Today’s newsletter is presented by Benchmarquee Property.
Hello, La Mesa!
La Mesa is too much of a Wild West when it comes to short-term rentals, the city council decided.
Elected officials voted Tuesday, not on a new policy to regulate short-term rentals, but to direct city staff to develop such a policy.
Once finished and then potentially adopted by the council, the policy could mean more revenue for the city since it can collect Transit Occupancy Taxes from visitors staying in these short-term rentals, not just hotels.
It’s not shocking that La Mesa is late to the game in regulating Airbnb and other short-term rentals, even though neighboring cities like El Cajon and Lemon Grove passed such policies.
While I love our inland community, we haven’t been inundated with tourists the way coastal cities were. In those places, residents have worried that as more apartments and houses were classified as short-term rentals, there would be less housing stock available for locals and rents would increase. La Mesa, too, wants to ensure there aren’t so many short-term rentals that it makes finding long-term housing more difficult.
Regulations also mean the city could crack down on “nuisance” short-term rentals. Some La Mesa residents complained about these tourists taking up parking spaces, making noise and hosting parties.
As staff develops what a regulatory framework could look like, now is the time to share your feedback on what you want the policy to include, whether that be caps on how many people can stay in a bedroom or rules on where property owners. You can email the city through an online form here.
Drew Sitton
La Mesa Courier newsletter host
La Mesa story spotlight
‘Wild West’ no more? La Mesa moves toward short-term rental policy
By Sean Monney – Special for Times of San Diego
La Mesa residents and some councilmembers expressed concern that the city has not already implemented a policy governing short-term rentals.
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