After a five hour meeting Wednesday night, the Palm Springs City Council voted to put some restrictions on vacation rentals in the city in order to save it from becoming a town where no one actually lives, but is instead just a collection of homes rented out to tourists and L.A. hipsters.
#PalmSprings council members votes 3-1 on stricter regulations for vacation rental properties. @Ginny_Foat votes no. Chris Mills abstains.
— Joe Galli (@JoeGalliNews) December 1, 2016
The meeting was attended by many who were against any restrictions on vacation rentals, who were easily identifiable by their pink attire:
Attendance at tonight's council meeting is about 75 percent pro-vacation rentals, (judging by all of the pink scarfs.) pic.twitter.com/ZS5DEOTSgB
— Skip Descant (@TDSskip) December 1, 2016
They were also easily identifiable by the one thing they all have in common:
To @TDSskip: By my count there are few if any speakers in favor of vac rentals who don't make money from them. No regular citizens in favor.
— Hank Plante (@HankPlante) December 1, 2016
Eventually the new ordinances were passed by the Council – which, according to KESQ, caps the amount of times a property can be rented a year to 32 times, which still seems like an awful lot considering 12-20 weeks a year the desert is hotter than shit.
The limit would not apply to a property owner’s family members. So you should probably get ready for a lot of “cousins” renting homes in Palm Springs next year.
There might also be a hike in rental permit fees from $234 a year to $900, which would go towards enforcing the rules – and enforcement and oversight is something the city is clearly good at. There would also be stiffer penalties if someone was caught breaking the rules.
Perhaps the biggest change would be that people or businesses would only be allowed one permitted vacation rental property in the city – with couples being grandfathered in and allowed two.
During the meeting, City Manager David Ready said it might be four months before the new rules would go into place.
