On March 5, 2019, the City Council first reviewed the City’s regulations on transient rentals in the Commercial and Multi-Family Zoning Districts and directed staff to continue studying the issue and report back with additional information. The Council considered the issue at the June, July, September and October 2019 meetings. At the October 2019 meeting, the City Council reviewed draft Zoning Code amendments and directed staff to return with specific modifications. The following direction was provided:
1. All of the existing permitted units are to be classified as legal nonconforming. The City Council recommended that these units be exempted from the standard 6-month abandonment clause that applies to legal nonconforming uses. Staff has included an exception that legal nonconforming transient rentals replaced by non-transient residential uses shall not be considered abandoned and may be reestablished at any time.
2. The City Council supported allowing new transient rentals as an incentive for the creation of new rental housing units, and as such, recommended a program that permits one transient rental unit in exchange for the creation of three rental units. One of the units shall be rented as “low-income” and the other as “moderate-income” as defined in City Municipal Code Section 17.70.020
(Attachment 2). One of the three rental units may be market rate. Two of the rental units must be a minimum size of 650 square feet. Staff has included a table (Attachment 3) showing the income limits for Monterey County and identifying what the potential monthly rent would be based on the low and moderate income categories and household size.
Staff has prepared an Ordinance (2019-003) and associated Zoning Code amendments that are compliant with the Council’s program recommendations. Staff recommend that the City Council introduce the Ordinance at this meeting. Once the Council moves forward with adopting the Ordinance, the Zoning Code amendments must be certified by the California Coastal Commission as an amendment to the City’s Local Coastal Program.
ALTERNATIVES:
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt the Ordinance 2019-003 (Attachment 1). The City Council may make minor non-substantive modifications to the draft Zoning Code amendments at this meeting. As an alternative, the City Council may continue this item to make more substantial modifications.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The proposed Ordinance is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, sections: 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment); 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378); and 15061(b)(3), because the activity is covered by the general rule that CEQA applies only to projects which have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Because there is no possibility that this ordinance may have a significant adverse effect on the environment, the adoption of this ordinance is exempt from CEQA.