I don't want this city to turn into 'time-share Monica,' and I don't think most other residents do either. You have facilities that advertise where hotels advertise and offer the same amenities a hotel offers. I think they should be treated as a hotel. At the behest of the City Council, which is expected to vote Tuesday night to make curbing short-term rentals a top planning priority, Santa Monica's overburdened Planning Department has begun trying to get a handle on the scope of the trend. Short-term rentals, they contend, intensify a building's use by increasing traffic and destabilizes a community by making its residents more transient.
Evidence indicates that the trend is both widespread and wide-ranging.
Developers and landlords contend they are filling a demand whose supply was artificially depressed for two decades by the city's restrictive rent control laws. There's a demand in all metro areas. People are rehabbing houses or moving to town. There's always a need for short-term rentals. Vacancy decontrol has allowed a demand to finally be met.