue it counts on today. City residents – including, we assume, many who signed the PSN4N petition – have been part of making Palm Springs what it is today, and that costs money to maintain. What the loss of these millions will mean to Palm Springs must be a serious consideration in each person’s decision on Measure C.

Voters should reject Measure C and allow the City Council, as promised by STR subcommittee members J.R. Roberts and Kors, to continue to improve the current ordinance to address concerns as they arise.

Along those lines, one of the most pressing concerns remains the sheer number of rentals that residents of some popular city neighborhoods must deal with as a fact of life. It is easy to see how frustrating it could be to have new “neighbors” every weekend on all sides, as exists now in some extreme cases.

Roberts and Kors must determine how the city can control the density of STRs in neighborhoods so those who rightfully want to enjoy their own homes in peace no longer feel under siege.

Working together through the current process is the right answer.

The Palm Springs community would best be served if those so stridently opposed to vacation rentals who felt pushed to this extreme method of addressing their concerns return to working with their City Council to find the best solutions for the future.

COMING UP

The Desert Sun Editorial Board issues its recommendations in the June 5 elections for Riverside County District attorney, Sheriff-Coroner and Fourth District Supervisor.



