Back HomeVacation Rentals in the City of Santa Barbara
Vacation Rentals and the City of Santa Barbara
It’s been a couple years since I’ve added to this blog and for numerous reasons. For starters, there is active litigation that many of my clients are currently involved in…they are suing the City of Santa Barbara for attempting to take away their property rights in both the coastal zone and city. When I say “take away” I refer to the “ban” instituted by now requiring them to convert their property to hotels, therefore restricting their ability to rent for less than 30 days in property "properly" zoned for this “use”.
You might ask, what is this “use”? Simply put, in my opinion, it should be better termed “rental flexibility”.
Many homeowners in Santa Barbara own as “second homeowners”. The natural progression in these higher end properties goes a little something like this…I digress...
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Well, we knew it would end up here. Let me tell you that one thing I have learned over the last 2 1/2 years in trying to legally permit a short term rental in the City of Santa Barbara is that the city is under the "rule" of the staff in the City Planning Department and City Attorney's Office to promote their socialist agendas and those of the "hoteliers". Those 2 offices believe they were put on this Earth to police this city at any and all costs and "arbitrary interpretations" they make are "law". Well guess what, they are not. There is a process the City of Santa Barbara must go through in order to make any of these interpretations law and that process they did not only not go through and they did not grant due process under the law to property owners when the decisions were made by Santa Barbara City Council Members. Be very clear, any political or special interests/agendas
One thing I have learned over last 2 years is that I cannot wait for this nightmare to be over. To see firsthand how shady Santa Barbara city staff have been is a huge wake up call and frankly my first experience in, and swift exit out, of politics.
What I do know is that our property rights are being slowly chipped away at daily in the City of Santa Barbara planning department and Santa Barbara city attorneys office by people that are HIRED and PAID by us, the taxpayers. These people are reporting to the Santa Barbara City Council and the facts they are reporting are inaccurate, self-serving and what we have now come to find out, are not legal.
"Interpretations" of code are arbitrary and by no means law. The antiquated 50 year old ordinances they are attempting to apply are overbroad, vague and cann
For anyone that has followed my journey to get a property in the R-4 "legally allowed" zone in Santa Barbara permitted since August of 2015, you know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to get the permit. Well guess what, not only is it impossible, we have come to find out, for 1 unit, it is actually not required!!!
28.88.028 Permit Required; Exceptions.
EXCEPTIONS TO REQUIREMENTS FOR CONVERSION PERMITS.
The following shall be exempt from the provisions of this Chapter:
1. A project creating a condominium, hotel or similar use and using no more than one (1) existing dwelling
unit as part of said project shall not be considered a conversion.
Straight out of the 40 year old municipal code (for hotels) they are trying desperately to apply, there you have it. So what is the City of Sant
Currently we have over 30 property owners in the R-4 areas of Santa Barbara that are working together to shed light on this horrific unattainable process and hopefully enact change for people wanting to vacation rent or short term rent their properties in Santa Barbara.
The City of Santa Barbara process to convert your property to a vacation rental is severely flawed, time consuming and extremely expensive. This is essentially a "de facto prohibition" since no one is able to obtain the permit the way it stands right now. There are also NO plans to "streamline" the process and in fact, the process has become even harder than when I started to get the permit over a year and a half ago. We still are in the process with the city for the vacation rental permit and have spent over $20,000 and have been shutdown at this point because they are requiring unreasonable and costly thin
Calling all owners of R-4 Properties within the City of Santa Barbara that currently short term rent or wish to in the future!
Are you aware of the process the City of Santa Barbara has in place to obtain the permit for a vacation rental or short term rental STR in the R-4 Zone?
After going through this process for over 18 months, I must tell you that the process to get a vacation rental or short term rental permitted in the City of Santa Barbara is next to impossible. Since they admittedly have never done this before and because only 1 half time worker at the City of Santa Barbara Zoning Department is working on this with an iron fist, the process is out of control.
As of last week, they gave us a new requirement that we must now get a Coastal Development Permit and go through DART even though we have previously been told otherwise in numerous meetings an
If you have followed our journey towards obtaining the permit for a vacation rental in Santa Barbara, you know how ridiculous and onerous this process has been and started for us back in August of 2015. To date, the City of Santa Barbara has only been able to permit 1 legal vacation rental in over 1 year's time. Why you ask? Because they have no idea what they are doing at the City of Santa Barbara, the majority of these city employees believe they are the police who take time off every month and therefore, their ONLY priority right now is focusing on shutting down vacation rentals in Santa Barbara.
So what if you purchased a property in the Hotel/ Motel Multiple Family Residential Zone and it is zoned R-4 and many other zoning designations and therefore legal to rent for less that 30 days in Santa Barbara? Well at this point, aside from contacting every Council Member and t
For anyone that has followed this blog, you know the struggles and challenges we all have faced in regards to the permitting of "legally zoned" vacation rentals in the City of Santa Barbara. The city has come down hard on all vacation rentals in Santa Barbara as of June of last year with the anti-AirBnB movement and search and destroy efforts launched at all VRBO properties by our city people. What happened in the process was the City of Santa Barbara failing to have a process, procedure and the people in place to help people in the "legal" zones and "legally zoned" obtain the permit to vacation rent in Santa Barbara legally. Instead, they have admittedly chosen the path of enforcement in the illegal zones over increased assistance to those in the legal zones which is unfortunate for those that have chosen to do the right thing and do as the city asks.
With this comes a whole ot
That's the question on everyone's mind and asked a lot over the past few months.
There are no easy answers...remember, we are dealing with the City of Santa Barbara and their newly enforced requirements in regards to vacation rentals. Keep in mind, they do not want to permit any vacation rentals as they see this as a loss of valuable "housing stock" for employees and fail to realize most of these properties are second homes for 90% of these owners. The County of Santa Barbara has followed suit and new ordinance changes will reflect only vacation rentals in the AG designation for less than 30 days.
Having started this journey back in August with a property I have that is "legal to rent for less than 30 days", I have been able to learn a lot and gather immense amounts of information in the process. Being a Real Estate Broker and Property Manager in Santa Barbara, I also know th
