City Council
MEETING DATE: 1/11/2017
TITLE:
Title
Short Term Vacation Rental Task Force Update
End
FROM:
Charlie McClendon, City Manager
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
This item is presented for information, discussion and direction only.
Body
BACKGROUND:
Earlier this year Council directed staff to appoint an ad-hoc task force to study issues related to short term vacation rentals in Cathedral City and to report back to Council with recommendations. Mayor Henry and Councilmember John Aguilar were assigned to work with the task force. The task force began meeting on October 19, 2016 and has been meeting twice a month since that time. The task force should complete their work by February or March. This update report is being provided so the full Council will be aware of the progress the task force is making in anticipation of presenting formal recommendations at that time.
DISCUSSION:
After initial orientation, introductions and discussions on what the task force members hoped to accomplish the group assigned some members to subcommittees to work on specific assignments. One group has been working on issues related to enforcement of codes and regulations and another has been working on materials that are or should be provided to STVR owners and tenants and/or posted in the rental units.
City departments have also implemented some changes already, which should improve enforcement and record keeping related to STVRs. Finance is now providing regular data updates to Police so the dispatch system will at all times include current information on where the STVR units are located. Likewise Police is providing a weekly data download to Code Enforcement so that the Code Enforcement data base now includes call data from any Police calls to STVR units whether the call resulted in enforcement action or not. An additional improvement will include transferring data from the Hotline to the Code Enforcement database. The objective is that the Code database will include a record of all complaints related to an address regardless of where the complaint was initiated.
Task Force members working on enforcement issues have spent time in both Police Dispatch and Code Enforcement learning about the processes and systems in place and are working with staff to identify other process improvements that can be implemented. Improvements and additions to information posted on the website related to STVRs have also been made at the suggestion of task force members. Task force members have also attended and reviewed materials from Council meetings in Palm Springs regarding STVR regulations recently proposed in that City.
During the upcoming weeks the task force will review suggested code revisions more closely and then develop suggested improvements and additions to the materials provided to STVR owners and tenants and provided in the units. A review of the permit fees and the actual costs incurred related to STVRs will also be completed.
Once that work is completed a set of recommendations with be provided to Council at a future study session.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The costs of the task force work to date have been primarily staff time. As the project moves toward completion a fee analysis will be conducted, which will have revenue implications. Staff additions or reassignments may have cost implications as well.
ATTACHMENTS:
None