Dear City Council, 

We, the Long Beach Safe Neighborhood Coalition, are members of all ages, all races and represent the interests of thousands of homeowners who were promised zoning that would allow us to live in residential communities when we bought our homes in all sections of Long Beach.   We have a common message – and that is zone STRs out of our neighborhoods.  The City created this simple land use conflict a few years ago when you failed to enforce a century of zoning laws that separate residential and commercial uses.

 

It’s time to fix the problem and end the civil war that’s raging in our neighborhoods over short-term rentals that are destroying our communities and eroding our housing market.  It really boils down to this – what do we want our neighborhoods to be?  Do we want to continue to allow over 800 whole homes and neighborhoods to be used as mini-hotels, party houses, event centers, drug houses, gambling halls, houses of prostitution or human trafficking?  Or do you want to restore 800 whole homes to the housing market to be used by families?  Homes – or hotels?  Quit selling us out to an eight billion dollar booking platform and the wealthy investors which feed at its trough. 

 

And as you bend into pretzels trying to find a compromise and in the name of protecting a small number of moms and pops who actually live on their property, would you please quit losing sight of the fact that WE ARE THE LITTLE GUYS!  We urge you to go back to the drawing board and come up with an STR ordinance that works for the people.  If you cannot ban STRs like other cities have, how about enacting these common sense reforms?

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• Prohibit the conversion of residential housing to commercial use as a hotel (STR) in all R1 zones,  or alternatively

• Prohibit STR permits for any residence that is not the primary residence of the owner and that the owner is not physically present during the STR,

• Immediately revoke any STR permit for a residence where a crime has been committed,

• Create new enforcement teams that include dedicated Code Enforcement and LBPD officers,

• Fund the enforcement team from the 14% TOT received by the City and fines from permit holder violators,

• Complaint calls shall be received 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and the caller provided with response as to what action is taken,

• Remove the $1050 fee for a neighborhood to request a petition to restrict STRs in their neighborhood and replace it with a requirement that twenty (20) signatures be obtained in the neighborhood to initiate the City doing a complete petition in the Census Tract,

• Develop better enforcement tools, like those found in other jurisdictions (like our neighbors in Garden Grove & Lakewood), in order to eliminate illegal STRs that returns residential housing to residential,

• Require that City Staff bill all property owners for the full costs associated with bringing illegal STRs into compliance.