Two hours wasn’t enough time for Santa Barbara’s Ordinance Committee on Tuesday to make a decision regarding new protections for tenants.

The city is considering an ordinance that would allow original tenants the first right-of-refusal to return to a residence at the same rent after they were displaced by an owner renovation. Also in the ordinance is a list of actions that qualify as “harassment,” including a property owner failing to provide regular upkeep and maintenance and misrepresenting when a tenant must leave a residence.

The tenant protections are part of an ongoing effort by community activists and the City of Santa Barbara to protect renters who have been displaced because of property owner renovations.

Known as “renovictions,” tenants and activists say that property owners evict tenants under the guise of a renovation of the building and then, after making some repairs, jack up the rent to a level that the original tenant cannot afford.

The issue, which has been well-chronicled in the media and by activists all over the South Coast, is part of a broader push to stabilize the rental housing marking and stop the exodus of lower-income renters in the city.

Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon said at Tuesday’s committee meeting that the tenant protections are most impactful if the city has a rent cap.

“Ten years ago, when I was a renter, I could rent a two-bedroom house with a yard, grass, a garage in San Roque for $1,800,” Sneddon said. “That’s 10 years ago. In 10 years time, what $1,800 can get you today is maybe a studio apartment.”

The three-member committee is made up of Oscar Gutierrez, Mike Jordan and Sneddon.

The panel spent the first hour of Tuesday’s meeting mostly asking questions of Assistant City Attorney Dan Hentschke.

Committee member Mike Jordan took up a quarter of the meeting himself, asking questions for 32 consecutive minutes, before members of the public could speak.

Jordan drilled down into the nitty-gritty of various scenarios and how they could play out, and ways that landlords might find loopholes in the proposed ordinance.

At one point, Jordan asked Hentschke: “Can you just do an overview for dummies, or overview for Mike, on the separation and dynamic of the city’s legal role and a tenant’s legal role, and I will start that and then you can do better than me.”

Eventually, at the top of hour two of the meeting, members of the public were able to speak.

Stanley Tzankov, a renter and member of the Santa Barbara Tenants Union, praised the city for being responsive to their concerns.

He said a “gold rush” of renovictions is coming if more changes aren’t put into place. He said many property owners are looking to “renovict” to build student housing.

“Student-only housing is really incentivized because you can deregulate the rent every single year and charge higher prices,” Tzankov said.

Staci Caplan, a Realtor and government relations chair for the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors, said the proposed ordinance has problems.

“We have no problem with the right-of-first refusal, but not at the same rate,” Caplan said. “If this is enacted, the housing providers will not renovate properties.”

She said the housing stock in Santa Barbara is old, and having to rent again at the same rate would discourage housing providers from renovating.

After two hours, the council ran out of time and City Administrator Rebecca Bjork suggested that the committee take up the issue again next week.

To view the ordinance and full list of proposed changes, click here.