Coastal Commission to Hear Request to Revoke City’s STR Program

BY BREEANA GREENBERG

The California Coastal Commission was scheduled to hear a request to revoke Dana Point’s vacation rental program, which the state agency had approved in November 2022.

Dana Point residents Toni Nelson and Roger Malcolm requested the permit revocation hearing, which was set for Thursday, Aug. 10, alleging that the city provided misleading data for the commission to approve its short-term rental (STR) program.

In the permit revocation request, Nelson and Malcolm claim the city intentionally misrepresented the number of housing units, Home Owners Associations (HOAs) and housing units within HOAs in the Coastal Zone. They argue that the Coastal Commission may not have approved the coastal development permit regulating short-term rentals had it had an accurate count.

When the Coastal Commission found substantial issue with Dana Point’s then-proposed vacation rental program in September 2022, staff requested additional information on the number of HOAs in the coastal zone, their distribution within the area and how many housing units they contain.

The city stated that there were approximately 28 HOAs in the coastal zone, out of a citywide total of 78. Within the coastal zone, 15 HOAs containing roughly 2,648 units had covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs) that banned STRs, while 10 HOAs containing roughly 639 units allowed STR use—based on a 2016 analysis.

According to a staff report, when asked for more recent data, the city responded that “it would be difficult to obtain more recent, accurate information within the Commission’s 49-working-day period prior to the hearing … since the City did not track which HOAs permit or do not permit STRs per their CC&Rs.”

On Nov. 10, prior to the hearing on the vacation rental program, the city submitted updated information to the commission showing 38 HOAs in the coastal zone with nine allowing STRs, 17 not allowing the vacation rentals and 12 that did not respond to the city, according to the report.

The city’s STR program established a cap of 115 non-primary, multi-family homestay, and mixed-use parcel non-primary short-term rentals within the coastal zone. There will be no cap on primary or homestay short-term rentals.

The city also stated it would not approve vacation rental programs in HOAs where the communities’ CC&Rs prohibit