ON THE AGENDA: Planning Commission February 20, 2024
Housing Element Progress Report, the latest on commercial campgrounds, and a look at the 7% citation rate in the Vacation Home Violation Database
The next City of Twentynine Palms Planning Commission meeting will be at City Hall this Tuesday, February 20, at 5:00 p.m. When the Planning Committee looked at Special Occupancy Parks such as private land being rented for camping through apps like Hipcamp last November (reported here), City staff indicated this topic would be taken up at a Planning Committee meeting in February. This is that meeting.
The agenda packet can be found on the City’s website, which will also have a livestream link for watching at home on the day of the meeting. The recording will be available for viewing later on YouTube.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
After Planning Commission announcements, you can comment on items not on the agenda. Public comments on agenda items will be requested when the item is discussed. Fill out a green comment sheet for public comments or agenda item comments and hand it to the staff, usually sitting at the desk at the front of the room on the right side. You have 3 minutes to make your comments.
You may also email comments to Planning Commission members and Keith Gardner, the Community Development Director, and request that comments be read at the meeting.
CONSENT CALENDAR
1. Housing Element Annual Report There’s a single item on the consent calendar this time around: the Housing Element Annual Report. Unless the item is pulled from the calendar for discussion, the Planning Commission will accept the report and pass it along to the City Council. It will then be submitted to the State Office of Planning Research and the California Department of Housing and Community Development
This is a progress report on the number of residential units being built to meet California’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). There are 13 units in progress so far this year, and 27 were built last year. The state’s goal is to have a total of 989 more residential units in the city by 2029. The pace of building will have to pick up considerably to hit that goal in the allotted time.
PUBLIC HEARING
2. Special Occupancy Parks First up is a discussion of regulations for Special Occupancy Parks, meaning resort-type glamping businesses and primitive campgrounds. Public hearings on these regulations were held on September 19 and November 7, 2023. Staff was made aware of a proposed state bill (SB620) that would allow regulation of commercial campgrounds on a local level. The City’s legal team discovered the bill will not be voted on in the current legislative session and is not included in the recommendations.
Staff researched municipalities with separate regulations for campgrounds and RV parks but could not find any to use as a template, noting that campgrounds are “primarily developed and managed by Federal, State or County agencies” due to the complexities of permitting unusual structures. The only example of a jurisdiction allowing commercial campgrounds had extremely low-density requirements, one tent for every five acres.
The staff recommendation for the Planning Committee is not to allow commercial campgrounds in the City, and to amend the Development Code to allow only RV parks in Commercial Tourist (CT) or Public (P) zoning districts. “In particular,” the staff report notes, “the ‘dry’ or ‘primitive’ camping category that does not have sanitary [facilities] or access to water services is not desirable within the City limits.”
If the Planning Committee does allow commercial campgrounds, the recommendation is to allow them only in Commercial Tourist and Public zones and then only with a conditional use permit.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR UPDATES
3. Vacation Home Rentals Violation Database The Planning Committee will discuss the latest report on complaints against short-term rentals, breaking down the number and type of complaints that came in.
The number of active Vacation Home Rental (VHR) permits continues to drop. There are currently 439 Vacation Home Rental permits issued, with 10 in process. On October 3, 2023, Community Development Director Keith Gardner reported that the number of VHR permits in the City had dropped from 484 permits in June 2023 to 458 in early October 2023.
The report notes that even with a decline in the number of permits, complaints pour in on a weekly basis. The City is open to amending the current Development Code if certain violations are the focus of a high number of complaints.
The range of complaints comes as no surprise, as these are all mentioned as potential problems during community discussions around VHRs—noise, night sky ordinance violations, number of vehicles and parking, trash, illegal campgrounds, unpermitted rentals, and signage.
The report notes, “Some residents have been clear on their opposition to Vacation Home Rentals in the City, and at times resolve to submit complaints to hinder the Vacation Home Rentals or skew complaint numbers.” City officials have often asserted this is a common occurrence but have yet to offer evidence to support their claim. To head off frivolous complaints, the report goes into how the complaints are submitted and verified. Some property owners go as far as installing their own decibel readers, cameras, and other security measures to provide enforcement with adequate evidence.
Code enforcement reports that 37% of the complaints are not actionable, 31% no violation, and 25% unverifiable. Only 7% of complaints resulted in citations.
See the report for yourself here.
Have you submitted a complaint about a neighboring VHR to code compliance? What do you think about the way it was handled? Comment below or to the Planning Committee on Tuesday.
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AHA Projects
Cheyanne Sauter
2501 12th Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90018
Advising residents who’ve made a STR complaint to look at the violations list and make sure their complaint is listed. It’s important this list be accurate as it may be used to determine future STR policy.
I made a complaint against VHR 185, whose guests were running wild with ORV’s on private property, creating a lot of noise. I complained after a call to the owner failed to solve the issue. The date was 1/3/2023, via citizen serve. No sign of the complaint in the list.
If your complaint isn’t listed, be sure to write kgardner@29palms.org and ask that your complaint be added, I recommend doing this as public comment on item 3 for the February 20 meeting.
If you aren’t sure of the VHR number, it’s easy to find it via the 29 Palms Neighbor's map — https://bit.ly/3wMeDuh
Also there’s a record in the citizen serve if you used the online system to register your complaint.
I took a look at the violation database. Why are loud music/parties/night sky complaints unactionable?