Committee to work on updated South Lake Tahoe Vacation Rental Ordinance

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - What does a win-win-win vacation home rental (VHR) ordinance look like?

It may not yet be known after today's workshop held during the South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting in front of a full house, but all sides appear to be committed to creating something that works for everyone in the community.

Cities across the country are grappling with their own ordinances for VHRs as the new trend towards vacationing centers around renting a home instead of staying in a motel or hotel.

The current South Lake Tahoe VHR ordinance has been in place since October 1, 2015, and many of the same concerns then still exist today: trash, noise and enforcement of the rules.

To adjust the ordinance, the City Council is bringing back their vacation rental subcommittee and reignite the conversations with stakeholders to come up with an ordinance that can last awhile and be as close as a win for all sides, or at least some sort of middle ground.

Some of the sides:

The vacationer in South Lake Tahoe knows what a great experience renting a home would be. They may not be as lucky as those that live at the lake to be there daily, but renting a home for a weekend or a week can give them that experience. Most want to be part of the neighborhood and have a vacation they can talk about for years.

The neighbor wants to have life as normal as possible and not have a different family or group staying next door every weekend. They don't tons of cars parked next door nor do they want noise or parties as they try to sleep for work the next day. They also don't want trash spread across the streets.

The homeowner who rents their home out wants to have a home in Lake Tahoe, but rather than leave it empty until they can make it back to town they rent it out for income and other reasons. They don't want to have a full-time renter in there as they still want to use the home periodically.

The professional vacation home management companies earn an income from responsibly maintaining their clients homes and getting short-term renters to stay in them.

After Tuesday's workshop, all current rules and regulations will be evaluated to keep those four groups, and all others, as happy as possible. Communication, establishing best practices, good relationships with neighbors and a welcoming atmosphere will be first steps.

The Council asked for ideas instead of just complaints, and they received some.

Enforcement

A main topic for years has been for law enforcement to enforce the regulations. Money taken in through increased tourist occupancy tax (TOT) was to fund an extra employee to take care of complaints during the busy hours of 4:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m Thursday-Sunday. One has been hired and should start mid-August.

Much discussion took place about citations and who should get them, the homeowner or the renter. Most tickets issued to the homeowners today are appealed and a different verbiage on renter contracts could change this. By property owners/managers adding something to contracts that said to renters "If you are ticketed you will have to pay X amount of dollar," the ticket couldn't be appealed.

SLT Police Chief Brian Uhler said his department will now be scanning all complaints for VHRs on the website: http://www.cityofslt.us/index.aspx?NID=917. Anyone can go on and look at any time. Another thing he'd like to have for TOT enforcement is software that searched rental home listing for when they are booked to ensure taxes are paid correctly.

If an owner is staying at their own home and a noise complaint comes in, law enforcement walks away as they don't have to abide by the ordinance.

He also said that some renters are coached by some vacation home renters to say they are family, and thus exempt from the current rules. "Gaming of the system is an issue," Uhler said.

The subcommittee will look at how many "strikes" they feel is fair per home per year in order to hold homeowners responsible for what happens in their homes.

Cap or Moratorium

Much talk has circulated through town about putting a cap on the number of VHRs in any area, as well as a temporary moratorium to be put in place until the final details are worked out.

Development Services Director Kevin Fabino acts as the zoning administrator and has held hearings almost weekly on VHR permits, a task he'd like to get away from.

"We meed to eliminate the need of a discretionary component (the zoning administrator) and provide certainty to residents and potential VHRs," said Fabino. He said he'd like to see the concept of establishing a distance between VHRs to get rid of clusters.

"No matter what side of the fence you are on it is a bright line," said Fabino about the need for a process in getting a permit with no confusion with cut and dry rules.

Ideas from the public circled around better screening of renters, a possible card placed in front of a home when it was rented (as opposed to homeowners being there), lower occupancy numbers as well as a requirement for people to own a home for a period of time before being able to rent it out.

The committee of stakeholders will address these, and other concerns and ideas in the next several weeks and come back to council with an amended ordinance in the next 60-90 days.

In the meantime it is business as usual though Councilmember Brooke Laine asked for a moratorium on new permits until all could be figured out.

If a moratorium were put in place it was anticipated that there would be a rush to get a permit, something they are currently seeing already. An emergency would cause a lot more impact according to SLT City Attorney Tom Watson. "It takes 90 days already to put that into place, instead, just fix the problem," he said.