Want more party houses? VACATION RENTALS legislation passes through PLUM: Doheny Sunset Plaza Neighborhood Association sounds the alarm for hillside residents

The Doheny Sunset Plaza Neighborhood Council is ringing the bell for residents to address the Vacation Rental Ordinance, Council File Number 18-1246

Here is a reprint of the DSPNA Blog post:

HELP DEFEAT A MASSIVE INCREASE IN VACATION RENTALS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Yesterday, I attended the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee meeting to speak on the “Vacation Rental Ordinance”.  The previous draft of the ordinance would only have allowed a handful of vacation rental permits (.25% of units per census tract) to be issued in our area so we hadn’t been paying careful attention to it.  I was dismayed to find that the new draft allows up to 1000 permits for our area (1% of units per Community Plan Area).  With the current housing and homelessness situation, it was incredulous that the committee was moving forward on a piece of legislation that shifts tens of thousands of housing units to the hospitality market.  I thought possibly they were just trying to put the nail in the coffin of this terrible idea.

Many people participated in speaking out against this ordinance -  housing advocates, laid-off hotel workers, Councilmembers Koretz and Bonin, and me, on behalf of DSPNA.  In my one minute of allotted time, I articulated that the current home sharing ordinance is not well-enforced and that this ordinance would mean more problematic and dangerous parties in our neighborhood.  There were still people in line, including DSPNA warrior Stella Grey, when they ended public comment after sixty minutes. 

Two of my assumptions were debunked.  First, I assumed that with so much opposition to this obviously a bad idea it would not move forward.  Wrong.  It was passed out of Committee and is on its way to a full vote at City Council.  Members who voted for it are Gil Cedillo, John Lee, and Marqueece Harris-Dawson.

Second, I have always believed that Councilmembers did not actually listen during public comment.  These days you can’t even watch them tune you out.  Not so, it turns out.  During deliberation Councilmember Gil Cedillo referred to my comments when he said, in essence, “this ordinance will not cause problems in my neighborhood; it will cause problems in that Doheny Sunset neighborhood so let’s pass it.” 

Yes, that’s right.  They want to sacrifice our neighborhood for an unproven “revenue boost” that will most likely be offset by hotel tax losses. Members of the LA City PLUM Committee are willing to monetize and harm our neighborhood for some very hypothetical revenue benefits to the City.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

It’s important that we all get together to oppose this before it becomes law. Help us let City Council know how our neighborhood has been affected and the harm this new proposal causes for residents:

Leave a public comment at https://cityclerk.lacity.org/publiccomment and reference Council File number 18-1246. We need as many people to comment on this as possible. Please make a comment, however brief.

Points you might wish to make are:

• With the housing and homelessness crisis, it’s not the time to reward investors for turning good housing into vacation rentals.

• The home sharing ordinance has so far been poorly enforced. That must get under control before any expansion is allowed.

• Party houses are a significant and destructive problem and bring quality of life issues and violence to our neighborhood.

• If this passes, our neighborhood will have the bulk of vacation rentals allowed in the Hollywood Community Plan area.

• With Safer LA orders in effect, planning to bring more tourists and partiers into our neighborhoods seems simply reckless.

• Our neighborhood is NOT a piggy bank for the City. We have had enough.