At the upcoming Council meeting Tuesday night, the Council will discuss regulating short-term vacation rentals (SVRs). The staff report notes an increase in popularity for sites like airbnb.com, flipkey.com, homeaway.com, and others, that allow property owners to rent out their homes for a short period of time.
The staff report acknowledges that most jurisdictions have not imposed any regulations on SVRs, but did note that some localities have started to address the issue. The staff report claims that Redondo Beach, for example, chose to ban SVRs outright while other cities such as Manhattan Beach and Santa Monica opted to regulate SVRs through a permit process.
The staff report also stated that the City has received a few complaints over the last five years originating from the Hillside Overlay areas closest to Torrance Beach. Those complaints asserted that SVRs caused disruption to the neighborhood as the “party houses” generated excess parking demands, noise, and unknown persons that could be mistaken for burglars.
The Council will decide whether to ban SVR’s entirely, direct staff to develop an SVR permitting process, or continue to allow SVR’s with no restrictions.
Last December, after an arduous 2 and ½ year process, the Council adopted an ordinance allowing for the keeping of bees on residential properties. In the years prior to the ordinance’s adoption, the City conducted several community outreach meetings and the matter was heard before City Commissions, Committees, and even numerous times by the Council itself. In preparation for those meetings, City staff compiled information numbering in the hundreds of pages.
At nearly every meeting on the issue, you could count on dozens of urban farming advocates showing up to speak in favor of the proposed ordinance. Many of those even confessed to already harboring bees illegally on their properties while expressing hope that their bees would one day be deemed legal by the City. The topic was also quite the buzz on social media generating many lively discussions and hundreds of comments.
With so many residents already keeping illegal bees, one might have envisioned a rush of people to City Hall seeking special animal permits after passage of the ordinance. The reality, however, has been a lot less buzzworthy.
In fact, a recent public records request revealed that in the months since the ordinance passed not even a single resident filed a special animal permit for bees. The response from the Planning Division was as follows:
“A Special Animal Permit would be processed by the Planning Division, we simply have not had any filed as of yet.”
What happened to all those illegal bee keepers and the would be urban farmers yearning for that sweet honey?
To be fair, many of the proponents of the measure had advocated that bee keeping be allowed as a matter of right just as one would keep a dog or cat. Perhaps then many were deterred by the additional obligations imposed by the ordinance. Those obligations include:
$80 filing fee for Special Animal Permit;
Notice requirement to all surrounding neighbors with any objections received resulting in automatic denial of the permit;
Proof of registration with LA County Agricultural Commissioner;
Site plan to include hive placement, setback to adjacent property lines, and proposed number and size of hives;
Property that has 6 foot tall solid perimeter barrier and water source for bees.
Whether it be because of these conditions or something else, it would appear that the 2 and ½ year undertaking by the City that led to the passage of the ordinance has had little to no measurable impact to Torrance residents. Nobody has filed a permit for bees. Those that were keeping bees illegally, are still keeping them illegally.
Does this mean the ordinance is a failure? What does this say about all the energy spent by City officials, staff, and urban farming advocates? Has it been a waste of time?
The City is supposedly slated to hear a similar ordinance for chickens in the coming months.
This coming Tuesday the City Council will consider whether to adopt an urgency ordinance extending a moratorium on alterations and demolitions of structures located within the Original Torrance Tract. The moratorium was first imposed at the January 12, 2016 Council meeting. That moratorium was only in effect for 45 days. The current proposal, however, would extend the moratorium for an additional 10 months and 15 days and requires at least 6 affirmative votes from the Council.
The moratorium will prevent the demolition or exterior modification of any structures while the City undertakes further studies and implements initial steps to develop a Historic Preservation Program. To that end, the Council recently appropriated $50,000 to hire a consultant to assist in the preparation of a historic preservation ordinance.
The staff report identified 5 properties that are currently in process of being modified that would potentially be adversely impacted by extending the moratorium.
The Council is relying upon the authority granted by California Government Code Section 65858 in order to impose the building restrictions. That statute allows for such action in order to protect the public health, safety, and welfare of the community. The proposed ordinance states that allowing additional alterations or demolitions presents “a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare due to the following reasons:
Exterior modifications could result in structures that are not compatible with existing residential, industrial, or commercial areas;
Existing regulations do not require notice to residents prior to making modifications thereby resulting in inadequate public review of potential impacts;
Need to further evaluate cumulative impacts of property alterations before approving more projects; and the
Need to complete process of studying Historic Preservation Program that could require review of building permits to ensure any new development is compatible with the architectural character of the neighborhood.
The moratorium would not apply to structures zoned commercial or industrial.
At the upcoming Council meeting Tuesday night, the Council will discuss regulating short-term vacation rentals (SVRs). The staff report notes an increase in popularity for sites like airbnb.com, flipkey.com, homeaway.com, and others, that allow property owners to rent out their homes for a short period of time.
