Playa del rey homeowners letter to councilmember bonin 4 19-16

1. April 19, 2016
The Honorable Mike Bonin
200 N. Spring St. #475
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Re: Vacation Rental and Home Sharing Ordinance- Council File: 14-1635-S2_STR
Dear Mr. Bonin,
There has been a lot of discussion, communication, information, and misinformation over the last 6 months related to
vacation rentals (STRs) in our community. This letter is intended to represent the facts around the situation in our
neighborhood, Playa del Rey/Jungle. All communities are not the same and we are not commenting on any other
communities, just ours.
Neighborhood Background:
- Due to our beach location, Playa del Rey has been a beach vacation community for decades. We don’t know
when this started, but residents who have lived in the area for over 50 years say vacation rentals go back as
long as they remember (1960’s). Unlike some of the major tourist areas like Venice Beach, Santa Monica,
Malibu, Hollywood and others, Playa del Rey is unknown and is not a “global tourist destination”. In fact,
most who live in the greater LA area don’t know where Playa del Rey is, and very few people from outside LA
know about this community.
- The vacation guests who come to our neighborhood are here to be near the beach in Los Angeles, and the
vast majority of these guests are families, most with young children. They are not focused on the hype,
action, bars, music and “scene” of other locations like Venice or Hollywood. They come for a quiet, relaxing
vacation where they can enjoy the beach. Most of these guests come in from out of state (or out of the
country), some may go to Disneyland, Hollywood, or other attractions, but the majority of their time is spent
at the beach.
- I’m sure most of us would agree that Playa del Rey can be a lively place. The local residents like to have fun,
and on most nights (especially in the summer), the local bars are active and there are certain to be a couple
of small or large parties throughout the community. Late night gatherings of friends are very common after
the bars close.
Recent Events:
Vacation rentals have been part of our community for decades and a large number of guests who stay in these
properties are family or friends of local residents who come for holidays, graduations, weddings, maternity help,
birthdays, hospitalization, family reunions and more. Although the overwhelming majority of our neighborhood does
not have a problem with vacation rentals, in recent months there are a handful of residents who have become
vehemently opposed and have created a volatile environment in our community. We are not sure why the sudden
opposition to this longstanding component of our community, and we have made efforts to communicate with and
understand their concerns, but they have refused to respond. Instead, they have made numerous attacks on a
number of residents and homeowners, they have produced and posted public videos with false claims, they have
publicly named homeowners and made false statements about illegal evictions and they have made false claims to
City agencies creating unwarranted inspections and fines. They have also tried to conduct numerous “sting”
operations, even enlisting people from out of state to pretend they were vacation guests. Lastly, they continue to
make incorrect and false statements on issues including illegal evictions, noise, parking, trash, crime and ownership of
these properties, yet they decline any communication with us to address any of their concerns. It seems as if they
have heard stories or read articles about problems in other areas, and have transferred these problems to our
neighborhood, even though the problems do not exist in this community.

2. Since we are unable to have an effective discussion with this group of opponents, we have outlined the issues and the
facts below for review.
Discussion Points Related to Vacation Rentals/homesharing:
Most of the information provided below can be verified and supported through documentation:
1) Noise
2) Parking
3) Trash
4) Crime
5) Owner supervision
6) Neighbor Complaints
7) Illegal evictions
8) Local businesses
1) Noise:
As mentioned above, the typical visitors are families with children, most guests are flying in from time zones
east of Los Angeles, almost all guests arrive during daylight hours and virtually none of the guests are arriving
at late hours. During their stay, they are typically inside and asleep early. We can provide documentation for
hundreds of guests that support this information. Permanent residents are often arriving home, returning
from bars, etc., at very late hours. There is no evidence to support that vacation guests create a noise
problem in excess of the neighborhood norm from permanent residents.
Most of the vacation properties do not provide a stereo sound system and most have strict curfews and quiet hours,
example from one rental agreement below (language from a standard Homeaway/VRBO contract):
“Guests shall not conduct any events or activities that might interfere with the peace and enjoyment of the
property’s neighbors, including excessive noise after 10:00 PM. If guests are found to be entertaining
more guests than approved by owner in the rental agreement without owner’s prior written permission, or
are creating excessive noise after 10:00 PM, guests may be asked to vacate the property immediately, and
will forfeit the remainder of the rental as well as the security deposit.”
2) Parking Comparison:
Residents: For a typical 3 bedroom, 1 bath unit in Playa del Rey, a long term resident will either have 2 cars (family)
or 3-5 cars (roommates, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc.). The long term guests may often have gatherings, parties, etc.,
because most of their friends want to visit the person who lives near the beach.
Vacation Guests: 80%+ of vacation guests have one car, 10-15% have no cars (cab from the airport). The
vacation guests typically don’t know others in LA and rarely have visitors, and rental agreements prohibit
other guests without prior notice.
The typical unit in Playa del Rey has 1 parking space. Therefore the average vacation guest will not use any street
parking spaces. The typical long term resident unit may use between 1-5 permanent parking spaces and, periodically
5-10 or more if they have friends visiting. For days when guest units or rooms are empty, there are no cars.
3) Trash:
Visitors typically eat out more often than long term residents and do not have guests visit, so there is
usually less trash than a permanent resident. Four people create less trash (food containers, beer bottles,
etc.) then 10-12 or more. For days when rooms or units are empty, there is no trash.
4) Crime:
Like other neighborhoods, Playa del Rey has some crime, mostly petty theft or car break-ins. We do not
have information to support the source of this criminal activity, it’s likely that these criminals come from
outside our neighborhood. We feel it is unlikely that the 40-something father of two who flew or drove his
family to the beach for a few days is stealing a bicycle from the neighbor’s property…

3. 5) Owner Supervision:
Almost all of the vacation rentals in our neighborhood have owners who live on site (duplex units) and ALL have an
owner or property manager who meets the guests for check in and orientation, review of house rules, and provides
contact information for accessibility throughout their stay. All of these rentals are owned privately, there are no
commercial or corporate-owned properties.
6) Neighbor Complaints:
We rarely have neighbors complain about noise, parking or other problems with a guest and our rental agreements
have strict rules to control their actions (including immediate eviction). However, like most neighborhoods, there are
periodic noise, parking and other issues with permanent residents. This isn’t a major problem and is likely common in
most communities where properties are this close together and parking is limited.
Note: We can control a problem with a guest more easily than with permanent residents.
7) Illegal Evictions:
An opposition neighbor group has made claims of illegal evictions/relocations and they even produced and publicly
posted a video with some of these claims. Every claim/property they have provided has been proven to be false,
particularly the one which the video refers to. We have documentation and other data that support the legality of all
such evictions or relocations. We have made numerous offers to this group to review documentation as well as
physical property inspections but they have declined to respond.
8) Local Businesses:
Vacation rentals in our neighborhood create hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional spending per year on
local/regional businesses or the community: restaurants, bars, maids, taxi services, handymen, property managers,
grocery, flowers, home improvement and many others.
We would like you to consider this information and what is really happening in our community related to short term
rentals. There may be problems in other cities, but we do not have these here. This might be because we have lived
in the community an average of over 20 years and we have close relationships with our neighbors. We do agree that
fair regulations are required to ensure a balance between homeowners, residents, neighbors and guests. If everyone
throughout Los Angeles (and elsewhere) was responsible about vacation rentals and homesharing, there would be
very few of the negative stories that you are hearing. But we don’t feel that we should be punished due to the
problems or challenges of other cities.
Proposed Home-Sharing Ordinance:
While we support a fair ordinance, we feel the current draft is overly restrictive in several areas, including the RSO
exclusion, the 90 day maximum and the primary residence restriction. If these restrictions go into effect, virtually
every vacation rental in our neighborhood will not qualify: Playa del Rey beach will not have any vacation rentals.
Almost every property is under the RSO and most of the rentals are units in a duplex, with the owner living in the
other unit. Without short term rentals available in the community, the closest hotel to our neighborhood is 3 miles
away. We suggest that the ordinance is re-drafted to remove the RSO restriction and the 90 day maximum, and apply
the same “guesthouse” or “granny flat” allowance for single family homes to duplexes or multi-unit properties.
Moreover, in May of 2015, the CAO of the City of Los Angeles, Miguel Santana, published a report THE SHARING
ECONOMY: FOCUS ON SHORT TERM RENTALS, https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2075613/la-cao-report-
on-short-term-rentals.pdf. This report states that “STRs are not removing units from the RSO” (page 7) and “are not
in violation of the RSO…” (page 13) as the RSO is currently drafted.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We would welcome any opportunity to provide more information, discuss
specifics of this letter or our community, or meet with your staff. Also, we would be happy to discuss with opponents
in our community to understand their concerns and see if we can reach agreement on the key issues.
Sincerely,
Playa del Rey Residents, Homeowners and STR Advocates:

4. Sherry & Steve Kennedy (1988) Maria Reyes (2000)
Homeowner Homeowner
Lisa Klein (1969) Tom Turley (2001)
Homeowner Homeowner
Bob Hughes (1996) Aida Mannino (2013)
Homeowner Resident
Paul Moody (1962) Perry & Cari Klein (1965)
Resident Homeowner
Stacey & Craig Clunies-Ross (1968) Bo Manley (1998)
Homeowner Resident
Danny & Diana Klein (1997) Art Suazo (2013)
Homeowner Resident
Michele Reyes (2015) Jeanne Moody (1962)
Resident Homeowner
Amalia Moscoso (2015) Nicola Bowie (2005)
Resident Homeowner
Stefanie Glasberg (1996) Suzanne Perryman (2000)
Homeowner Homeowner
Sujata and Ashok Chavan (2015) Sharon Schaffer (1987)
Homeowner Homeowner