La Quinta City Council takes up ballot measure for STVR ban Tuesday

The issue of short-term vacation rentals will go before La Quinta city leaders Tuesday. 

The City Council is set to receive a report it commissioned describing the benefits of short-term non-hosted vacation rentals to the city's budget and local economy. 

The council will also vote on whether to allow a citizen's initiative to ban STVRs from most city neighborhoods except for tourist and commercial zones by the end of 2024.

Riverside County has certified the signatures of more than 3,224 registered voters who want a public vote on the matter.

That’s well more than the 2,448 signatures required to qualify the measure.

City leaders will now formally approve the ballot measure to be placed on the November ballot unless they chose not to.

A key supporter of the Save Our Neighborhoods signature drive, Don Shoffstall of Neighborhoods are for Neighbors said about the measure, "When you get 3,670 people who say they want to have a voice in determining the character of their neighborhoods. I think that should be listened to.” 

The city’s report was conducted by a Wayne, Pennsylvania company called Tourism Economics. It analyzed 2021 pandemic data to suggest that STVR properties in would-be ban areas would account for  80% of the city’s $5.9 million transient occupancy tax revenue. It took into account that a majority 62% of La Quinta's permitted STVR owners do not live in the Coachella Valley.

The report did not examine the economic impacts of full-time residents, their spending or tax benefits, the loss of housing stock, or impacts on neighborhoods affected by short-term transient occupants. 

A pro-STVR group Vacation Rentals Owners and Neighbors, VRON, has filed an objection to the petition’s language hoping to keep it off the ballot. Kaufman Legal Group filed the objection on behalf of VRON pointing out alleged defects in the citizen-led petition drive and asked for the council to reject allowing the ballot measure to proceed.

The city council meets at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday at city hall to discuss the issues. Read the agenda here.

Stay with KESQ News Channel 3 for continuing coverage.