Signatures Submitted For Referendum To Overturn San Diego's Short-Term Rental Rules

Maureen Cavanaugh It's Friday August 30 first our top story on Midday edition. Just when we thought the issue of short term rentals had finally been decided in San Diego a push to overturn the new regulations may have qualified for the ballot. Vacation Rental proponents say they've turned in more than 62000 signatures. Way more than the 35000 required to place a referendum on the ballot. San Diego City Councilman Scott Sherman who voted against the short term vacation rental rules had this to say as the petitions were handed in yesterday with the amount of signatures collected in such a short period of time it shows that San Diego ins are very much in favor of short term vacation rentals and repealing the de facto ban that was passed here just a month ago. People have the right to use their property in the manner in which they see fit. The new city regulations on short term rentals approved just last month would among other things limit rentals to a homeowner's primary residence for no more than six months out of the year. The referendum to overturn those new rules is a joint effort led by home sharing websites such as Airbnb and HomeAway. Joining me is reporter Laurie Weisberg who covers tourism and the hospitality industry for the San Diego Union Tribune. And Laurie welcome to the show. Thank you. After years of debate the San Diego City Council last month finalized those rules to govern short term vacation rentals. Why are home sharing companies and Vacation Rental hosts unhappy with them. OK well I'll explain that to you so I know Councilman Sherman called that a de facto ban. It's it's not really a ban. So what is allowed is that you can rent up to six months out of the year. Your primary residence while you're away and year round you can rent out a room in your home so you can still there is still this idea of home sharing for your primary residence. What is not allowed anymore is being allowed to rent out a second home whether you're a San Diego who has a second home or you live in Arizona but you have a second home and in San Diego under a previous proposal brokered by Mayor Kevin Faulkner which did not go through the council. If you were out of charity you could have been allowed to rent out one home. So of that's allowed. And I think the thing that's gotten a lot of attention is that it pretty much wipes out most vacation rentals in Mission Beach which for the most part are are second homes. And there was some thought given to grandfathering in some of those. But the council ultimately voted that down. So that's why you're hearing some people calling it a de facto ban as opposed to an outright ban. Now the rules the council approved were set to go into effect next July. If the signatures are certified does that mean the regulations the council approved will be put on hold. Right. I guess that's the effect of a referendum it puts everything on hold until it can go to a public vote. We know that the next general election. It wouldn't have made it onto this year's ballot in November. But then the next general election after that would be 2020. So in that interim as you said everything would be put on hold unless the council with a referendum the council has the option of withdrawing its action. And then of course you'd start over. So you wonder if the council would even weigh that given the multiple multiple hearings hour long hearings that we've had on this whether they would take that step. Otherwise there's nothing in effect until 2020. There have been reports of signature gatherers in some instances not being truthful with the public about what they are signing when it comes to this Air B and B sponsored signature gathering effort. From your reporting what have you heard about that. I guess I've seen I think I saw a report in The O.B. Wragg I saw a CBS report about that. I haven't witnessed it myself directly. I know some of the critics of the referendum have said they have seen people shading the truth or saying things to mislead people into voting. I have to be honest I've talked to a few signature gatherers myself. I did not encounter anything that was untrue. And having covered initiatives the sort of signature gathering process for a long time. You don't always hear the exact truth. You don't hear everything being represented. These people are paid to gather signatures they don't know the ins and outs of all these multi-page documents. They don't they don't know exactly every rule that the council passed as it related short term rentals. So while there may have been some of that going on I don't know how far the critics will get. They did call for the secretary of state to launch an investigation. We'll see if that that happens. Are supporters of the new city regulations on short term rentals. Are they planning any counterattack. They told me yesterday that they are weighing the possibility of launching their their own initiative now that they launch an initiative that would be even twice the signatures you'd have to gather but they'd have a much longer time to do so although it would be an expensive process so I don't know kind of what the strategy is going to be but they are weighing that. You know the other thing we don't know is let's say this referendum does make it onto the ballot. Are there enough people who would be favoring harsh rules on short term vacation rentals or I mean a lot of people in the communities don't like them but it's hard to know for sure how successful such a referendum would be. When will we know for sure if the Air B and B referendum will qualify for the ballot. So the registrar of voters has 30 calendar days and so that brings us to September 29. We will know for sure if this if this qualifies. I've been speaking with Laurie Weissberg a reporter with The San Diego Union Tribune. Laurie thank you. Thank you.