City poised to regulate vacation rentals

Airbnb and VRBO among websites used by visitors.|

Websites that help people rent out their houses or spare rooms have become a divisive issue in Petaluma, pitting informal innkeepers against residents leery of the influx of tourists in their neighborhoods.

For years, proprietors who use sites like Airbnb and VRBO to fill their short-term vacation rental units have operated under the radar. Now, a group of neighbors, complaining about the noise and traffic from such accommodations, wants to end the practice in Petaluma.

Some cities, including Healdsburg and Calistoga, have banned short-term vacation rentals partly because of noise and traffic concerns. Others, like Sonoma and Santa Rosa, have chosen to regulate the industry and garner increased transient occupany tax revenues in the process.

The Petaluma City Council is considering a list of regulations that would help bring short-term vacation rentals in line with other lodging options. The city would be able to collect taxes and permit fees that could add up to $85,000 to the city’s coffers.

After several workshops and Planning Commission hearings last year and a heated council meeting last month, officials are close to adopting the final set of rules to deal with short-term vacation rentals.

The City Council last month sent the proposal back to its staff for some final tweaking after hearing from a dozen Airbnb hosts and a handful of opponents from a group called Protect Petaluma Neighborhoods.

Christina Gleason, who co-founded the opposition group, told the council that her quality of life has diminished since her neighbor started hosting short-term renters.

“I don’t think you understand how it impacts your life until it’s right next to you,” she said. “You kind of think it’s not your neighborhood anymore.”

There are between 50 and 100 short-term vacation units available for rent at any one time in the city, according to a staff report. Airbnb hosts say that renters are typically respectful of neighbors and are not loud.

The hosts say they can provide tourists with an intimate experience of the city that they wouldn’t get staying at a hotel.

“The concern that the town is going to be swamped with tourists, I think is misplaced,” said Maurice Bowers, who has been an Airbnb host for two years.

The regulations the city council is considering would limit the number of people who can occupy a rental to two per bedroom plus two additional guests. They would require that a property manager live within 45 minutes of the rental and be able to respond to complaints within an hour, and necessitate that owners of short-term rental properties provide parking for tenants.

Perhaps the most debated rule would put a 90-day per year cap on non-hosted vacation rentals. City officials say this would prevent developers from buying several properties to turn into short-term rentals, and thus take them off the long-term rental market.

Council members wanted more clarification on the definition of a “hosted” property, which traditionally means renting out a room in an otherwise occupied house, as opposed to a “non-hosted” property which is a whole house for rent.

What is less clear is how to categorize the granny units and outbuildings on land next to the owner-occupied houses.

Some proprietors said they rely on the income from renting their granny units through short-term rental sites. But council members, not wanting to deplete the city’s already scarce supply of long-term rentals, signaled they might place limits on these properties.

“Granny units set up as full apartments, that’s housing stock to me,” said Councilman Mike Healy.

(Contact Matt Brown at argus@arguscourier.com)

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