Santa Barbara County has always been a tourist attraction. With its Mediterranean climate, ocean views, and mountains speckled with orange poppies and oak trees, it’s not hard to see why. And you can’t forget about the hundreds of wineries that attracted more than 860,000 unique visitors to the county in 2013, according to a report issued by Stonebridge Research Group in December 2015.
Opting against hotels, many vacationers are finding housing through the online short-term rental market. Like Uber, except with houses, homeowners can make their own houses available for short-term stays. Websites such as airbnb.com and vrbo.com allow owners to list their properties to be found by vacationers.
While some claim such listings boost tourism and allow homeowners to make a little extra cash on the side, some residents in the county see those rentals as a nuisance.
On April 28, a lawsuit filed in the Santa Maria Cook Division of the Santa Barbara County Superior Court pits one homeowner against an association.
Attempts by the Sun to reach either party before press time weren’t successful.
However, in the lawsuit, plaintiff Rancho Ynecita Owners Association in Santa Ynez accuses homeowner and defendant James Nicholas of violating the association’s rules, as well as county laws, by renting his house for short-term stays.
According to court records, Nicholas claims the accusations are payback for past criticism of the board’s mishandling of business.
“I expect these allegations are retribution for my criticism of their performance,” Nicholas writes in a letter dated Jan. 5, 2016. “This letter constitutes my participation in the Association Dispute Resolution Process.”
The lawsuit underscores the importance of ordinances that lay down the law about what can and can’t be done in regard to renting out residential properties for short periods of time.
Some cities in the county have already restricted the practice of short-term rentals of residential properties, and now the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission is currently in the process of drafting an ordinance that would prohibit short-term rentals in some areas while allowing it in others, according to Jennifer Metzger, the manager for the short-term rental ordinance project for the Planning Commission.
In December, the Planning Commission voted 3-2 to create a law that would ban short-term rentals for less than 30 days in residential areas in unincorporated parts of the county but allow them on agricultural land.
When it’s finished, Metzger said the Board of Supervisors will vote on the ordinance by late fall of this year.
The drafting of the new law comes on the heels of complaints from residents who don’t want to attract a constant influx of strangers into their neighborhoods. In Buellton, City Manager Marc Bierdzinski summed it up.
“We’re a small town and our single family neighborhoods are for the enjoyment of single families,” Bierdzinski told the Sun in an earlier interview, adding that a resident appealed a ban by the city in June. “We’ve had complaints on the one that led to the appeal.”
A series of public workshops held around the county in August and July of 2015 explain the concerns of residents both for and against a new law.
Some of the concerns addressed parking issues, and enforcement of rental laws, and included solutions like requiring letters of support from neighbors, limiting the number of people per rental, as well as keeping the bureaucratic process as simple as possible.
The county ordinance would affect any unincorporated but populated area in the county such as Orcutt or Santa Ynez, where listings can be found on both aforementioned websites. The Montecito Planning Commission already voted to only allow short-term rentals where traditional transient housing—such as hotels—exists.
Like with hotels, according to Metzger, anyone renting out their house must still register with the county and pay transient occupancy taxes.
Whatever the ordinance of regulating short-term rentals may come out to, it could help some but hurt others who’ve been doing it for years.
The practice of renting a home to vacationers for a short time is a long-established practice, said Matt Curtis, the senior director of global government affairs for Texas-based Homeaway, which is the parent company of VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner).
Curtis added that user reviews tend to help the online rental industry regulate itself. Renters usually stay away from houses with bad reviews, he said.
“Over-burdensome regulations are not good for the community and for the industry,” Curtis told the Sun. “I think it’s important that they talk to us to discuss regulations that are fair rather than regulations that simply drive the activity underground, which is not good.”
The way to do this, according to Curtis, is to let data drive the conversation. Citing statistics gathered from his company’s own surveys and traveler data, Curtis said more people tend to stay longer in short-term rentals than hotels—averaging 6.2 days and 3.6 guests per stay compared to 1.1 days and 1.01 guests, respectively.
Curtis said he wants to work collaboratively with local governments to be in compliance, which is the ultimate goal.
Until the ordinance passes, homeowner’s associations can regulate such practices through their covenants, conditions, and restrictions agreements. However homeowners not under the oversight of an association will just have to wait.
Staff Writer David Minsky can be reached at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 12-19, 2016.