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MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL <br />July 27, 2015 <br />Stephany Aguilar, President <br />League of California Cities <br />1400 K Street <br />Sacramento, CA 95814 <br />Dear President Aguilar: <br />RE: A RESOLUTION OF THE LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA CITIES SUPPORTING SB 593 (MCGUIRE) <br />AND CONTINUED LOCAL FLEXIBILITY FOR CITIES AS THEY ADDRESS NEIGHBORHOOD AND <br />FISCAL IMPACTS OF TEMPORARY RENTALS OF RESIDENTIAL UNITS FOR TOURIST OR <br />TRANSIENT USES <br />The City of Napa supports the proposed resolution related to the Sharing Economy and concurs in the <br />submission of the resolution for consideration by the League of Cities General Assembly at its annual <br />meeting on October 2, 2015. <br />The resolution reaffirms and acknowledges local efforts to effectively regulate land use impacts and <br />collect applicable taxes from transient residential rentals as part of the emerging "shared economy". <br />The short-term rental of residential houses, rooms, condominiums, and apartments present numerous <br />challenges within neighborhoods and to adjacent property owners. They may create additional noise, <br />traffic, parking, privacy and public safety issues, subvert local rent -control laws, decrease available <br />housing stock and in some cases turn residential neighborhoods into de -facto hotel rows. <br />The City of Napa's zoning ordinance defines a "Rental Housing Shortage" as a vacancy rate less than <br />5%. A vacancy rate of less than 2% is defined as "Severe". We are currently at severe levels. The City's <br />vacancy rates have continued to decline from 4% in 2009 to less than 2% today. Our Housing Element <br />recognizes the issue of rising housing costs in Napa and its impact on the goal of maintaining Napa's <br />quality of life by balancing the availability of housing with other environmental considerations. Maintaining <br />and protecting our housing stock is of utmost importance to the City of Napa. <br />Where the temporary rental of residential units is allowed by local regulation, the associated transient <br />occupancy tax (TOT) should also be collected. These units are in direct competition with hotels, motels <br />and other accommodations where guests pay the local transient occupancy tax, so all such uses should <br />be subject to the same tax. The revenues generated support local streets, roads, fire, police, lifeguards, <br />trash pick-up, park maintenance and other local public services -which directly affect local quality of life <br />and the attraction of the community for a visitor. <br />The City of Napa believes SB 593, as referenced in the proposed resolution, acknowledges existing local <br />authority in this area and provides the necessary data for local jurisdictions to enforce their regulations <br />