Santa Barbara City Councilmembers Kristen Sneddon and Wendy Santamaria are pushing for the city to strengthen its tenant protection ordinance by approving a right-to-return clause.

The two councilmembers will attempt to place the item on the agenda on Tuesday. They have submitted a two-person memo to City Administrator Kelly McAdoo. Tuesday’s item is only to discuss placing the matter on a future agenda, but the move jumpstarts efforts by tenants and their advocates to stop the wave of renovictions that have hit the area.

“The right to return at a max of 10% is in line with state rent caps and honors pauses in leases for renovations,” Sneddon said. “These aren’t new leases, they are pauses in existing leases. I would hope this could be placed on the soonest possible agenda to match the urgency of the mass evictions we are seeing.”

The proposal states that property owners cannot raise rents more than a maximum of 10% after evicting a tenant to make renovations. The landlord essentially must offer the unit back to the original tenant at no more than their original rent, plus 5%, plus cost-of-living, but no more than 10%.

The memo states that there is “an immediate need to stabilize Santa Barbara’s rental market and address tenant evictions.”

“This measure is crucial to help local families stay in Santa Barbara and reduce financial incentives for high turnover in market-rate housing units,” the memo states.

The proposed changes to the ordinance also include requiring property owners to obtain a written opinion supported by a detailed explanation and signed under penalty of perjury from an independent construction expert who holds a current and valid California Contractors State License Board license stating that the work cannot be reasonably accomplished in a safe manner with the tenant in-place and that the work requires the tenant to vacate for at least 30 consecutive days.

“The person preparing the report may not be the owner, the licensed contractor retained to perform the work or otherwise be financially interested in the work other than for payment of the preparation for the report,” the memo states. “The report must be filed concurrently with the building permit application for the proposed work.”

The proposal also states that an owner cannot evict a tenant for at least one year after purchasing a property of five units or more.

The full City Council must decide whether to place the matter on a future City Council agenda. The votes appear to be there to do so. Santamaria, the councilmember for District 1, defeated Alejandra Gutierrez for the council seat in November. Santamaria has said that she is for strong tenant protections, while Gutierrez opposed them. Councilmembers Oscar Gutierrez, Sneddon and Meagan Harmon have shown support for improving tenant protections.

Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Mike Jordan and Mayor Randy Rowse have previously opposed a right-to-return ordinance.

Property owners have said that they spend millions of dollars on renovations of buildings and that it is financially illogical to expect rents to stay the same or only rise a maximum of 10% after a building has been substantially renovated.

The City Council meets at 2 p.m., 735 Anacapa St., at Santa Barbara City Hall.