Buellton Pursues Short-Term Residential Rental Ordinance

Buellton is taking a stand when it comes to short-term, residential vacation rentals popularized by websites like AIRBNB.

The City of Buellton is following in the footsteps of other cities and townships realizing short-term, residential vacation rentals eat into local motel and hotel business and the all-important local bed tax.

When homes in Buellton started showing up on short-term, residential vacation rental websites like AIRBNB, the City of Buellton realized times were changing.

“It has happened here and that’s the reason we are doing this”, says Buellton City Manager Marc Bierdzinski, “we have had complaints from neighbors on one in town and that’s what led to the appeal process and the determination that our code didn’t allow it, now we’re just explicitly putting the recommendations into the municipal code.”

With little or no debate, the Buellton City Planning Commission voted Thursday night to recommend the City Council adopt a new ordinance regulating short-term, residential vacation rentals

“For zoning there are various regulations for all types of projects in town not just residential”, Bierdzinski says, “you have to follow certain regulations and also you have to take into account the people living around this AIRBNB have rights too, to enjoy the quiet neighborhood that they purchased for a single family house.”

Bierdzinski says complaints about short-term rentals in neighborhood center around noise at all hours and parking as the biggest impacts from what is clearly a growing trend in vacationing.

“Buellton is a very small town, we’re not a beach city, we’re not a large city where there’s a lot of space and a lot of people are doing it”, Bierdzinski says, “our single family neighborhoods are for single family uses and that’s what we expect.”

The proposed new ordinance goes to the Buellton City Council for final adoption next month.