Cathedral City passes plan to eliminate short-term vacation rentals by end of 2022
Wednesday night, Cathedral City councilmembers unanimously passed an ordinance to eliminate short-term vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods by the end of 2022.
The ordinance will go into effect on October 9.
By Jan 1, 2023 all STVRs in the city will be eliminated with two exceptions:
- Homes located in neighborhoods governed by Common Interest Developments that allow STVRs use
- Common Interest Developments refers to things like homeowners associations, condominium owners associations, and similar associations pursuant to the aforementioned act.
- Homesharing vacation rentals.
- This refers to a home that is the owner’s primary or principal residence who rents out a portion of the property. Rules include that the owner may only have one primary or principal residence and the owner of the home is onsite during the rental period. This is like when the owner rents out a room or casita on their property.
According to the city, "current STVRs located outside of Common Interest Developments that permit STVRS and not part of home sharing will have a base year to operate. Following the base year, current STVRs will have a year to operate under a hardship provision along with a three-month grace period. Current STVRs with those exceptions will cease operations on December 31, 2022."
The decision came after over an hour of public comment with some of the pro-STRs callers threatening to take the city to court over the vote and the way the motion was handled. City Attorney Eric S. Vail said the motion was handled properly and the decision was up to the council.
Cathedral City currently has a ban in place on new STVR permits for an indefinite period of time or until the new ordinance goes into effect which makes it permanent.
Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing updates.
News Channel 3's Dani Romero took a look at the debate over short-term vacation rentals and how other valley cities are taking action to help resolve the conflict.
