Malibu local Michael Lustig, a resident of Malibu Road which has been inundated with short term vacation rentals, presented over 100 hours of study to the Planning Commission last November discussing the current scale of the problem that Malibu faces with Airbnb and other home-sharing platforms.
Lustig warned the Commission of Airbnb’s duplicity and how easy it is for operators to avoid the taxation, a main consideration for the City in terms of revenue and how they move forward with the proposed ordinance.
Since Airbnb is not transparent on any level, there is no ledger and the numbers don’t add up leaving the city shorted millions of dollars.
Lustig feels the proposed ordinance was a good start addressing the apartment issue with a 100% ban on all apartments in multifamily buildings of 3 or more units and protections for actual “home-sharing” of primary residences and guests houses where the owner is onsite and needs extra money to make ends meet.
However, the proposed ordinance does not address the following:
1.) Regulation of single family homes that are not primary residences (which is the largest growth sector and where speculators do the most damage and create the most nuisance).
2.) There is no understanding of Airbnb’s new product offerings which are add-ons to the home rentals and create another unregulated revenue stream.
3.) There was no thought given to enforcement or budgeting.
4.) Due to time constraints, Lustig advised in writing, that any ordinance that does not include Mandatory Permitting, Platform Liability, Administrative Subpoena Authority, an Enforcement Plan and Budget is a non-starter. These things are essential because they force transparency and put the city in control.
The Planning Commission’s eyes and ears were open and they decision was to send the Ordinance back to the City Attorney and City Manager for revision.
Lustig waited on the revised ordinance to be posted “virtually any day” and received notification from the City on March 1st that the ordinance was bypassing the Planning Commission and going straight to City Council hearing on March 26th.
Furious at how the City could bypass due process, Lustig wrote to City Manager Reva Feldman, City Attorneys Christi Hogan and Trevor Rusin and asked these three with 3 questions;
“Why did this happen?”
“Is this even legal?”
“When will the ordinance be public?”
On March 6th, Lustig received an email from Assistant City Attorney Trevor Rusin informing of the decision to reverse bypassing the Planning Commission.
Lustig received an update today from City Manager Feldman stating the ordinance is scheduled to be heard at the May 7th Planning Commission meeting.
This gives the community, especially those impacted by these short term vacation rentals, time to strategize and prepare their message for the Commission who is open to solutions for this very complicated issue that is currently dividing our community and affecting our quality of life in this rural coastal town.
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