CHULA VISTA, Calif. — Airbnb host of 3 years Guy East lives in and rents out his Chula Vista home.
He organized about a dozen other Airbnb hosts to meet up to discuss what they like and don't like about the City of Chula Vista's consideration of adopting a short-term rental ordinance, with permit fees and adding enforcement staffing.
"I was completely shocked to hear that this was going through and being taken up for a vote on Tuesday. What has been put forward seems very rushed," said East.
Airbnb host Aaron Davitian says not all the proposal is bad for rentals, but he does take issue with much of it.
"A lot of what is in the ordinance we are fine with, no problem with the fines for bad actors, and giving police something to really go after, but the de facto ban and not being able to use a home outside of your own, these are the things that really hurt us and put us out of work,” said Davitian, a small business owner.
He says the city is trying to limit short-term rentals for a primary residence for three months, and there are noise complaints and a potential impact on housing.
"There are a couple notorious houses in Chula Vista that the cops are called out to on a regular basis, but we don't want that. Nobody wants to have a rowdy house next-door but the reality is, we don't even know if those are Airbnbs or not,” said East.
East also said in Chula Vista there are 253 short-term rental properties and 200 of those are single-family homes, so that is very minimal, far less than 1% to make an impact.
A spokesperson for the City of Chula Vista emailed, "We do not have a comment in advance of public input and City Council deliberations at tonight's City Council meeting."
There are 176 Public Comments listed for the agenda item, the majority from those who say they oppose the city's measure.
“My wife’s escape room business got shut down due to the pandemic. We were forced out of business, so this is what kept us alive during this time period, so it is very important to our family and to our income, no question,” said Davitian.
With two city council members having to recuse themselves due to owning rentals, and one member absent, Chula Vista will discuss the short-term rental matter at a later meeting slated for December.
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