During its meeting Tuesday evening, the Goleta City Council considered amendments to the city’s short-term vacation rental ordinance that would require licenses for all short-term rentals instead of permits, as well as allow the city to collaborate with third-party online platforms such as Airbnb.
Goleta first adopted its short-term vacation rental ordinance in 2015, which requires property owners to obtain a regulatory permit before renting a unit for less than 30 days.
The current short-term rental program has different requirements depending on whether the unit is hosted — or owner-occupied.
Operators of non-owner-occupied units are required to obtain a short-term rental permit, as well as a general business license, while an owner-occupied unit requires only a general business license.
Both types of short-term rentals are also subject to a 12% transient occupancy tax and a Santa Barbara South Coast tourism business improvement district assessment.
The new program would consolidate these requirements into one short-term rental license program, which would require a short-term rental license — instead of a permit — for both owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied units.
According to the staff presentation, Goleta has issued 72 short-term rental permits — although not all are active — and revenues from the program since its inception total $347,327: $323,735 in transient occupancy taxes, $21,013 in short-term rental permit fees, and $2,579 in general business license fees.
Finance Director Luke Rioux said the department and code compliance staff have identified 38 additional addresses that they believe may be operating as unpermitted short-term rentals, totaling 110 short-term rentals in Goleta.
In addition to consolidating the process and allowing staff to have a more accurate view of the number of short-term rentals in Goleta, the ordinance amendments would clarify items such as occupancy limits and the appeal process.
Another part of the council’s discussion of short-term rentals on Tuesday involved voluntary collections agreements with online platforms, such as Airbnb and Vrbo.
The agreements would allow the city to collaborate with online platforms, which could assist with collection of taxes and fees, and prevent unlicensed short-term rentals from being listed. Platforms would be required to include a section in the booking information for hosts to input their short-term rental license number, as well as to remove any unlicensed listings at the city’s request.
City Attorney Megan Garibaldi said the city is already in contact with Vrbo, discussing the possibility of a voluntary collections agreement.
While several Goleta residents who spoke during public comment seemed to appreciate the ordinance, they expressed wanting more focus on enforcement and what the community wants.
“I guess I want to get to the fundamentals as to why we have this ordinance, and it sounds to me that it’s not really listening to the community as to what their concerns are, but it’s a little bit more of a revenue building and spreading the enforcement to other entities, such as Vrbo and Airbnb,” public commenter Michelle Roberson said. “On the one hand, I think it’s great that we have other avenues to start getting teeth into this ordinance and to enforce it, but I’m not hearing a lot about what’s going to happen.
“We have a loss of housing because of these Airbnbs, we have a loss of communities because of these Airbnbs, and I would hope that you listen to the community instead of just focusing on the revenue aspect and maybe divert the revenue to enforcement action.”
The ordinance also includes information on performance standards for short-term vacation rentals — such as requiring units to comply with building codes, occupancy limits, noise ordinances and a nuisance-response plan, and more — that must be met to remain licensed.
The Goleta City Council unanimously passed a motion to move forward with the ordinance amendments and to authorize staff to negotiate and execute voluntary collections agreements.