Coastal panel to weigh Encinitas vacation rentals

By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer | Monday, November 13, 2006 10:52 PM PST ∞

ENCINITAS -- State Coastal Commission staff members are recommending that the panel deny an Encinitas proposal to ban short-term vacation rentals, but city officials said Monday they will ask for more time to negotiate when the commission meets today.

In a written report, planners from the agency's San Diego office said prohibiting rentals of 30 days or fewer "would significantly restrict lodging opportunities for coastal visitors" along the city's shoreline.

The Coastal Commission has final authority over the proposed ban because it would amend the city's zoning laws.

On Monday, Encinitas planning department Director Patrick Murphy said he would request a continuance so that he can negotiate a compromise with the commission's local office.

There is no guarantee the panel, which is meeting in Huntington Beach, will grant the request for a delay.

A Coastal Commission staffer said her agency's recommendation would allow the city some rental restrictions: All new short-term vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods east of Highway 101 would be prohibited.

As of Monday, 119 landlords or property managers had registered units in Encinitas as short-term vacation rentals, Murphy said. Only five of them are east of Highway 101.

"We felt like we were making some concessions," said Deborah Lee, acting district manager of the commission's San Diego office.

Lee added that new city rules adopted in May, regulating short-term renters and their landlords, have not existed long enough to show whether they would curtail the noise, rowdiness and excessive trash and parked cars that brought the issue to City Hall in the first place.

The rules require landlords to obtain a permit and sets fines of up to $1,000 if they don't respond to neighbors' complaints.

For more than two years, city officials have wrangled with regulating vacation rentals.

In February, the city was scheduled to bring its ordinance banning new short-term rentals to the commission for approval, but pulled back because of a negative recommendation from the panel's staff.

If permitted by commissioners, Murphy said he would negotiate an "over-concentration clause" akin to an existing city ordinance that prohibits bed and breakfast establishments from operating within 200 feet of one another.

The city has argued that plenty of short-term lodging exists at the city's hotels and motels, where year-round vacancy rates range from 34 percent to 53 percent.

"You can't put a family in one room," said Chris Carrico, who manages vacation rentals at the 255-unit Sea Bluff complex in Leucadia. "Vacation rentals let families enjoy time together for a week at the beach. Hotels don't supply that."

Some 75 of the condos at Sea Bluff are rented to short-term tenants, she said, adding that the clause proposed by Murphy would effectively prohibit new landlords from renting short-term.

That's what members of Encinitas Citizens for Residential Stability have argued for.

"The Coastal Commission is showing complete disdain for the rights of this city to control its destiny," said the group's Harry Fund, who has testified that short-term tenants have disrupted his peace. "They're more concerned with the people in Nebraska who come here than they are with our right to have a good neighborhood life."

The commission's meeting begins at 10 a.m. at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach, 21500 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach.

-- Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.

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