Debrief on recent meeting with Matthew Glesne, City Planner, LA City Planning Department

Biggest takeaways:

  • We clarified the ADU RSO question. An ADU built on a property with a Single Family House (SFH) built before 1978 triggers it to be under the RSO because now legally it is a multi-unit parcel and the SFH was built prior to 1978. Glesne clarified: A detached ADU that was never a residence prior to 1978 (ie: a detached Garage, etc.) is not under RSO, therefore, if one’s detached ADU was built after 1978 and is their Primary Residence, one can STR their ADU, and their SFH that is now RSO, is not eligible for STR.

  • Glesne had an “aha” moment and said the HSO was not intended to make these scenarios (RSO and converted garages etc) ineligible for STR.

  • We asked why an RSO tenant couldn’t rent their place out for 2 weeks for instance, at the holidays since that doesn’t displace anyone, Glesne asked HALA to make list of RSO scenarios so he could consider them

  • We brought up concerns that the registration site is only in English. They agreed that that is a huge concern.

  • Glesne acknowledged that now that the Council has passed the ordinance any amendments must come from Councilmembers but that he did have some influence.

  • He confirmed they are working on the VR Ordinance and it should come to PLUM on 9/24 for the 1st review.

  • We brought up that there is no way to apply for the extended permit yet. He said they are working on that. We pointed out that in theory, you could get 120 nights of bookings in just a couple weeks. He may have been thinking they didn’t have to worry about extended permits for at least 4 months. So now it’s on his radar.

  • We told him that hosts were really worried about privacy issues, esp with a 3rd party having access to their data and some were holding off because of that. We are sending him the unflattering Vice article about Host Compliance posted below.

  • We clarified that the rule that says 2 people per room not including children defines children as 17 and under.

  • For the upcoming VR Ordinance that they are working on we will have a chance to have input with our concerns at Planning and at the PLUM Committee before it gets to the Council.

  • We mentioned that thousands of cleaners were a whole segment of the community relying on this income and that they would be out of business come Nov. 1st. and they were not aware of that number being that high.

  • Nonetheless, Glesne was confident that enforcement would begin Nov 1. We asked if he could at least get us thru the holidays.

  • The Curbed LA 2015 article was mentioned, where it stated that roughly 6% of STRs are full-time commercial operators with more than 2 units (data from Curbed LA 2015 - LAANE research)

  • The City needs our TOT income and we need to move away from the ‘displacing tenants’ narrative, and move towards the ‘using it to fund affordable housing’ narrative. We estimate 41,000 actually affordable units could be subsidized by the TOT, year after year.

  • TOT will not be used for HSO registration enforcement. That will come from registration fees and the per night charge - which has yet to be determined. They commissioned a study to determine the registration fees. We told him that people were really nervous about the $5/nt surcharge. If you rented 365 nights that would be an addtl $1825/yr. We pointed out that for people renting shared rooms at $35 adding $5/nt was a lot. Maybe it could be a tiny percentage of your nightly rate - like .5% and he nodded.

  • Glesne confirmed that listings that switch to 31+ days will not be removed from STR platforms and will not need a registration number. They will have an internal exemption code so you don’t get flagged.

  • We mentioned people didn’t have final registration numbers and he said it will be okay if you have pending registration after Nov. 1 They had to set up internally how each agency would share info. Ie. they are checking with LAHD to verify you are not RSO, with LADBS to see if there are any open citations, etc. They now have M.O.U.s (Memorandums of Understanding) in place.

  • Glesne said you will get a formal notice if you are coming up on your 120 days cap.

  • Glesne commented that the HSO was designed to allow for modifications after implementation with feedback