Forum brings together both sides of the short-term rental debate
Palm Springs is home to more than 2,000 vacation rentals and soon residents will have a choice whether to create a prohibition on those rentals through Measure C. A yes vote means no short-term rentals and a no vote means yes, short terms rentals will stay the same.
Thursday night’s forum brought together both sides of the debate in the same house.
Bob Lyle has lived in his Palm Springs home for five years. He says short-term rental properties across the street are a constant issue.
“This is a neighborhood and I don’t know my neighbors. I don’t have people that I can say ‘I’m going to go away for a weekend’ and say ‘keep an eye on my house.’ I don’t know anybody,” Lyle said.
Concerns like Lyle’s were discussed at the forum.
“We feel that the hotel industry and the vacation rental industry are complementary to each other. We have such high demand on the weekend,” said Aftab Dada, manager for the Palm Springs Hilton.
Dada stood with the no side saying short-term rentals help the local hotel industry, but the yes side disagrees.
“The small hotels are in direct competition with the AIR BNBs or the short-term rentals and we can’t benefit like the big hotels do,”
On June 5, voters will get the chance to decide the fate of short-term rentals. Rob Grimm said they have no place in Palm Springs.
“The people of Palm Springs lost the quality of their life, they have no neighborhoods left. We have 2,000 in the city. It’s spreading and spreading, no caps, and people want their community back. People have no neighbors at all, they live around 5,6, half the block are vacation rentals,” said person.
However, the no side argued short-term rentals are nothing new to Palm Springs.
“Vacation rentals aren’t new. They’ve been part of the lifestyle since Palm Springs became a resort community. Many people started here by renting others homes,” said
‘No on C’ also maintains that a series of ordinances already in place do enough to limit any negative effects of short terms rentals.
Some of those ordinances contain limits of loud music, the number of people staying in a bedroom of the home, and there is already a ban of the short-term rental of apartments. The deadline to register to vote on Measure C is May 21 with the vote taking place on June 5. If approved Measure C wouldn’t take effect for another two years.
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