Cathedral City homeowners call for stricter short term rental rules

Some homeowners in Cathedral City are speaking out against the growing number of short term vacation rentals.

Sherri Black said she’s lived in the city for more than 20 years and wants to leave now because of constant noise issues with the rental next door — reverberating bass and screaming at all hours of the day and night. And with the Fourth of July holiday around the corner, she’s worried it could get worse.

“You can hear the rumbling in the house, all the way through the family room, the bedrooms, all along the side,” Black said.

She said the number of rentals in her neighborhood suddenly spiked.

“It’s like everybody came to this area because they couldnt go to Palm Springs or the other areas,” Black said. “We’ve never had a problem now all of a sudden we have lots of noise lots of ruckus.”

She said the guests at the home next door are a particularly younger crowd.

“These are people coming in to party and you can tell. There’s beer bottles in the backyard and we know exactly what’s coming,” she said.

The city said the increase isn’t as drastic as it may seem. There are just 37 more rentals now than there were in June 2017 — for a total of 297.

“So you’re looking at less than 3 percent of our entire neighborhoods,” said Cathedral City communications manager Chris Parman.

In January thru May 2019, there have been 36 noise-related calls from 22 rental properties. But just 6 of those rentals account for two-thirds of the calls.

“What we’re finding is there’s basically about a handful of nuissance short term vacation rentals,” Parman said.

The city said they’re listening and are reinstating the short term vacation rental task force to look at how to increase enforcement — as well as looking at the possibility of placing a 45-day moratorium on new vacation rentals.

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