The Santa Barbara City Council on Oct. 6 unanimously approved an ordinance regulating short-term rentals and homeshares. The coastal portion must now be reviewed and certified by the California Coastal Commission.
I am grateful to Mayor Randy Rowse, the council members and city staff for listening to residents who have lived with unregulated STR activity.
The ordinance creates a permitting path for STRs in designated commercial zones and homeshares in specified residential areas. It excludes both from Santa Barbara’s Coastal High Fire Hazard Area.
That distinction matters. For nearly 50 years, city records have documented this area’s wildfire and evacuation risks. Its lower-density development reflects steep terrain, vegetation, difficult access and high fire risk.
It was not intended for high-occupancy, event-style vacation rentals.
Airbnb Has Changed
Airbnb began with hosts sharing space in their own homes — the original homeshare model. It has grown into a global industry in which investors and vacation-rental companies operate entire residences as full-time tourist accommodations.
This business model expanded faster than many cities could update regulations that never anticipated platform-based rentals. It has reached residential areas that were not designed for intensive transient occupancy.
Within Santa Barbara’s Coastal High Fire Hazard Area, it adds visitors, vehicles and human activity to constrained roads in an area already vulnerable to wildfire.
STRs can serve a purpose in commercial zones designed for visitor lodging, but they do not belong everywhere.
Airbnb can help cities create safe, appropriate standards rather than push transient lodging into high-risk residential areas.
Years of Documented Risk
Santa Barbara has designated Campanil Hill a High Fire Hazard Zone since at least 1979, citing brush, summertime fire potential, difficult access, hilly terrain and low water pressure.
In 2019, the Coastal Commission certified Santa Barbara’s Coastal Land Use Plan, which recognizes Arroyo Burro’s slope constraints, high fire risk and below-maximum-density development.
Many neighborhoods have only one narrow road in and out, with evacuation ultimately dependent on Cliff Drive — assuming it is not threatened or blocked by fire.
Residents, unfamiliar visitors and emergency responders would share these constrained routes.
Santa Barbara’s 2021 Community Wildfire Protection Plan directly links the city’s wildfire history to human activity and identifies visitors, human behavior, vulnerable residents and overloaded roads as evacuation concerns.
The city fire marshal supports excluding STRs and homeshares from High Fire Hazard Areas because of evacuation and life-safety risks.
Kracke Decision
The 2021 Kracke v. City of Santa Barbara decision did not determine that STRs are appropriate throughout the Coastal Zone.
It required Coastal Commission approval before the city could change its STR policy because of potential effects on coastal access and lower-cost accommodations.
Yet a simple Airbnb search for a four-night stay in the Coastal High Fire Hazard Area shows prices ranging from $8,000 to $20,000 — far from the lower-cost lodging discussed in Kracke.
Nor Ordinary Residential Use
Properties planned for limited, lower-density residential use are now marketed for large gatherings, weddings and resort-style stays.
They bring rotating groups of visitors unfamiliar with local fire conditions and evacuation routes, without the oversight associated with hotels and permitted event venues.
Residents have repeatedly witnessed behavior that increases ignition and evacuation risks.
Corporate InfluenceInfluence
CalMatters reported that Airbnb paid nearly $90,000 to lobby against the City of Pacifica’s ordinance, $75,000 to lobby against Monterey County short-term-rental restrictions and more than $615,000 on California lobbying between April 2025 and June 2026.
Filings also identified efforts to influence “Coastal Commission appointees,” but did not disclose the amount.
Residents cannot compete financially with a global corporation, professional lobbyists, vacation-rental companies and investors protecting profitable business models.
Instead, they rely on the Coastal Commission to recognize that increasing transient occupancy in an area with nearly 50 years of documented wildfire vulnerability creates additional human-caused ignition and evacuation risks.
The 2024 Franklin Fire in Malibu and the 2025 Palisades Fire demonstrated how quickly wildfire can overwhelm coastal communities.
We cannot prevent every wildfire, but we can avoid adding transient occupancy and evacuation pressure to an area identified as vulnerable for nearly a half-century.
Direct Request
To the California Coastal Commission: Please respect Santa Barbara’s unanimous decision and preserve the exclusion of STRs and homeshares from the Coastal High Fire Hazard Area.
Vacation rentals continue to operate while the commission’s review moves forward. Meanwhile, residents are losing fire insurance without notice.
We need the city and Coastal Commission to explain how this vulnerable area will be protected during a potentially lengthy process.
To Airbnb: Please work with cities to support STRs where they can operate safely while respecting safeguards created for high-risk neighborhoods.
That would help establish a responsible, lasting framework for coastal communities.
