City doubles down on vacation rentals

Short Term Rentals are not legal in the City of Canyon Lake and with the city law being amended Wednesday night, the cost of abusing the law has just gone up dramatically. The City Council took fines from a meager $100 for first time offenders to $1,500.

These vacation rentals have been made popular by Airbnb, VRBO and other websites, but the city has determined these rentals are a nuisance and created an ordinance some time ago prohibiting them. The action Wednesday kept the ordinance in place, but made the fines substantially higher.

A second offense went up from $200 to $3,000 and a third offense from $500 to $5,000. A fourth offense results in a misdemeanor.

The city had previously adopted  Chapter 5.25 of the Canyon  Lake  Municipal Code, which prohibits short-term vacation rentals (STR) (also known  as  short-term vacation rentaL short-term lodging, short-term  residential  rental and  other similar terms) in the city.

STRs consist of the rental of a residential property for a short time period. STRs are usually rented by people for vacations or if they are relocated temporarily for business purposes, although they can be rented specifically for events such as parties, weddings, graduations. etc.

The proliferation of websites and hosting platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO have made it relatively easy for people to list their residential  properties for use as short-term vacation rentals.

The City CounciI said it adopted the prohibition due to a variety of issues, including negative impacts to the character of neighborhoods, increased noise, traffic and trash impacts and the removal of permanent housing from the market. Since that time, the City’s Code Enforcement division has enforced the new prohibition resulting in a dramatic reduction in the number of STRs within the community.

Recently, the State Legislature has also taken note of the serious negative effect STRs can have on residential neighborhoods in the state, and enacted California Senate Bill-60 (SB-60), which amends section 36900 of the Government Code to allow cities to increase the maximum fines for code violations involving STR to amounts greater than those available for non-STR code violations.

As the City Council has previously stated its intention to ensure enforcement of the prohibition of STRs, it determined these increased fines provide a great deterrent for ensuring compliance.

SB-60 also requires the issuing agency to provide a process for a reduction of fines related to STRs in line with existing law.

The revised ordinance will go into effect after a second reading next City Council meeting.