CRITICAL! The Future of STRs in Santa Barbara County will be decided on Tuesday, June 6th, 2017

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will be meeting to discuss and vote on a Short Term Rental ban in Santa Barbara County.

These are 3 possible outcomes of this meeting:

1. They could approve the Ordinance prepared by Staff last year that effectively bans ALL STRs
2. They could instruct Staff to return with a revised Ordinance
3. They could take no action

We need your help to ensure that outcome 1) does not happen (i.e. they do not approve the prohibitive STR Ordinance prepared by Staff last year).

CLICK HERE for the Board Letter and other detailed information about the hearing.

REQUEST: Please contribute by participating in each of the following ACTION ITEMS:

ACTION ITEM #1:

Please prepare a letter or email and send it to the SB County Board of Supervisors before next Monday, June 5. If you are a resident, please consider sharing a little about yourself (ex. “I am a thirty-year resident of Montecito”, “I am a consituent in your District”, etc.).

It is critically important that the Board of Supervisors HEAR DIRECTLY FROM YOU regarding why they should allow STRs in all Zones in the County!

Here are some key talking points:

• Please allow and regulate ALL short term rentals
• Do not prohibit STRs in Residential Zones
• STRs have been successfully regulated in other juristictions. Do a test of regulations before you dismiss the idea that they cannot be regulated

Please select one or more of the following that apply to you, to expand upon in your correspondence:

• As a host, you rely on the income from STR to support your family;
• As a resident who works in the tourism industry, STRs are critical to support our local economy;
• As a neighbor of a STR, in your experience, STRs have NOT been a nuisance;
• As an owner of a STR, if they were banned, you would NOT sell or rent your home at an “affordable” rate;
• As an owner of a STR, you live in your home X number of months (or weeks) throughout the year and therefore would NOT sell your home if STR were banned;
• As a resident, you urge the Board to allow ALL STRs as a critically needed source of revenue to support County services, especially in light of the County’s large budget deficit;
• As a visitor, you rely on STRs for affordable overnight accommodations to stay in Santa Barbara – especially with a family – and would not be able to afford to visit, or stay as long, if they are banned;
• As a visitor, please protect full home rentals – it is less private and impractical, in many cases, to only rent a room in a home, especially with a family.

Click here to view and/or download more extensive background and talking points

Please email the Board members directly and CC: the Clerk of the Board:

ACTION ITEM #2: Attend the Board of Supervisors hearing on Tuesday, June 6th, 9:00am.

Even if you don’t choose to speak during the public comment period, your presence alone will help to show the large number of people opposed to the proposed ordinance. There will be some type of badge to wear or other clear marker to indicate your support for STRs.

Below is the address and directions for the hearing on June 6th. It is planned to start at 9:00am and we anticipate it will go on for a while given the importance of the issue. Typically public speakers are allowed 3 MINUTES of remarks. However, given the large number of people that may attend, please be prepared to shorten your remarks to 1 or 2 MINUTES.

1) Main Venue in Santa Barbara:

County Administration Building, Board Hearing Room
105 E Anapamu St., 4th Floor, Santa Barbara, CA 93101

2) Alternative Venue in Santa Maria where you can participate remotely via video conferencing: (if you absolutely cannot make it to Santa Barbara that day):

Joseph Centeno Betteravia Government Administration Building
511 East Lakeside Parkway, Santa Maria, California, 93455

ACTION ITEM #3: Sign the petition which urges the SB County Board of Supervisors to not approve the STR Ordinance that was prepared by the Staff.

Please be sure to leave a comment in the “I’m signing because…” box. All comments will be forwarded to the Supervisors.

ACTION ITEM #4: Spread the word to others!

Please forward this page to anyone who you think will support our efforts.

Thank you in advance for your help with this important cause!

Sincerely,

Theo Kracke
Save The Rentals Santa Barbara
www.strsantabarbara.org