An appellate panel affirmed Palm Springs’ short-term rental ordinance against a challenge from a neighborhood association.
The city’s 2017 ordinance limits vacation rentals to 36 rentals per year, barred the ownership of more than one vacation rental per person, and stated that vacation rentals are secondary uses of residential property.
The anti-short-term rental organization Protect Our Neighborhoods filed a suit against the ordinance, claiming it violated the city’s zoning code. Riverside Superior Judge Chad Firetag upheld the ordinance in October, 2019.
Appeal
In appeal, Protect Our Neighborhoods claimed short-term rentals are commercial, not residential, in violation of Palm Springs’ zoning code; that rentals change the character of single-family residential zones, in violation of the zoning code; that the ordinance is inconsistent, contradictory, and based on erroneous findings; that the zoning code would only permit short-term rentals, if at all, if the owner obtained a land use or conditional use permit; and that the zoning code would not allow owners to rent out properties they don’t live in.
Findings
Even if the ordinance did conflict with the zoning code, the ordinance would repeal the conflicting part of the code, the appellate panel found.
Because both are equal parts of the city’s municipal code, the doctrine of implied repeal provides that the most recently enacted statute expresses the will of the Legislature, the panel said, citing the 1977 case In Re Thierry S.
“To put it simply, a past city council cannot tie the hands of a future city council,” the panel said.
In addition, the ordinance and the code do not conflict, the panel said.
Protect’s core argument is that only residential uses are permitted in certain zoned areas, and that short-term rentals are commercial, according to the ruling. Each city is able to interpret its own ordinances, however, and Palm Springs did not find short-term rentals unduly commercial, the panel ruled.
The panel also ruled that Protect had misunderstood other aspects of the zoning code in its complaint.
Parties
Babak Naficy of the Law Offices of Babak Naficy represented Protect Our Neighborhoods.
James Eggart, Ricia Hager and Thomas Kinzinger of Woodruff, Spradlin & Smart represented Palm Springs.
Fourth District Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Manuel Ramirez wrote the ruling, which Associate Justices Douglas Miller and Marsha Slough joined.
Superior court number RIC1704320
Appellate number E074233
Read the ruling here.
