About 60 people filled the chairs at the Twentynine Palms Community Center, to participate in a special joint meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission on vacation home rentals. Reporter Dan Stork says that a question was asked by the Planning Commissioners, and was answered by the City Council…
The Twentynine Palms Planning Commissioners asked the City Council: Do you want us to devote time to reconsideration of allowing and regulating Vacation Home Rentals in the City. (A Vacation Home Rental is defined as a rental of less than 30 days.) After two hours of public comment and official discussion, the answer was yes, by a 4-1 vote, with Council member Jay Corbin dissenting. Council members suggested that the Commission use the draft ordinance developed four years ago as a starting point, and Commissioners asked Council members to forward comments on that draft to them to help their deliberations. During lengthy public comment, speakers on both sides of the issue rehashed familiar arguments. The speakers were mainly, but not entirely, owners of prospective VHR properties on the pro side and hoteliers on the con side. Issues that were raised as topics for consideration by the Commission include: registration and permitting process; fee schedule; property management oversight; cost of administration, code enforcement burden, bed tax collection; neighbor notification radius; trial period and program review; a minimum stay requirement; and affected areas of the city.
In 2010, when the then-sitting City Council terminated discussion of the issue, the vote was 3-1. Steve Flock, John Cole, and still-serving Jim Harris were the majority, and Joel Klink provided the lone vote for continuing the discussion then. (Then-Council member Steve Spear was not present for the vote.) Current Mayor Dan Mintz was a member of the Planning Commission that developed a draft VHR ordinance at that time.
