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CAJA Environmental Services, LLC 9410 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Suite 101 Chatsworth, CA 91311 Phone 310-469-6700 Fax 310-806-9801 • More visitors and residents in need of temporary accommodations will rely on hotels3 which are more resource intensive than STRs by generating more energy and using more water than STRs. This has the potential to result in numerous potentially significant indirect environmental effects stemming from the increased demand for water, electricity, and natural gas, and the increased generation of wastewater and solid waste. This also has potential to impact room rates in the City, because occupancy rates in hotels are already nearly 80 percent, so room rates which are already quite high in Orange County ($209.14 average daily rate) will almost certainly increase, potentially pushing them beyond the reach of budget -conscious travelers. (Ramboll Economics Analysis, p. 4.) • Development of new hotels in the City due to occupancy restrictions, causing additional shifts in existing traffic patterns, and a wide range of other potential impacts related to hotel construction and operation. • An STR ban in the City has potential to cause a ripple effect across the region if other localities follow suit, resulting in cumulative environmental impacts from rapid elimination of STR uses, compounding issues described above including shifting traffic patterns and increased VMT, increased use of resource -intensive hotels, and development of new hotels to make up for the loss of overnight accommodations. Each of these driving factors and the potential impacts are summarized below. An STR Ban Will Result in Changed Traffic Patterns Given the already limited availability of existing hotel room nights in the City, the elimination of all STRs in the City will force visitors to and residents of the City to find transient accommodations outside of City limits. Santa Ana is a centrally located hub in Orange County with more affordable accommodations than other cities such as Laguna Beach or Newport Beach. STRs in Santa Ana facilitate affordable access to the City's cultural amenities, community attractions, and public facilities. Removing all existing STR accommodations from the City would, with certainty, change visitor traffic patterns in and around the City, as removal of STRs drives hotel rate increases 54 and visitors will either need to find accommodations farther away from Santa Ana due to the lack of availability or affordability of the limited remaining accommodations with the City. And, as further detailed below and in the reports from Ramboll, this shifting of traffic can result in a wide range of potentially significant environmental effects to air quality, GHG emissions, and transportation. 3 For simplicity, this report refers to all traditional commercial overnight accommodations, such as hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, as "hotels." 4 For example, in NYC, one year after regulations severely restricting STRs took effect, that city's hotel rates increased 7.4 percent annually compared to a 2.1 percent nationwide average increase during the same period. PhocusWire, Airbnb takes aim at NYC a year after "failed" STIR regulations, available here: https://www.phocuswire.com/Airbnb-year-after-New-York-City-short-term-rental- regulations#:-:text=Citing%20figures%20from%20commercial%20real,even%20as%20they%20cooled%20nationw ide. (last visited Oct. 7, 2024). 7