After twelve years of short-term rentals occurring throughout the city, despite an ordinance against such rentals, the City of Pacific Grove has decided to take a different approach. The City’s current ordinance, enacted by the City Council in 1997, disallows rentals of single-family residences for less than 30 days. The City has now taken the position that these rentals should be licensed, inspected and taxed. The City has missed out on over a million dollars in revenue that could have been generated since the original ordinance was passed. Licensed real estate agents complied with the ordinance passed in 1997, offering their vacation rental homes for 30-day stays. But owner-operators continued to offer their properties for rent by the night and by the week, aware that it would be difficult for the City to successfully prosecute them.
The City’s Planning Commission has reviewed a proposed ordinance that would require properties rented out for less than 30 days at a time to be licensed, registered and inspected by the city.  The Commission is recommending that advertisements for short-term rentals, whether in the newspaper, on television or on the Internet, must display the license number of the rental that has been issued by the City. The City Manager will be in charge of enforcing the ordinance, and has indicated that the City will aggressively monitor advertisements to see if short-term rentals are being offered. Penalties for property owners or their agents who fail to register rentals or respond to complaints will be levied.
The advent of legalization of rentals less than 30 days is joyous news to visitors, property managers, owners of second homes in PG, and PG business persons, all of whom will benefit from having visitors to the area. If you are one who loves to visit Pacific Grove – stay tuned! You are about to have a lot more housing options!
