The Riverside County Board of Supervisors recently took a major step to change and to improve management of the county’s short-term rental system (STR). At its Feb. 1 meeting, the board unanimously approved (4-0 with 4th District Supervisor V. Manuel Perez absent) a contract with Deckard Technologies of San Diego to upgrade and manage STRs in the county.
Beginning his presentation of the contract, Planning Director John Hildebrand said, “This represents the first phase of a comprehensive overhaul of our STR program countywide … It will comprehensively change how we manage and relate with our customers and how property owners manage STR properties countywide.”
The request for proposals (RFP) to provide this service was issued in July 2021. The RFP closed Aug. 13. Of the three submissions, the county’s review team recommended Deckard Technologies. The total cost of the contract for the first three years is $346,240 with two optional years for another $297,000.
The first step will be developing and implementing an online system for registration and management of all STRs. All existing STR certificates, which Hildebrand estimated to be about 750, will be converted to comply with the new system.
Property owners will be able to access the online system to make payments for STR registration, certificate renewal and submitting the Transient Occupancy Tax from the rentals.
For the county, the system will include reporting tools such as details on STRs. It also will have the capability to identify and contact unpermitted, but operating, STRs. When Hildebrand mentioned this feature, the audience at the meeting broke into applause.(((APPEND)))Following approval of the contract, Hildebrand estimated that it will be about 12 weeks before the full system can be “rolled out and live.”
Supervisor Chuck Washington (3rd District) spoke strongly in favor of the proposed contract. He noted that his district and Perez’s district were the ones “… most impacted by STRs, especially the mountain communities of Idyllwild, Pine Cove, as well as the wine country.”
He attributed this to the increasing availability of STRs since the original Ordinance 927 was approved in 2016 that “… didn’t have teeth in it.”
The result, he noted “… was an explosion in the industry and a number of bad actors,” but he stressed that the majority of STR owners were not “bad actors.”
But it was costing the county money to have sheriff’s deputies enforcing the noise ordinance at night and weekends rather than Code Enforcement. “We need a very robust management system and I approve this item today,” he concluded.
Ordinance 927 status
At the end of his description of the contract with Deckard, Hildebrand gave a summary of the next steps for a revision of Ordinance 927, which currently regulates STRs in Riverside County.
He stated that a draft might be brought to the board in about a month and then public hearings on the draft could be announced and held in March or April.
