Since December 2023, some residents have come together to try to enact a change in short-term rental policies approved by the California Coastal Commission and Dana Point City Council. During the City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 16, staff and councilmembers not only collaborated to create the ballot measure to add to the upcoming election but also reviewed the current program that is in place.
The city’s current short-term rental (STR) program is split in half; one program regulates vacation rentals within the coastal zone, and the other regulates rentals outside the coastal zone.
The program within the coastal zone, approved by the California Coastal Commission (CCC), established a cap of 115 non-primary, multifamily homestay, and mixed-use parcel non-primary short-term rentals within the coastal zone through a Coastal Development Permit.
There is no cap on primary or homestay short-term rentals; however, the cap of non-primary homestays decreases by one with each homestay and primary permit granted.
The city’s program for vacation rentals outside of the coastal zone matches the CCC-approved program. The program includes a cap of 115 vacation rentals, making the combined cap on STRs within and outside the coastal zone at 230 units.
However, the program included a phased approach, allowing the City Council to evaluate it before implementing the 115-permit cap. During a November council meeting last year, the council voted to hold off on issuing any more permits until it could evaluate the impacts of the city’s newest permit holders at the mid-year review in 2024.
During the meeting, John Ciampa, Principal Planner, and Ray Oropeza, Code Enforcement Supervisor, reviewed some statistics of what has been happening with STRs since the last review.
According to staff reports, code enforcement conducts proactive monitoring with evening and weekend patrols during the peak season and random days the rest of the year to observe or respond quickly to complaints if issues arise. For significant community events like the Ohana Music Festival, where the increase in the number of occupied STRs is anticipated, patrols are scheduled to ensure potential nuisances are abated.
In 2023, the city conducted 1,925 STR patrol inspections using a 10-point checklist to evaluate potential nuisance issues related to parking, trash, noise, and occupancy. Once again, in 2024, peak season patrols started on Memorial Day and will continue through September. To date, Code Enforcement Staff have conducted 1,421 patrol inspections.
Staff also mentioned the statistics of complaints and violations that STRs have received. In November, staff was directed to collect all STR complaints received through the 24/7 hotline, Code Enforcement, and OCSD.
Since January 1, 2024, the City’s 24/7 STR complaint line has received six calls: three for noise and three for trash. Additionally, the OCSD received and responded to two calls related to noise. Staff investigated each complaint and concluded that four were unfounded. Two notices of violations were issued, one for trash and the other for noise, along with one citation for noise. In comparison, the City’s Code Enforcement Division received 367 nuisance complaints, and OCSD received 4,910 calls for service that were not associated with STRs.
“You are not seeing as many nuisances,” said Dana Point Mayor Jamey Federico. “I could make the assumption that the increased rules and stiffer rules and regulations that we have are having a positive impact on good neighbor policy.”
The council, now revisiting their decision from last year, began discussing the outstanding permits they had received. To date, the City has issued 73 new STR permits, 48 in the coastal zone and 25 outside.
A waitlist containing 38 applications is in place for areas outside the coastal zone. During the council meeting, five permits from the waitlist—three primary homestays and two multi-family—were authorized to move forward. No other permits were authorized to be issued in the coastal zone or outside of the coastal zone.
While most of the discussion surrounding the approval of these was to continue holding off on granting any more permits, Councilmember Mike Frost wanted to grant those five primary/homestay or multifamily STRs since, in the long run, it would happen, mentioning the ballot measure up for approval.
“The caveat to that is, unless my math’s wrong, those five homestays that are waiting for their permits under any scenario, whether the ballot measure passes or doesn’t pass, conceptually, we’d give it away,” Frost said. “I wouldn’t have a problem getting those five out the door.”
Council voted to approve those five permits, while the rest of discussion regarding maximum permit caps will hold off until after the November election settles if council or residents have power in STR’s decisions.
The motion passed, 4-1, with Councilmember Michael Villar voting no.
Following this vote, the discussion began about the ballot measure that would put this decision in voters’ hands. Capistrano Beach residents Betty and Buck Hill filed an act last year to repeal and replace the City of Dana Point’s vacation rental programs, which the City Council had approved last February.
The Hills filed a notice of intent to circulate a petition on Nov. 16, which was the first step in bringing forward a citizen initiative. They had until May 29 to receive and file signatures from 10% of registered voters (2,394 signatures) in Dana Point, which they did complete.The Hills seek to establish a tiered prioritization system that gives homestay vacation rentals the highest priority and nonprimary rentals the lowest priority.
In a previous story in the Dana Point Times, Betty explained that the proposed seven-tier prioritization system would give residents priority in receiving vacation rental permits.
The prioritization system gives permits to homestay STRs in commercial and mixed-use zones first, followed by primary STRs in commercial and mixed-use zones, then multifamily primary STRs in commercial and mixed-use zones, followed by homestay STRs in residential zones, primary STRs in residential zones and multifamily STRs in residential zones, with non-primary STRs as the lowest priority.
“We feel that our prioritization will help protect homes and their neighborhoods,” Betty said.
The proposed system would give permits in order of the priority tiers until the permit cap is reached. Once the cap is reached, a random drawing process will select which permits are granted in that category. For example, if the permit cap were reached in the non-primary tier, there would be a random drawing to determine who would receive the remaining available permits.
The program would also replace the city’s existing cap of 115 permits inside the coastal zone with a cap that is equivalent to 1% of the coastal zone’s housing stock and replace the 115-permit cap outside of the coastal zone with a cap equivalent to 0.5% of the housing stock. The cap would be adjusted every three years after evaluating the number of dwelling units in each zone.The Hills seek to establish a tiered prioritization system that gives homestay vacation rentals the highest priority and nonprimary rentals the lowest priority.
In a previous story in the Dana Point Times, Betty explained that the proposed seven-tier prioritization system would give residents priority in receiving vacation rental permits.
The prioritization system gives permits to homestay STRs in commercial and mixed-use zones first, followed by primary STRs in commercial and mixed-use zones, then multifamily primary STRs in commercial and mixed-use zones, followed by homestay STRs in residential zones, primary STRs in residential zones and multifamily STRs in residential zones, with non-primary STRs as the lowest priority.
“We feel that our prioritization will help protect homes and their neighborhoods,” Betty said.
The proposed system would give permits in order of the priority tiers until the permit cap is reached. Once the cap is reached, a random drawing process will select which permits are granted in that category. For example, if the permit cap were reached in the non-primary tier, there would be a random drawing to determine who would receive the remaining available permits.
The program would also replace the city’s existing cap of 115 permits inside the coastal zone with a cap that is equivalent to 1% of the coastal zone’s housing stock and replace the 115-permit cap outside of the coastal zone with a cap equivalent to 0.5% of the housing stock. The cap would be adjusted every three years after evaluating the number of dwelling units in each zone. The council, deciding that they wanted to create an opposition to the ballot matter, was immediately agreed upon. While they did not like the term opposition, they wanted to ensure all the information was out there.
“It shouldn’t necessarily be an opposition; it’s just information. That’s what I want to see on this,” Villar said. “Depending on how it’s crafted, I would support that we get the information to get it out there so that our voters are educated on everything about this, because it is a very complex issue. I do want the voters to decide, but I want them to have all of the information that they need to make that decision, because it’s binary. It’s either yes or no, but, man, there’s so much behind that yes or no.”
With that, Councilmember Villar volunteered to put himself and Mayor Federico on a committee to craft this opposition to residents and hopefully educate them on the matter, especially their reasoning, before voting in November.
“I think we ought to educate the voters,” Mayor Federico said. “One of the public commenters said earlier, ‘Everyone knows how you guys think.’ It’s the same 10 people that show up to all these things, 10 people really know how we think, and the other 35,000 that aren’t paying that close attention.
“I do think it’s important to maybe show how we got here and what the differences are, and it will be difficult to draw out some of the unintended consequences of the current proposed initiative without sounding in opposition. But it is important, I believe, for the voters to understand those.”
