Santa Barbara City Council Directs Staff to Formulate Rent Stabilization Ordinance
Tracy Lehr
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – At Tuesday’s meeting, Santa Barbara City Council Members passed a number of motions directing staff to create a rent stabilization ordinance.
The first motion passed 4-to-3 , limiting rent increases to one time in a 12-month period, based on 60 percent of the consumer percentage index with a maximum of 3 percent or whichever is lower.
Wendy Santamaria made the motion that is considered a low rent cap formula.
Another motion passed 4-to-3 applies exemptions only when mandated by state law.
During a majority of the motions Eric Friedman, Mayor Randy Rowse, and Mike Jordan abstained rather than voting ‘no’ because the initial ‘no’ vote prevented them from voting on other items linked to the first votes.
Another motion passed by council addresses capitol improvements – limiting them to habitability and tenant protections.
All of the motions were inspired by the consultants presentation of rent stabilization ordinance components.
Santamaria also made a motion that Kristen Sneddon seconded to have an independent officer involved in appeals.
Kristen Sneddon said it has taken nine years to get these votes.
The council chamber was packed for the 5:00pm meeting for comment.
They also heard consultants, hired by the city, update the council on more than a dozen rent stabilization options.
The marathon meeting happened one day after Santa Barbara landlords filed a lawsuit challenging a temporary rent freeze.
Attorney Barry Cappello of Cappello & Noel is representing property owners in the lawsuit.
During public comments, Cappello said he used to be the city’s attorney and suggested the city listen to their attorney and hire another to avoid more lawsuits.
Cappello said without an exception mechanism the temporary rent freeze is unconstitutional.
If the city of Santa Barbara sets the temporary rent freeze aside Cappello said they would happily drop the suit.
“If they don’t get it resolved,” said Capello, “take it off the law, they are going to wind up paying hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars.”
Before motions were made dozens of renters shared their experiences and pleaded with the county to address affordability.
Mom & Pop landlords spoke out, too.
Landlord Nick Gonzales said blanket ordinances can have unintended consequences.
“Lets focus where we need to focus and that is in the lower and moderate income households and not give a policy that may give people with very high incomes a subsidy from someone with a very low income because that is the reality with a lot of the mom and pops,” said Gonzales.
Tenant Rick Morse believes people can meet in the middle.
“I would like to see the city of Santa Barbara establish a registry that would create incentives for landlords to create long term tenancies, so they won’t raise the rent or raise it at a nominal rate and be compensated in some way,” said Morse.
The council meeting wrapped up around 10:30 p.m.
Mayor Rowse called it a very long meeting with a lot of public input.
“Clearly, I am not in favor of the result as was true of my colleagues Jordan and Friedman, I believe we have made things really complicated in town and I think we really doubled down on that tonight so we will see how it comes out,” said Rowse. “We had to abstain from a lot of votes because the first vote precluded us from participating in the rest of the item.”
The staff has plenty of work to do before bringing a plan back.
WendySanta Maria said the council will likely see the results of the votes in late June or July.
“Today, I am feeling great about seeing the community come together we saw tenants good faith property owners, faith leaders, service workers, we saw all sectors of the community come together to voice one clear message that we need rent stabilization now and we need decisive action now,” said Santamaria. “I am feeling encouraged by how the community has come together to get this done.”
Stanley Tzankov, the co-founder of Santa Barbara Tenants Union stayed until the last vote.
“This is huge to see the momentum finally building and what is broadley popular and painfully overdue, but we need a strong rent cap and rent board and rental registry because we need to see that the city cares for our people,” said Tzankov.
The city could have a comprehensive rent stabilization program in place by next year.
For more detailed information visit https://santabarbaraca.gov
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