In its report on short-term rentals in Monterey County, the civil grand jury documented the fact that the number of unpermitted STRs has increased dramatically over the inexplicably seven long years the county has taken to develop a vacation rental ordinance with effective enforcement.
According
to County staff, there are now more than 600 vacation rentals in Monterey
County, of which only 24 properties have required permits. The overwhelming
majority of these unpermitted vacation rentals are in the Fifth District,
including Carmel Valley. That is why the
civil grand jury called for action by the end of this year.
In
response to this situation, at the urging of Fifth District Supervisor Mary
Adams, the Board of Supervisors unanimously took the first step to deal with
this urgent problem. We commend the Board for directing county staff to bring
back to the board a plan to reallocate resources in order to take immediate
action to enforce the existing regulations on short-term rentals in the Fifth
District. The Monterey County Board of
Supervisors will be considering the staff’s plan at its upcoming meeting on
Dec. 8 at 1 p.m.
The
Carmel Valley Association (CVA) believes immediate enforcement is critically
needed because, according to County staff, it may take more than another year
to develop an effective vacation rental ordinance. Vacation rentals are clearly
out of hand in the Carmel Valley and if there is no control exerted now, the
negative impacts of vacation rentals will only grow worse:
- Hotel, resort and motel businesses will suffer.
- The number of long-term rentals available for people who live and work here will decrease, and rents will continue to rise.
- The quality of life for residents will further decline as
residential neighborhoods become de-facto commercial zones.
In
short, CVA believes that immediate enforcement of current regulations is
critically important to maintaining the residential character of our
neighborhoods. Also, the learnings derived from the enforcement efforts now
will provide valuable lessons for the staff as it considers the best
enforcement mechanisms for the short-term rental ordinance that they will be
drafting over the next year.
Not
surprisingly, a well-funded group representing the owners and managers of
vacation rentals is trying to stop enforcement. This group, most of whose
members do not live in Monterey County, has taken out ads attempting to
discredit Supervisor Mary Adams’ effort to address the impacts of unpermitted
vacation rentals in the Fifth District. The ads are misleading and filled with
erroneous information.
The
goal of this group is clear — to stop enforcement of short-term rental
regulations. They are concerned about
their profits, not our neighborhoods. As
such, they are trying to pressure the Board of Supervisors to abandon
enforcement efforts.
The
time has come for the residents of the Fifth District and Carmel Valley to take
action to protect our neighborhoods by calling on the Board of Supervisors to
stay the course and carry through on their plan to enforce the existing
short-term rental ordinance immediately.
The
addresses of the Board members can be found on our website at
CarmelValleyAssociation.org.
Thank
you for helping us to protect our neighborhoods!
Monterey
Herald
By
Priscilla Walton, President of the Carmel Valley Association
December 3, 2021
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