1. “Of particular concern to officials are the Airbnb hosts who lease multiple apartments, renting them out year-round and distorting their market value in a climate of scarce affordable housing. One Airbnb user who spoke with the Times provided a glimpse into how lucrative the scheme could be. Josh, who agreed to describe his business on the condition that his last name not be used because he was fearful of legal penalties, said he rents out five apartments in Manhattan. Each one earns about $100,000 a year, he said, totaling about half a million dollars annually before fees. Only one of the leases is in his name, he said. The other four are held by people he has recruited to sign the leases in exchange for a percentage of the rental income. The arrangement is illegal. The New York State Multiple Dwelling Law prohibits apartment rentals of less than 30 days unless a permanent occupant is there. Yet Josh said that he personally knew several others engaged in the scheme in New York City. 124 hosts, all of whom had a minimum of 10 listings on the site and were earning an average of $500,000 a year.” (“Hotels in Disguise”, New York Times, December 3, 2015)
   

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2. “. . . the agent’s relationship with Airbnb soon shifted from desperation to opportunism. Realizing the potential to exploit the difference between long- and short-term rental prices, he signed a lease on a second Manhattan apartment this summer. He now uses it solely for Airbnb, generating up to $6,000 a month in profit. Last month, he added a third rental — this one under his wife’s account. He plans to add more, he said, possibly even under phony accounts to avoid legal scrutiny. . . Another New Yorker, a 49-year-old entrepreneur (who also insisted on anonymity), got his start on the site after shareholders pushed him out of the information technology company he had founded, leaving him without a source of income. . . But after renting out his apartment on Craigslist and through word of mouth, he signed up for Airbnb in early 2011, with a plan to make short-term rentals his full-time job. He signed leases on former factory spaces in Lower Manhattan, renovating them and listing them on Airbnb. At his peak, he said, he managed 12 listings and hired a team of cleaners, greeters and handymen to keep his scatter-site hotel operating. His relationship with Airbnb, however, turned sour when Schneiderman sought data from the company about operators like him. . . .And who would want to stop a man with 12 apartments from making ends meet?“ (“The Business Tycoons of Airbnb”, New York Times, November 25, 2014)
   

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3. The numbers of potential renters and cars above are reasonable and appropriate because they are less than 50% of the worst case conditions that you would be required to consider in a proper EIR.
   

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4. The assertion by the Coastal Commission that an ordinance modeled on “Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties [are] places where ordinances permitting short term rentals have been successful” ignores the facts that are unique to the Coastal Zone in Monterey County and that the evolution of the STR industry is dramatically different than even one or two years ago. Both Santa Cruz[i] and San Luis Obispo are in fact experiencing increasing problems with STR and have not found solutions as yet. The problem is that ways to circumvent the proposed changes are also well known in the STR industry. The Coastal Commission should take administrative/judicial notice not just of the problems experienced in Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo, but also serious problems encountered in:
   

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5. Amsterdam, Netherlands; Anaheim, CA; (Anaheim just banned short-term rentals entirely. Residents had complained that Disneyland visitors had overrun their neighborhoods. (New York Times; July 1, 2016); Berlin, Germany; [ii] Big Sur, CA; Carmel Highlands, CA; Carmel, CA; Danville, CA; Dana Point, CA;[iii] Goleta, CA; [iv] Hermosa Beach, CA;[v] Huntington Beach, CA;[vi] Laguna Beach, CA;[vii] Los Angeles, CA;[1] Malibu CA; Mill Valley, CA; Montecito, CA; (“Montecito Says No to Short-Term Rentals” Independent News, November 21, 2015; Growing sentiment countywide against short-term vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods received more unanimous backing with the Montecito Planning Commission’s recent support of an all-out ban, even in areas where vacation homes have been operating for years, such as Miramar Beach.);Nagano, Japan; New Orleans, LA; New South Wales, Australia; New York, NY;(In New York, where the housing shortage is dire, the law forbids virtually any short-term rental of a residential unit. The city is proposing to sharply ramp up enforcement and penalties, in part because state Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman has charged that 72% of private short-term rentals violate the law. (Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2015); Ojai, CA; Pacific Grove, CA (In Pacific Grove — where a short-term rental program was approved with barely an objection during the recession — voices are beginning to be raised asking for the program to be rescinded. – Carmel Pine Cone October 16, 2015); Paris, France; Portland, OR; Redondo Beach, CA San Francisco, CA; “Last month, San Francisco supervisors unanimously approved an ordinance that would fine Airbnb $1,000 per day for each host listed on its website who is not registered with the city.” New York Times,July 1, 2016. . . Campos says illegitimate rentals have effectively taken 1,900 long-term housing units off the San Francisco market at a time when the city is experiencing a historic housing shortage. But the reality that concerns municipal officials is the drastic expansion and commercialization of short-term rentals. There are indications that owners or managers of single or multiple properties available for rent year-round provide a disproportionate share of the market’s volume. (Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2015). And just three weeks ago “Airbnb Sues San Francisco to Block Rental Registration Law: Startup is seeking an injunction to prevent the city from fining Airbnb for each unregistered listing (June 27, 2016 Wall Street Journal); Santa Monica, CA; Vienna, Austria; and many, many others. 
   

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6. For example, “What we’re trying to stop is the phenomenon of people buying buildings and evicting tenants so they can rent to tourists for three to four times as much. . .   “But there’s a commercial short-term rental industry that buys entire buildings and rents them all out. That’s changing the character of the neighborhood and taking housing stock away from people who need it.”
   

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7. A study issued in March by the Los Angeles civic group LAANE found that although 52% of the listing hosts on Airbnb in L.A. were on-site hosts offering private or shared rooms, they accounted for only 11% of revenue in the market. Leasing companies offering two or more whole units constituted 6% of all listing hosts but accounted for 35% of revenue.
   

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8. REALTOR MAGAZINE, December 2015:  STRs are having a dangerous effect on our housing stock. In L.A., a city desperate for more affordable housing, 11 units of long-term rental housing are being lost daily to STR conversions, according to a report from the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. The report says people are converting rent-controlled units into commercial STR operations, and long-term rent-control tenants are being evicted. The loss of these units in the long-term rental market has driven up total housing costs for L.A. renters by more than $464 million in the last year.
   

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9. The trend for STRs is away from “shared spaces,” where owners are present. Individuals are now purchasing single-family or multifamily units to turn them into STRs — creating a business — to the considerable detriment of their neighbors. Some short-term renters turn these locations into party houses, creating noise, traffic, and a public nuisance. In such instances, neighbors who need a night’s sleep to work the next day or who have school-age children are disturbed. In my neighborhood, a home owner leased her property for a year to someone she believed was occupying it, only to learn he listed it on one of the STR sites as a “commercial party house.” Some 500 people being charged $125 apiece crammed narrow, winding canyon roads by illegally parking and throwing trash everywhere. When the property owner was alerted, she was shocked and started eviction proceedings.”
   

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10. Another example, while drafting this letter (June 28, 2016), the New York Times published an article, “Airbnb in Disputes With New York and San Francisco” that states, “Airbnb executives once promoted San Francisco as a city it could work with. After affordable housing advocates expressed fear that the service worsened the city’s housing crunch, Airbnb agreed to cap short-term rentals for entire homes and required hosts of such listings to register with the city. That law, which became known as the “Airbnb law” for its friendliness to the company, took effect in February 2015. But only 20 percent of the 7,000 or so hosts required to register have done so, and Airbnb has not removed lawbreakers . . .”
    

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11. The Coastal Commission letter supporting Short Term Rentals for “families and large groups” also fails to take in to account there is already a process in place for homeowners to do short-term rentals either by applying to become a Bed & Breakfast or through the Conditional Use Process. Both of these processes provide appropriate safeguards for business and adjacent homeowners. Short Term Rentals programs have clearly and unequivocally proven to eviscerate reasonable cost housing for people living and working in the area, driving up costs and commute times, while shrinking the labor pool, and making serving the influx of visitors already here more and more difficult. The saturation point that has already been reached and exceeded by visitors will disastrously impact the ability to serve these and other visitors to the area. This problem already exists in the Coastal Zone and hundreds of other cities. And now Air BnB is actually suing the City of San Francisco who is trying to stop advertising of illegal rentals on the Air BnB site. New York State legislature has passed a similar bill.
    

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12. The Monterey Herald reported (6/24/16) “The demand for rental housing on the Monterey Peninsula now far exceeds the supply. . . People are scrambling out there,” said Jan Leasure of MontereyRentals.com a consortium of seven local property managers. “We manage about 400 houses and right now there is a 1 percent vacancy rate.” The problem pertains to the long-term rental market as there are plenty of short-term rentals, said Leasure.”
    

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13. The Coastal Commission must consider Housing and Rental Costs. The Coastal Commission letter seems to suggest the extreme impact Short-Term Rentals have on long-term rental availability and costs in a time of housing shortage need not be considered. The lack of appropriate weight to the issue does a disservice to city after city after area that have seen housing costs for the people who are needed to live and work in an area skyrocket beyond any reasonable measure or ability to pay. In effect, the Coastal Commission seems to envision a future where visitors and corporate owners of formerly residential properties are served by people who live one, two, three hours away who have to commute in heavy traffic to jobs, many of which are not high paying.
    

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14. Mike Novo, former Director of County Planning states (memo, April 1, 2016), addressed this issue for Big Sur, and it is evident it should apply to Carmel Highlands as well:

As it stands today, we have a large need for housing in Big Sur, and a very small supply. The situation in Big Sur, where much of the acreage is in public ownership, under conservation easement, or undevelopable due to our policies, means that housing supply will be constrained in the future as well.

The need for housing includes affordable housing for employees that work in the area and housing needs for the community, so that a nucleus of residents can remain to represent the community and work or volunteer in the local businesses and governmental functions. Housing needs for the community includes long time residents, artists who provide to the galleries in the area, and an available supply so that the children of residents have a place to live as they get older and establish their own households.

Short term, or vacation, rentals are nothing new. They have been in existence for many, many years. There are heavily used tourist areas (e.g., Sea Ranch, Tahoe, and Yosemite) where whole communities of second homes and vacation homes are the rule, and housing for residents is the exception. With the relatively new tools being used on the web for short term rentals, the pressure on housing stock to convert to short term rental use is great in areas such as Big Sur and we should ensure that housing for the community does not become the exception.

From what I know so far, I believe that there likely is not enough housing stock for the needs of just the community and for employee needs. While not all employees will want to live in the community, we should plan to try to accommodate the needs of those that want to live near their jobs. That creates a safer environment for travelers on Highway 1 by reducing the need to commute long distances from outside Big Sur. It also helps to have a core nucleus of residents who stay and are invested in the community and meets our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

As such, I do not think that we have a substantial supply of housing that could or should be converted to short term rentals in Big Sur. The needs of the community and accommodating employee housing needs should come first.

[i] See KION September 30, 2015

[ii] See Slate.com April 12, 2014 and http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/083115/top-cities-where-airbnb-legal-or-illegal.asp

[iii] Short-Term Rentals not allowed in residential areas

[iv] Short-Term Rentals not allowed in residential areas

[v] Short-Term Rentals not allowed in residential areas

[vi] Short-Term Rentals not allowed in residential areas

[vii] See http://www.ocregister.com/articles/short-692385-beach-city.html

MCVRA Position:

• STRs do not impact affordable employee housing. Most STRs are owner occupied or second homes. The owners want to use their home for their own enjoyment. They will not offer their home as a long-term rental. If they were ever forced to, it would not be “affordable” housing. STRs are generally some of the best houses on the street as required to meet guest expectations. These will never be “affordable.” And coastal properties are selling for millions. Future owners will never offer “affordable” housing.