The Goleta City Council plans to put more restrictions on short-term vacation rentals. 

The city’s goal with regulating short-term rentals is to free up housing for residents and local workers. However, a consultant study found that the number of rentals currently doesn’t have an impact on the city’s housing stock.

On Tuesday, the City Council supported limiting the number of nights a non-owner-occupied short-term rental can be rented; a waiting period for permits for newly purchased homes; and prohibiting permits for properties recently subject to no-fault evictions. 

Councilman James Kyriaco and Councilwoman Luz Reyes-Martin said they were open to limiting the number of permitted short-term vacation rentals allowed in the city, and wanted staff to explore options.

Councilman Stuart Kasdin said he was against capping the total number of permits, saying it could have unintended consequences by forcing property owners to maintain properties as short-term rentals so they wouldn’t lose their permit. 

A consultant study found that there were 51 active short-term rentals in Goleta last year, making up 0.4% of the city’s housing stock. The rentals generated $245,856 of transient occupancy tax revenues.

“Short-term rentals aren’t the villain here; in fact, they’re a vital part of our local economy, and I think they add to its strength,” Michael Becchio, who helps manage permitted short-term rentals for local homeowners, said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Becchio said he was in favor of good regulation and accountability but that he didn’t think limiting the number of nights for non-hosted vacation rentals would have a meaningful impact.

“I know short-term rentals are visible and a hot topic in general, but they just aren’t numerous enough to solve our housing shortage by restricting them,” Becchio said. “I believe we should focus on solutions that actually create more housing, not policies that restrict our economy while barely moving the needle on the real problem that we’re facing.”

Kyriaco agreed that short-term rentals aren’t a major factor in the city’s housing shortage right now, but that the council needs to plan for the future. 

“Planning is an exercise in looking into the future, and the future is uncertain, but we’ve seen in other communities not a lot of short-term vacation rental challenges and then suddenly you have a trend,” Kyriaco said. 

City staff will now draft an ordinance with the new regulations and will return to council at a later date for approval. 

When the City Council adopted the housing element in December 2023, the city committed to addressing the impact that short-term vacation rentals had on the local housing stock.

A Bay Area Economics consultant study determined that short-term vacation rentals currently don’t have a significant impact on the city’s housing stock. However, an increase in the number of non-hosted vacation rentals could reduce housing availability. 

Based on the study, the consultant recommended that the city prohibit short-term rentals on properties recently subject to no-fault evictions, to discourage property owners from evicting tenants to convert the property into a vacation rental. 

The consultant also recommended a waiting period for short-term vacation rental permits, so property owners wouldn’t be able to get a permit until one year after they purchase a property. 

The Planning Commission supported this recommendation but wanted to exempt owner-occupied properties. That way, residents living on the property could still rent out rooms to help them afford their home. 

Mayor Paula Perotte was absent from Tuesday’s meeting, for the second council meeting in a row, as she was still recovering from illness, according to city officials.