One of the items on tomorrow night’s Anaheim City Council agenda is extending the current 45-day moratorium on short-term vacation rentals for another 186 days, until May 3 of next year. The moratorium would:
“…impos[e] a moratorium, with certain exceptions, on the issuance or renewal of use permits, variances, building permits, business licenses or any other entitlement or permit for the use, establishment or operation of Short-Term Rentals within the City of Anaheim (to expire on May 3, 2016).”
At that time, the council could extend the moratorium again, but not for a total of more than a year.
According to the above description, it sounds like any short-term rental (STR) operator who’s permit comes up for renewal during the moratorium is out of luck, although the staff report seems to indicate otherwise. That would be an issue to clarify during the council meeting.
The declared purpose of the moratorium is to allow staff more time to devised changes to the existing STR ordinance that bother STR operators and residents who don’t like them can buy into. That may or may not be possible. I can understand where anti-STR homeowners are coming from: I probably wouldn’t be thrilled if STRs replaced owner-occupied homes as the dominant feature of my neighborhood.
At the same time, technology now makes it possible for property owners to realize revenue from homes they own in a way that was previously impossible, and city council members should think twice about trying to stand athwart it. Furthermore, proper enforcement and intelligent, light-handed regulation of this use ought to accommodate the reasonable operation of this new form of enterprise without unduly disrupting neighborhoods. Anaheim is a top tourist and convention destination; and pours enormous energy and resources into maintaining itself as such. The growth in vacation rentals (a search for “anaheim” on Homeaway.com turns ups 473 results) is a natural and expected market response. If Anaheim is a freedom-friendly city where “entrepreneurs can make their dreams come true” – if that isn’t empty rhetoric – then the city council should demonstrate the will to arrive at a solution that is true to those values.
Anaheim’s Political Left Jumps Into The Fray
This had been primarily a use issue between STR operators and those residents opposed to their growth and/or very existence – until this morning when the militant hotel workers union, UNITE-HERE, and it’s community organization symbiote, OCCORD, held a press conference to absurdly denounce STRs as “threaten[ing] Anaheim’s tourism industry” and demand a crack-down by the city, “including a ban on advertising of illegal short-term rentals and the private right of action for Anaheim residents with violators in their neighborhoods.”
OCCORD staffer Marisol Ramirez holding Party for Socialism and Liberation sign saying “Police Are George Zimmermans With A Badge.”
Since when does the hotel workers union and its leftist non-profit off-shoot (OCCORD is housed literally next door to UNITE-HERE, which funds it to the tune of $60,000 a year) care about neighborhood impacts, or what is more or less a code enforcement issue? It’s not as though you see UNITE-HERE and OCCORD operatives at city council meetings, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with West Anaheim residents whose neighborhoods are deteriorating because their parks are becoming homeless encampments.
Think about it. UNITE-HERE is a business. It is in the membership business — and business hasn’t been good in Anaheim, where the great majority of the Resort Area’s thousands of hotel and motel employees are not union members. STRs are expanding the non-unionized segment of the Anaheim lodging industry. The rapidly-growing vacation rentals market isn’t a “threat to Anaheim’s tourism industry;” it’s a threat to UNITE-HERE’s ongoing (and largely unsuccessful) mission to unionize Anaheim’s tourism industry. That’s the real meaning of the UNITE-HERE/OCCORD allegation that Anaheim’s vacation rentals “undermine working standards for hospitality workers across the city.”
The Anaheim City Council should not buy into this UNITE-HERE and OCCORD political play; and any homeowners who have hooked up with them should be wary of their new progressive “friends” and spend some time familiarizing themselves with their radical politics.
UNITE-HERE and OCCORD? You mean, “conservative” Tom Tait’s allies? The same ones who used used him as a “useful idiot” in their campaign for council districts?
When Tom Tait took office, there was only one Democrat on the Anaheim City Council. After almost eight years of Tait waging war on his GOP colleagues and collaborating with the liberals and unions, the Anaheim City Council will soon have Democratic majority. And Tait could care less. After eight years as mayor, that’s his legacy. Let’s hear Tait’s apologists in the OC GOP explain that away. Can we finally stop pretending Tom Tait is a conservative?
I hate to deny credit where it’s due: can we have you sign in under your own name and attack the districts so that we can officially associate this sentiment with “Pringle and Associates”?
P.S., It’s far from clear that the new majority will be Democrats, unless by that you mean “Brandman Democrats.” Maybe you haven’t noticed that Republicans will enter the 2016 elections with a 3-0 head start. That will probably hold up, unless you think that Anaheim Democrats are the 2004 Boston Red Sox.
Hi Greg, What about James Robert Reade Democrats?!
Hope the mayor and council members will wake up and see the truth. Str’s are not a threat to Anaheim residents or hotels, but a threat to unite-here.
I always wonder why at sherwood village is never peace since most of vacation homes in anaheim have no complaint. Got the answer. That Martin Lopez who us a resident at sherwood village and also a big guy at unite-here is the instigator. People of Sherwood Village wake up. Don’t make friend with lopez, he is not your friend