Palm Springs approves new vacation rental ordinance

Palm Springs vacation property owners are looking at a new set of regulations to abide by. The ordinance was introduced last night, in an effort to address a number of complaints from Palm Springs neighbors.

Wednesday night Palm Springs council members voted three to one, in favor of the new ordinance. Some people are calling the new rules ‘too strict’ while others say the ordinance is ‘watered down’. City council is confident that the regulations serve as a compromise to the vacation rental industry and their neighbors.

Councilmember Geoff Kors says the new regulations were well thought out.

“We tried to come up with something that would be legal, that would allow them to continue but would also minimize the negative impacts that happen to neighborhoods,” said Kors.

Among the new set of rules, a quadrupled increase in annual fees, from $234 to $900. Rental home owners are also restricted to renting their homes no more than 32 times per year, owning two rental homes at most, and abiding by new enforcement department regulations.

Vacation rental manager, Kelly McLean, says she hoped enforcement regulations would have been the extent of the ordinance.

“I think it’s going to cause cause some unattended consequences that were not part of the goal. It was my hope as well as many of the managers, many of the private home owners, even the merchants that just live here that the council would focus on enforcement, but they’ve decided that additional restrictions is what they want to do and we have to be law abiding citizens,” McLean said.

On the other hand, Mike Ziskind, a member of “Protect Our Neighborhoods”, says vacation property owners should be thanking the city council and was hoping for a different outcome.

“Just a total disregard for the regulations and our ordinances that are in place and the city and the industry has continued, for eight years, to look the other way. Enough is enough,” said Ziskind.

A big concern for many are Transient Occupancy Taxes.

“There may be some loss of TOT, that’s very possible, so we’re going to study the data as we see what happens for the next six months to a year, and we’ll make adjustments as needed,” Kors said.

There has also been talk of potential lawsuits from both neighbors and vacation rental owners. Council members say they are confident that they have made regulations that are lawful and just.