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Santa Ana City Council <br />November 18, 2024 <br />Page 10 <br />on their property for longer, and that longer term use amounts to a physical incursion on hosts' <br />right to exclude. <br />Importantly, the Federal District Court of Hawaii recently considered an ordinance similar to that <br />proposed by Santa Ana that barred certain STRs. (Hawai'i Legal Short -Term Rental All. v. City & <br />Crary. of Honolulu, 2022 WL 7471692, at *2-3 (D. Haw. Oct. 13, 2022).) In resolving the plaintiff's <br />motion for a preliminary injunction, the court held that the plaintiff would likely succeed on the <br />merits of a takings claim under the Federal and Hawaii Constitutions. (Id. at *5.) <br />Because the Ordinance impacts both the right to include and the right to exclude from one's <br />property, all existing STR hosts would be entitled to compensation if the City Council were to <br />adopt the Amended Ordinance. <br />4. The adoption of the Amended Ordinance would constitute arbitrary and capricious <br />decision -making. <br />There is no evidence in the record that STRs in the City cause a nuisance, and the City's extreme <br />approach of banning STRs and infringing on homeowners' legal rights is unsupported by the <br />record. STRs play an important and environmentally sustainable role in the City, and provide <br />significant benefits to the City, its residents, and its visitors, and these benefits are being <br />completely ignored. The Staff Report provides no evidence that any STRs in the City contribute <br />to nuisance -type conditions such as "excessive noise, parking problems, and trash," nor does it <br />acknowledge that the SAMC already has several existing enforcement mechanisms to mitigate <br />public nuisances. (SAMC, Chapter 17.) <br />In reality, many STRs in the City are either owner -occupied, meaning that the host is on site while <br />guests are present because they live there full-time and have an extra room/rooms, or are entire <br />home STRs which are rented on a short-term basis because the owner travels or is in the City only <br />on a seasonal basis and so cannot rent the property on a long-term basis (e.g., six-month or one- <br />year lease). Further, as discussed in a recent study conducted by the Milken Institute on STRs in <br />California, "the notion that decreasing STR supply will mitigate California's extreme housing <br />shortage is not supported by the evidence. The only solution to California's housing crisis is to <br />provide more housing: specifically denser, more affordable multifamily housing units." I <br />A review of the Housing Element reveals that the City does not appear to mention STRs anywhere <br />in that document. (See City of Santa Ana General Plan Housing Element). In the section of the <br />Housing Element discussing "Housing Constraints," the City notes that various factors influencing <br />the City's ability to meet its housing goals include market factors (land costs, construction and <br />rehabilitation costs, availability of financing, and recent trends in foreclosures), governmental <br />factors (land use regulations, development standards, building codes, permit procedures, and other <br />local policies), and environmental factors (adequacy of infrastructure, public services, and water <br />1 Alissa Dubetz, Matt Horton, and Charlotte Kesteven, Staying Power: The Effects of Short -Term Rentals on <br />California's Tourism Economy and Housing Affordability, MILKEN INSTITUTE (May 2022), <br />https:Hmilkeninstitute.or,/sites/default/files/2022-05/Short Term Rentals Califomia.pdf. <br />10 <br />