Written by Michael Palomba
It’s been a little over a year since efforts to pass short-term vacation rental regulations failed in the San Diego City Council. And since then, not much progress has been made.
That has not stopped Councilwoman and current mayoral candidate Barbara Bry from making it one of the focal points of her campaign. In a recent campaign ad, she said, “When I am mayor, I will enforce the existing zoning laws that prohibit short-term rentals.”
These “existing zoning laws,” however, are not as clear cut as she makes them out to be, and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer has made clear that he and Bry do not see eye to eye. “We are not changing our enforcement practices until the regulations are clarified,” Faulconer’s spokeswoman Jen Lebron said.
Now the big question here is why do Democrats like Barbara Bry want to take away a homeowner’s right to rent their own property?
Well, according to Bry, “We are enduring the loss of homes for San Diego families and workers as mini-hotels proliferate in our neighborhoods.”
Bry has been met with strong opposition with vacation rental platforms pooling more than $1 million last year to support a signature-gathering effort to overturn vacation rental rules. The effort caused the city council to rescind the rules.
At the end of the day, these regulations against vacation rentals are just another attempt by local Democrats to interfere in the personal lives of San Diegans. If a homeowner wants to rent out their property, why should the government prevent him from doing so? Property owners are already required to obtain a Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate if they want to rent their space and are taxed accordingly.
California did not help purchase any of the vacation rentals in question, and there is no reason for them to start regulating how residents can and can not use them.
