Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending and restating Chapter 5.77, related to short-term rentals; and declaring that this ordinance shall take effect immediately, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Good. Thank you. We're going to take a couple items. We have 55 and 56, I think are the audiences that need our readings. So let's do it. Let's do those. I know some folks are starting to I'm going to start losing folks. Here I am 55. Communication from city attorney. Councilwoman Mango Councilman Prepares Councilwoman Price Recommendation to adopt an ordinance or an urgency ordinance amending Title five of the Long Beach Municipal Code related to short term rentals and adopt a resolution to submit the ordinance amendments to the California Coastal Commission citywide. Is there any public comment? Yes. Our first speaker is Diane Reed. Diane Reed. Diane. Please be in. Oh. Can you hear me? Yes. Please begin. Okay. Hi. My name is Deanne Read. Um, my wife and I have been living in Long Beach for 26 years. We purchase up to you in a property here in Long Beach a year and a half ago, we rent the back unit out and the front unit, we we rent out Airbnb. Very successfully. I never had a problem. I do sympathize with those homeowners who are experiencing or manage Airbnbs in their community. But however, our Airbnb is being maintained in a very, very professional manner before we allow anyone to rent and would contact us and indicate the reason why they're coming to Long Beach. And if it's approved, my wife and I, we meet them at the house, we give them a call and then we give them a tour of our property. We make it very, very clear that they need to be spent sitting in the back and they have to respect the left and the right side. We also let them know that all of the people on the left side and the back unit have our phone numbers of anything wrong. They can call us. We only live 5 minutes away from our property, right around the corner, right next to Hughes Middle School. After we give them the tour. We tell them our power, couple of our rules and our main rule is no smoking in the home and no parties. We think you're an ex speaker's. Gail Sheppard. Gail Sheppard. Hello? Yes. This is Gail Shepard. Please begin. Okay. I'm a long time resident of the third district. Second District. Excuse me. I'm asking council to vote against yours as an urgent issue or emergency, if anything, as the stars are creating more risk to our city. As far as COVID goes, please vote to allow city staff more time, at least the 45 days to be prepared . There's no lottery in place for the 800 Airbnbs coming. There's no way for buildings to about. There's nowhere for neighbors or residents to call in case of problems except the police department. I've spoken to jail cell Scott Baldwin at District two regarding the house next door that's become and hosted Airbnb for over a year now. Even with the owner's phone number, we have to act as managers out of necessity. We can't. We have to call the owners. It's also a nuisance to have to call them constantly. There's plumbing issues. There's some other issues, noise issue. We have no recourse at this time except for to call the owners. There are limited partnerships. They own three stores in Long Beach. These are 100 year old homes. Infrastructures can't take this traffic. We're having backups with plumbing. And I'm hoping that if you have to vote on this today, at least you can give the city time to be able to have a number for residents to call and to think. Your next speaker is Jean Young. Jinyoung. Good morning. Good morning. Makati City Council Members. My name is Jinyoung. I'm a 30 year resident of District eight and I serve on the leadership team of the Long Beach Hosting Club. I'm calling in support of item 55, the short term rental ordinance. It is fair and balanced, and it's the product of four years of public input. The ordinance establishes standards for a responsible operation of both home sharing and vacation rentals. Your approval tonight grows the economy and an economically empowered small neighborhood and entrepreneurs and Long Beach. It gives the city much needed revenue that has been impacted by COVID. This ordinance does so much right. It limits short term rentals to one hosted primary residence and one vacation rental per owner. Fending off large corporate interests, it preserves neighborhoods and protects housing with percentage caps. It holds the host, the guests and the platform accountable, and it provides the mechanism to identify and site bad actors. With this ordinance, the controls are in place to legalize all short term rentals. Thank you to Janine Paris and to the price for your hard work and listening to all sides of the issue and crafting this fair and balanced ordinance. We hope they. Thank your next speakers, Jennifer Walton. Jennifer Walton. Hello? Yes, please begin. Hi. If you can hear me. My name's Jennifer Walton. And I hold on. I'm trying to get to a place like, okay, I'm a super host with Airbnb in Virgo here in Long Beach with guests from all over the world. For five and a half years, my property has generated a significant amount of revenue for our local businesses and our city, which benefits everyone. My property's unhosted, which makes it easy for during the pandemic for both my guests and myself. I rely on this income even more heavily now due to COVID restrictions on my other income streams. I'm very motivated to be a great host. I live just 20 minutes away and my manager lives just 10 minutes away. Here in Long Beach, we have installed noise sensors and have changed many of our house rules to accommodate. Fewer guests require longer stays and outdoor activity comes inside by 10 p.m.. Lately I've been, let's see, c one, which has ordinances in place addressing noise, parking and cost for every household, whether it's owner occupied a short term rental or a long term tenant. There's no excuse for anyone, whether a neighbor or city council member, to treat certain properties differently than others, when we must all abide by the city ordinances already in place. I just wanted to stop the scapegoating by some people of our fears and petty nonsense that goes on in some neighborhoods of a deep love and respect for my neighborhood. We have also hosted guests for of our residents of our own block numerous times, providing a service to our local community. Thank you. Your next speakers, Krosnick. The goalie. Question. Hello. I please begin. Hello? Well. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak in front of city council members. Technically, I do research at Irvine. I study learning happens on how to make learning landscapes that I teach kids. Although here I'm talking as an Airbnb host who I wouldn't have been able to really support my education on the beaches of Long Beach and imagine for many years of the topic, because I really wouldn't have been able to pay rent if there was an Airbnb, I wouldn't have been able to pay rent for. I would imagine, Professor, I wouldn't have been able to support my family. I wouldn't have been able to support my schooling. And right now, I probably wouldn't have been able to support myself if there wasn't going to be me. I think we like some of the previous comments. As I said, we have worked really hard for this and I think it is time to look up this ordinance, so please adopt this ordinance. That's my concern. I think your next speaker is Susan Bailey. Susan Bailey. Yes. Good morning, Mayor, and members of city council. My name is Susan Bailey and I have owned a home in District three for 35 years. My husband and I split our time between Denver and Long Beach. We're retirees. And when we are not in Long Beach. My family members and neighbors meet our guests. Long Beach is a place I love. It's where I grew up and the source of revenue that we use from our properties supports my 88 year old mother, who lives about 5 minutes from our Belmont Shore property. I am here this evening in support of Unhosted stays to be included in the ordinance. I think, as others have said, countless hours of public input have been considered over several years and there is unequivocally a very strong value not only to host but to businesses and the local Long Beach economy, which we know is inordinately suffering and the thoughtful consideration of the Council around limiting unhosted to be able to have a proper study of the impact and most importantly, to ensure compliance. I would tell you that we consider Long Beach our home, even though we spend six months a year there, and if our home was not unhosted, it would simply sit vacant and would not generate tax revenue for the city. Thank you very much. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Okay. Let me let me go back to the council. Just as a reminder, we've I know we've had a opportunity to debate this extensively, so let me just hope we can go through quickly. Council Councilmember Pearce. A motion to approve. Thank you. Just a second. About Councilman. Mongo. Anything? Councilman. Mongo. I think it's all been said in many, many meetings before. Councilman's in house. Thank you. There. I so appreciate all of the work that has been done to get this item to where it is now. And while I feel that our city is moving in the right direction, I do still have concerns about the unintended consequences this could have on our local housing market. After further discussion with stakeholders in my district and in the community. I still worry that we are incentivizing property owners in our city to market their units as short term rentals rather than housing units for our local residents. We are in the midst of two very difficult and different crisis of affordable housing and COVID, both of which are central to our discussion on short term rentals. Thank you for the time. Thank you. Remember, she's Castro's mayor. Mayor? This is a turning point in the motion, as I understand. The motion by Councilmember Pearce and second by Councilmember Mongo will be to declare this ordinance as an urgency ordinance. Is that correct? Yes. Sorry about. That yet. And therefore. Therefore, we will need two votes. The first vote will be on the urgency and the second vote will be on the ordinance. Thank you. The roll call vote on the first one. CD one. Nine. CD to. I. CD three. I. CD for. All right. Council district five. I. Council District six seven. I. Council. District eight. District nine. All right. Ocean carries. Kit. And I'm in second row, please. District one, ne district two. I. I District three. High district for. My. District five. I. District seven. I ate. District nine. All right. Motion carries.