Since the 1970's, vacation rentals and summer homes have been providing access to our beautiful Santa Barbara coastline for ALL visitors of all socioeconomic status. The Coastal Act of 1976 protects this right and as much as we love and believe this is our coast and our city, we have a duty to allow others to visit and provide accommodations that are affordable for all.
In a knee jerk reaction based on unfounded and inaccurate statistics, the city council was swayed to prohibit short term rentals in the residential zones. What they didn't realize was that the zoning ordinances that the city attorney and city staff told them as "being on the books" to regulate this, actually does not. There currently is no "rule on the books" that says you cannot rent for less than 30 days, all it says is that "hotels" are not allowed in residential zones. And there, that day the term "hotel" was "birthed" for R-4 properties in the allowed use zones.
When city staff informed City Council there was a "process on the books" for these owners to get a permit to become "legal" what they also failed to tell them was that it had never been required or done before and that they had no idea what the requirements were. They also failed to alert the California Coastal Commission of all of these new developments and that now these homes would be classified as "hotels" and made to go through a "hotel conversion process" with far reaching legal implications for the City of Santa Barbara not to mention for these R-4 property owners.
What the city was not prepared for was a group of owners with common sense, perseverance and the fortitude to "right this wrong" that was given absolutely no due process of law for these R-4 property owners now owning "hotels". This decision to call them "hotels" was based solely on arbitrary "interpretations" of the Santa Barbara Municipal Code that no judge or jury ever weighed in on and that these R-4 property owners never had the ability to discuss in a public way.
One day they were "vacation rentals" as listed on the Santa Barbara business license issued to them for 10 years by the city and the next day by a vote of misled and misinformed City Council members they were considered "hotels" just like that. Let's not forget, many have operated as vacation rentals for 50 years and not hotels.
The California Coastal Commission has in writing informed the City of Santa Barbara that they do not agree with their process of now calling them hotels. They further believe this is a way to unduly restrict and prohibit their use which is permitted by right in the R-4 mixed use zones. Many aspects of the Coastal Act are currently being violated by the City of Santa Barbara and this was also noted in the letter to the City of Santa Barbara. The city has chosen to disregard the letter and misrepresent it's facts to City Council, however we have since presented it to them and pointed out the discrepancies with city staff.
In 2 years, only 3 properties total (and only most recently) in the R-4 zone have been able to become "hotels". Now another local group in Santa Barbara has chosen to attempt to shut down these approvals by trying to sway boards and commissions with false information about vacancy rates in our city and hotel rates which has nothing to do with this process or our property rights. This group is against any form of development in our city and fails to realize we use our homes ourselves and that they are not part of the "housing stock". What the city and this group does not realize is that these denials have created a perfect lawsuit for these property owners. We have created a vast alliance, the Santa Barbara Short Term Rental Alliance with each and every group challenging the city on this issue and we are watching these developments through a magnifying glass.
We will prevail. We have no doubt the truth will be told once and for all. We are here to fight for all owners in the legal allowed use zones whether or not they choose to rent short term, it's about property rights. It's about abuses of power within the city. It's time the corruption is exposed.
Our Mission
By working together to create an alliance and sharing our vast amounts of expertise, experience and resources we will continue to seek change within the City of Santa Barbara. Through educating other R-4 owners and sharing our stories, we will continue to be effective in all pursuits against the city in a strategic mission to solve this short term rental crisis in the legal allowed use zones once and for all.
“There’s been fighting in the Middle East since the beginning of time. So too has Santa Barbara had a shortage of housing, but the shortage is of the lower priced variety under $2000/month. High end ($3 million dollar) vacation rentals that owners live in half of the year are by no means part of this “housing stock” they speak of. These tenant rights groups have the wrong suspect. ”