Malibu Short-Term Rental Regulation Struck Down By State

MALIBU, CA — The California Coastal Commission rejected Malibu's proposed short-term rental regulations, claiming the rules would cripple the market and significantly reduce affordable lodging options for visitors.

Malibu proposed a regulation that would require a host be present at all short-term single-family dwelling rentals within the city limits. This would mean the home's owner or manager would have to be available on-site for the duration of any rental under 30 days, though they could stay in a guest house or detached unit on the property. Multi-family dwellings would not be subject to the same restriction.

The California Coastal Commission on Aug. 12 rejected Malibu's proposal, claiming the stipulation would strain Malibu's lower-cost housing market and reduce affordability for visitors.

Short-term rentals make up the majority of Malibu's visitor lodging, including rentals, motels and hotels, according to Denise Venegas, Coastal Program Analyst for the California Coastal Commission. Single-family rentals are more popular than multi-family units, and hotels and motels are less available in Malibu than other popular coastal destinations, the commission argued.

"Based on historic use patterns staff would note that the public is substantially less likely to stay at hosted [short-term rentals]," Venegas said. "In this case, the proposed amendment would result in a loss of existing lower-cost overnight accommodations in the city."

Given a hosted trip may be less desirable, the ordinance would likely push travel into multi-family housing, tightening the lower-cost housing market in the city, Venegas said.

"Also of concern is that by only allowing these unhosted short-term rentals in the multi-family zones, our concern is that that would potentially displace this demand... to those multifamily neighborhoods," coastal commission District Director Steve Hudson said. "That could actually result in the greatest adverse impacts on what we would probably consider more the working class rental accommodations within Malibu. And, of course, it's true as many of the speakers said, this is Malibu, so what's affordable is probably far different from what we'd like to see. There is really a dearth of affordability in that city."

The city adopted the short-term rental ordinance in 2020, but the California Coastal Commission said that such a restriction could not be enforced without commission approval.

Malibu's motivation was to protect the local housing market and reduce some of the harm caused by unhosted rentals in the city, according to city staff.

"[Short-term rentals] can have a number of negative impacts on communities — primarily because they are located in residential communities that are not designed to accommodate commercial use or impacts," city staff wrote in a letter to the commission. "STR guests often present nuisance issues because they are unfamiliar with a City’s rules and regulations, they do not have the same motivation to be good neighbors that long-term owners or renters do, and often live out of state or far from the community and thus are hard to track down if violations occur. They also can negatively impact parking, and thus the ability of other members of the public to access the coast."

Multiple public commenters, including Mayor Pro Tem Bruce Silverstein and Malibu Planning Director Richard Mollica, said the coastal commission's report was misrepresentative of the ordinance, framing it as a functional ban on short-term rentals. A statement from Mollica was read at the meeting.

"Short-term rentals have a strong negative effect on the cost and availability of long-term rentals and increase the cost of housing in general. This is a serious concern of the city, which is suffering a significant decrease in school attendance due to the loss of housing stock," Mollica said.

The city was trying to avoid having people buy houses for the sole purpose of renting them out at rates far higher than hotels, Mollica said. The single-family short-term rentals in question are already priced to be inaccessible to visitors, he said.

The commission is also interested in protecting Malibu's housing market, but looking for an approach that balances this with providing affordable lodging, Hudson said.

The coastal commission and city have met multiple times on the issue, resulting in a tense tone at the Aug. 12 meeting. Multiple commissioners expressed disappointment with Malibu's conduct and failure to compromise despite multiple meetings. Silverstein, who did not speak on behalf of the council, suggested the commission intentionally presented information to denigrate Malibu's work and proposal.