Riverside County’s regulations for short-term rentals of properties in the Temecula Valley wine region and other locations “are not working” as intended, and stronger enforcement efforts are needed to achieve the results the Board of Supervisors always intended, Chairman Chuck Washington said Tuesday.
“Taxpayers should not have to bear the burden of getting a short-term rental operator to operate in a community-friendly manner,” the chairman said during a hearing on Ordinance No. 927, the county’s short-term rental ordinance. “We need to get back to having a property owner take responsibility for operating their property. These people need to know they’re going to be fined. We need to hold them accountable.”
Washington’s comments followed a Transportation & Land Management Agency report on the STR regulatory framework created specifically for the Wine Country and Idyllwild-Pine Cove. A host of speakers, mostly from the Temecula Valley, addressed the panel and recounted personal experiences with repeat offenders who disrupt their daily lives with loud music, parties and similar disturbances.
“Many residents are frustrated and stop calling and complaining because they are not getting anything done,” Ron Kuehl told the panel. “When the law enforcement officers come, we hear that they are understaffed and can’t do anything. That is unacceptable. It is time to strictly enforce this ordinance. If you don’t issue fines, you are not going to get people’s attention.”
His wife, Tricia Kuehl, pointed out that Palm Springs, Big Bear and other cities have adopted zero-tolerance rules for amplified music outdoors and said the county should consider doing the same for unincorporated communities.
Alan Paynter, a rural resident, said he is surrounded by STR properties and one house is a constant source of trouble. But whenever he makes complaints, “no action is taken.”
“You have to enforce the ordinance,” Paynter said. “Make our lives bearable.”
Residents unanimously complained that the web portal the board authorized as part of a $350,000 contract with Deckard Technologies Inc., which was supposed to provide a searchable, address-accurate list of the nearly 4,000 STR properties across the county, had still not gone online more than two years after the agreement was approved.
TLMA Director John Hildebrand informed the board that the mapping tool would be available by the end of the week and the public tracking system for monitoring complaints at STRs would go live by the end of the year.
Supervisor Kevin Jeffries expressed disappointment at the Department of Code Enforcement’s apparent shift from proactive day and night actions in handling noise complaints to “banker hours.”
“People aren’t getting answers,” he said, noting that when building code enforcement personnel don’t respond to residents, supervisors’ offices become “de facto” complaint centers. “Something isn’t working.”
Undersheriff Don Sharp confirmed that the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, along with the Department of Code Enforcement, has received special funding for special teams to target problem STRs, but he said staffing attrition and other factors have hampered the agency.
“I think we’re back on track,” he said in response to concerns about MPs’ willingness to respond to complaints outside of office hours. “If there are large parties that are unruly, we will respond as quickly as possible.”
Washington said its confidence in the overall approach to enforcing STR regulations was low.
“The regulation is not working… a lot of things have not changed,” he said, adding that he was aware that “there are still some problems that need to be resolved” and that he hoped the reports would be better by the next biannual update of Regulation 927.
According to TLMA, between January and July, 539 cease-and-desist orders were filed against property owners across the county, along with 5,392 complaint calls, 866 on-site inspections and fines totaling $56,000.
According to the report, there were 462 certified short-term rentals in Idyllwild-Pine Cove and 89 in the Wine Country Zone at the end of July. The total cap for the Wine Country Zone, which currently has 998 homes, is 105 certified STR properties. In Idyllwild-Pine Cove, the number is 500.
A moratorium on the issuance of STR permits in the mountain communities and Temecula Valley was first implemented in September 2022 and then again last August to give the Planning Commission time to consider targeted changes to Ordinance No. 927. The commission’s final approval led to the matter being referred to the board for final consideration in November, when exemption provisions were adopted to recognize the unique characteristics of the wine country and Idyllwild-Pine Cove.
The minimum age to apply for a short-term rental permit in Wine Country is 25. In the county’s other unincorporated communities, the minimum age is 21.
On October 18, 2022, the Board adopted a comprehensive short-term rental regulatory framework for most unincorporated communities under 927.
The ordinance establishes a 500-foot setback, requiring all newly certified STRs to maintain at least that distance from the nearest residential dwelling.
The revised regulation will require “responsible operators” and “responsible guests” of short-term rental properties to pay fines if a property is deemed a nuisance due to parties or other disturbances. Previously, only owners could be fined.
The framework implemented testing requirements to confirm that STR operators understand and are able to comply with district regulations.
The regulatory apparatus established under Ordinance No. 927 focused on occupancy limits, noise protection, parking allocations, and other health and safety regulations for STRs in response to the increasing problems arising from unlicensed vacation rentals.
Short-term rentals are defined as residential properties that are rented for a maximum of 30 days and a minimum of two days and one night.
