Vacation Rental Ordinance: On Thursday, December 19th, the City Planning Commission considered a citywide ordinance to regulate Vacation Rentals or secondary residences. As proposed, the draft ordinance would allow a non-primary residence to serve as short-term lodging for visitors. In order to be permitted to list a home as a Vacation Rental, the home must be occupied on an occasional or intermittent basis by the owner, the dwelling unit must not be reserved for affordable or rent-stabilized housing and may not have been removed from the rental market through the Ellis Act in the past seven years. Accessory dwelling units would additionally be prohibited from participating in the program. As proposed, property owners would be limited to only one vacation rental permit and permitted to book no more than 30 days in a calendar year. The proposed regulations seek to allow for targeted short-term rental activity in vacation homes, with a citywide cap for registered Vacation Rental units set at 3,625, accommodating the needs of those that wish to list their homes as vacation rentals, while also protecting existing housing for residents of Los Angeles. These regulations would also make these vacation homes subject to the same rules of enforcement that currently govern existing home-sharing units throughout the City.
The Commission recommend approval of the ordinance with amendments to allow Citywide cap equal to 1% of the City’s Housing market, with local caps organized by community plan instead of census tracts. The number of nights was increased, allowing hosts to book rentals for up to 90 days, up from 30. The Commission requested that extensive screening be required to prove, the applicant doesn’t have another secondary residence they occasionally occupy in the City as well as a study on the fees generated from this ordinance, with the intent to use a portion of such fees for funding, affordable housing.
Senate Bill 50 (Weiner): In Spring 2019, City Planning issued two reports on SB 50 in response to a Council Motion requesting for analysis of the Bill’s potential impact on the City of Los Angeles (CF 18-1226). Specifically, the reports analyze how the changes could impact the City’s neighborhood development patterns and urban form as well as existing City policies, plans and procedures. The analysis in both reports, however, are preliminary, and are based on previous versions of the Bill. City Planning may prepare supplemental reports with additional analysis and policy considerations based on future revisions for the Council should the bill proceed.
Upcoming Calendar for PlanCheck NC
•Housing Element Update (February meeting): City Planning’s External Affairs is scheduling CityPlanner, Blair Smith, and City Planning Associate, Ari Briski, to provide a presentation on theHousing Element Update and announce the February open house workshops.
•Preliminary Application Review Program (February meeting): External Affairs is inviting CityPlanner, Justin Bilow, to provide a presentation on the City’s new Zoning Review Process thatwas developed in response to SB 330 (Housing Crisis Act of 2019). For further information,please visit: https://planning.lacity.org/development-services/preliminary-application-review-program
•Affordable Housing Monitoring (March meeting): External Affairs is working on scheduling apresentation from HCID on their citywide monitoring of affordable housing units.

 

Contact Us
For more information, please contact your Community Liaisons:
Fipe Leilua, (213) 978-1193, fipe.leilua@lacity.org
Jaime Espinoza, (213) 978-1357, jaime.espinoza@lacity.org