In response to both Neighbors4Neighborhoods (PSN4N) efforts
to place a vacation rental (VR) ban on the ballot next spring, Vacation Rental Owners and Neighbors of Palm Springs (VRON-PS) strongly believes a majority of the city will vote “no” on this issue.
Palm Springs has a rich and long history of welcoming tourists with a choice of wonderful accommodations, including homes and home shares. Removing a significant choice in accommodations will simply drive tourists to other cities where that option is available to them and the voters know this.
“It is in the interest of our citizens with our tourist-based economy to provide safe and quiet neighborhoods while continuing to offer vacation rental accommodations. Last April, city officials enacted one of the strictest vacation rental ordinances in the nation,” said Bruce Hoban,
a co-founder of VRON. “To put a complete ban on VR’s is extreme. We continually work with the city and residents to enforce this ordinance.”
Vacation rental owners pay $900 per year to fund a $1.7M expansion of the Vacation Rental Compliance Department that increased from a staff of one to nine people with additional resources available to them as
needed. No city taxpayer funds are used. The Compliance Department has enforced the new April 2017 ordinance as evidenced by its’ public web posting of calls and citations when the ordinance is violated.
In addition, there is a newly re-constituted Palm Springs Appeal’s Board that is upholding cases brought before them that were investigated by the Compliance Department.
VRON-PS was established in April 2017 by homeowners and members of the Palm Springs community who realized that vacation rental homeowners needed their own grassroots, locally based voice to work
with our neighbors, the City, and other organizations. The mission of VRON is to preserve Palm Springs long history of vacation rentals and home-sharing through education, awareness, and the promotion of
responsible vacation rental ownership and management. Their guiding principle is that tourism and residency in Palm Springs can coexist through smart policies and best practices. Through research, credible data, community involvement, transparency and ethics, effective policies can be developed that create a win-win for neighbors, tourist guests, businesses, homeowners, and our entire community.
If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Bruce Hoban at 760-422-3096 or email at Bruce.Hoban@VRONPS.org.
