SAN DIEGO (CN) — After a vote on Thursday at their monthly meeting, California’s Coastal Commission will allow Seal Beach to regulate short-term rentals, like Airbnbs, near the city’s coveted beachfront coastal area.
The small Orange County city of a little more than 25,000 people asked the commission to allow it to cap the total number of short-term rentals permits it doles out to just 1% of the city’s housing along the Pacific Ocean.
The city has slightly more than 4,700 homes along the coast, so permits allowing people, or companies, to turn those homes into Airbnbs, Vrbos or other kinds of short-term rentals will be capped at 47.
That permitting cap is similar to other nearby cities’ rules on short-term rental permits — like the bordering, and much larger, Long Beach, which has a 1.6% cap, and Laguna Beach, which has a 1.5% cap.
How many short-term rentals the city currently has in that area is a little hazy.
A report prepared by the commission says there are 14 short-term rental units that have “conditional use permits” from the city.
During the commission’s meeting on Thursday, Alexa Smittle, the city’s community development director, said there are roughly 15 to 25 unpermitted short-term rentals in the city, but pinning down an exact number is difficult because they fluctuate by the season.
“It’s hard for me to imagine that that kind of analysis hasn’t been done by the city by the time they’re bringing this to us,” said Commissioner Mike Wilson.
Smaller cities have brought completed surveys and data of the short-term rentals in their cities and towns to the commission, and they aren’t expensive, according to the commissioner.
“I’m sorry, usually I just have better information than this,” he added.
Noah Suarez-Sikes, an organizer with Better Neighborhoods LA, a community activist group that researches short-term rentals in coastal zones and their impact on rents, coastal access, and housing, claimed that the city has 56 short-term rental units.
Suarez-Sikes added that the city should amend its proposal to only give permits to people who live in their homes full time, and not companies or owners that rent out their properties.
Smittle later claimed in an email after the commission approved the measure that the city has roughly 14 short-term rentals “operating under conditional use permits” and 31 “operating under the program the Coastal Commission reviewed today.”
The city doesn’t keep track of who owns short-term rentals because as a small city, they don’t have the staff to do it, she added.
Commissioners still unanimously voted to approve the city’s proposal, while asking them to report back in a number of years to see how it has affected the city, especially its housing and its ability to accommodate people who want to enjoy the beach.
“We want to see how do we develop more hosted that allows people to stay in their homes while also providing lower cost visitor serving in the coastal zone,” said Commissioner Ann Notthoff.
“Hosted” short-term rentals, or homes that people live in full time, are usually rented out at cheaper rates than homes that are “unhosted,” or ones that are just rented out, she added.
The commission is the state’s agency tasked with protecting the coastline and ensuring every Californian has access to it. Due to Seal Beach’s location along the coast, the California Coastal Commission had to approve the city’s proposal in order to evaluate how it will affect public access to the city’s beaches.
Recently the commission has begun to rethink how they define access with the goal of making sure the coast isn’t just accessible for rich coastal homeowners by tackling affordable housing issues and even the price of hotel stays along the coast.