TITLE
Recommendation to declare ordinance amending Title 5, Regulation of Businesses, Trades and Professions of the Long Beach Municipal Code, by adding Chapter 5.77, related to short-term rentals, read the first time and laid over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for final reading;

DISCUSSION
At its meeting on January 21, 2020, the City Council considered whether to approve a draft Ordinance to implement regulations for short-term rental (STR) properties in Long Beach. The staff report (Attachment A), summarized key components of the draft Ordinance. The City Council did not approve the draft Ordinance for first reading, but instead directed staff to revise the draft to include the following key changes:

a) The total number of non-primary residence STR registrations issued will not exceed 1,000 housing units initially, subject to annual adjustments based on vacancy rates.

b) The threshold for the opt-out petition process to prohibit un-hosted STRs is reduced to a simple majority of property owners, the petition process will be conducted by the City via U.S. mail, and the opt-out petition process would become available on an annual basis following the initial 180-day opt-out period for those who did not request a petition during that time.

c) Hosting platforms will be responsible for removing from their site any STR listing for properties on the prohibition list.

d) Hosting platforms cannot process or book any transaction unless both the STR registration number and expiration date are included in the listing.

In addition to making the above and other minor terminology changes, staff was asked to provide a cost-estimate for the opt-out petition to be paid by the requesting party. To establish a reasonable cost to process the petitions by mail, and to ensure the cost is the same regardless of the location of the requesting party, staff is recommending use of census block groups rather than the full census tract. The cost to process a mail peti...

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