O2012
f:\atty\muni\laws\barry\rental housing moratorium-1.wpd
City Council Meeting 6-19-2001
Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER 2012 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN INTERIM ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCil OF THE CITY OF SANTA
MONICA EXTENDING THE MORATORIUM ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF
AND CONVERSION TO SHORT-TERM HOUSING; DECLARING
THE PRESENCE OF AN EMERGENCY
THE CITY COUNCil OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES ORDAIN AS
FOllOWS:
SECTION 1 Findings and Purpose. The Council finds and declares:
(a) The proliferation of short-term rental housing can have a significant, detrimental
impact on the quality of life in the community.
(b) Short-term housing, also known as corporate housing, provides temporary
accommodations in fully furnished apartments complete with furniture, appliances,
housewares, and other furnishings.
(c) Short-term housing projects typically afford an array of conveniences and
services such as maid and linen service, laundry and dry cleaning service, on-site
conference or meeting rooms, business centers, and Internet access. Most short-term
housing facilities also offer a full health club, spa, large pool and tennis court. Projects
that do not offer these facilities on-site, often offer membership to area facilities.
(d) The average length of stay in short-term housing in the Los Angeles region is
eighty days, Nationally, the average is seventy-one days.
(e) The typical occupants of these facilities include: relocating executives requiring
temporary accommodations until a permanent residence is established, corporate recruits,
attorneys trying cases, and relocating families. This housing is also increasingly utilized
by vacationers. The occupants of these units do not intend to make these units their
permanent place of residence, but view these premises as interim abodes.
(f) The short-term housing inventory increased by 13% nationally in 2000 and is
anticipated to increase by an average of 10% over the next four years, if current economic
conditions persist.
(g) Short-term housing is also growing exponentially in Santa Monica. Some of the
recent major housing developments in the City that offer or will offer short term housing
include the Arboretum project with 253 units (excluding the 97 units deed restricted to
affordable housing), the Sea Castle with 133 units (excluding the 45 units deed restricted
to affordable housing), and Citrus Suites with a combined 171 units available at two
separate locations.
(h) One of Santa Monica's primary housing goals is to preserve the quality and
character of its existing single and multi-family residential neighborhoods. Santa Monica's
prosperity has always been fueled by the area's many attractive features including its
cohesive and active residential neighborhoods and the diverse population which resides
therein. In order to continue to flourish, the City must preserve its character and charm
which result, in part, from the cultural, ethnic, and economic diversity of its resident
population.
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(i) The City must also preserve its unique sense of community which derives, in
large part, from residents' active participation in civic affairs, including local government,
cultural events, and educational endeavors. Occupants of short-term housing do not and
cannot have the same involvement and ties to the community and to neighborhoods in
which they reside as occupants who treat the City and their neighborhoods as their home.
Short-term occupants are less likely to become active in civic, neighborhood, and
community affairs and events.
U) The City has adopted numerous regulatory measures intended to promote the
development of multi-family housing and ensures that this development is occupied by
individuals as their principle residence, The City never envisioned that these measures
would facilitate the development of short-term housing,
(k) The proliferation of short-term housing in the City is a recent phenomenon and
the City needs time to adequately assess the full impacts of this form of housing and its
appropriate scope and location within the City.
(I) In light of these concerns, the City Council adopted Ordinance Number
2011 (CCS) on May 22,2001 establishing a moratorium on the development of short-term
rental housing and the conversion of existing multi-family development to this form of
housing. However, that ordinance will expire on July 6,2001 unless extended prior to that
date.
(m) For the reasons described above, the City Council finds that extension of the
moratorium on the development of and conversion to short-term housing is necessary
because the continuing development of this form of housing in the City prior to the City's
review of its housing and land use policies and regulations presents a current and
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immediate threat to the public peace, health, safety, and welfare. If urgent action is not
taken, this form of development activity will continue unabated, thereby committing scarce
land resources to development that is not in the best interests of the residents of the City.
The approval of additional development of and the conversion to short-term housing in
the City pending the City's completion of its review of its housing and land use policies and
regulations would result in a threat to the public health, safety, and welfare. Consequently,
this ordinance extends the provisions of Ordinance Number 2011 (CCS) for a period of two
years, up to and including June 19, 2003, to provide the City sufficient time to further
evaluate and undertake appropriate actions to address impact of short-term housing.
SECTION 2. Moratorium.
(a) Subject to Section 3 of this Ordinance, a moratorium is hereby placed on the
acceptance for processing of any applications for approval of tentative tract maps, tentative
parcel maps, administrative approvals, development review permits, conditional use
permits, design compatibility permits, zoning conformance, and building permits for any
residential building or structure that will be utilized as short-term housing in any district in
the City.
(b) Subject to Section 3 of this Ordinance, all applications which have not been
deemed complete as of May 22,2001, for approval oftentative tract maps, tentative parcel
maps, administrative approvals, development review permits, conditional use permits,
design compatibility permits, zoning conformance, and building permits for any residential
building or structure that will be utilized as short-term housing in any district in the City shall
be disapproved.
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hJPct to SecHo 3 r1f this Ordinance no perso,n sh,all convert Drone-rty to ~Ilnr!-
housirlQ first obta~ Ing bu",in~'Ss licen~e fFr(lrTl the City' Business license
Divi~inn permitting th
(d' For pLJTpO~P" ofthis Ora' ll,arliCflshort-terrn hou~nng hall be denru~tl as rentail
hOli.Jlsinig which h~ Gombir1:a.hclll tlf some but nece:!';;!S;;;!rily all oHhs foHowing attributes
The orQP"3rty is desiqned for se by ividuals w~'J will n~side on pmperty
fr'lr min im 1m stav of at least 30 n;.::jV"i. but who ot'herlli/ls@ intend thRir occlJpancy to be
temporary.
The property is ntanded for SEl by persons who will maintain or obtain
p~rmE:lI en! plF'lf::8 of residence elsewhere
The property neludes same or al:l .of the fnllnwing amenities
maid a nd linen servke
(b) health
pool tennlc;
rnRrnberships to area facilitie:!';;
business service center""
[d: meeting rooms
fuHy furnished u.mits inr:luding combiflaHon of some
not necessadly all of
the b~liow;ng: furniture app~~:a"c:e'3, hou bed lin'S!fls, towels, artlNork I ti!"!It'lV1~il1l1
sets VCRs CI1 players fax machines and ntemet ac:r.p.~R..
~f) vale parking
CTION 3 This Ord Inance shall not he applk::;;Iib~e to property
in which the owner can estt3blish \Jested dghHD develop or operate housing
roject
SECTION 4. This ordinance is declared to be an urgency measure adopted
pursuant to the provision of Section 615 of the Santa Monica City Charter. As set forth
in the findings above, this ordinance is necessary for preserving the public peace, health,
safety, and welfare.
SECTION 5. This Ordinance shall be of no further force and effect two years from
the date of its adoption, June 19, 2003, unless prior to that date, after a public hearing.
noticed pursuant to Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 9.04.20.22.050, the City
Council, by majority vote, extends this Interim Ordinance.
SECTION 6. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code or appendices
thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, to the extent of such
inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary to
effect the provisions of this Ordinance.
SECTION 7. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this
Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any court
of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining
portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this
Ordinance and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase not
declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance
would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.
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SECTION 8. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the passage of
this Ordinance. The City Clerk shall cause the same to be published once in the official
newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall become effective upon
its adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
L;{
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Adopted and approved this 19th day of June, 2001
State of California )
County of Los Angeles) ss.
City of Santa Monica )
I, Maria M. Stewart, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do hereby certify that the
foregoing Ordinance No. 2012 (CCS) had it's introduction and adoption at the Santa
Monica City Council meeting held on June 19, 2001, by the following vote:
Ayes:
Council members: O'Connor, McKeown, Genser, Mayor Pro
Tem Bloom, Mayor Feinstein
Noes:
Council members: Holbrook
Abstain: Council members: None
Absent: Council members: Katz
ATTEST:
~~. ~J-
Maria M. Stewart, City Clerk