An unincorporated association of Pacific Grove property owners who operate short-term rentals have retained an attorney who filed a writ of mandate in Superior Court of the County of Monterey against the City of Pacific Grove, the mayor, and the members of the City Council.
Calling themselves STRONGpg (Short Term Rental Owners and Neighborhood Group of Pacific Grove), the group issued a statement about their stance: “After a very civilized democratic process, our City Council approved an ordinance in December, 2017, that tightened up the rules on short-term rentals while allowing existing STR owners in good standing to continue operating.” They believed, they go on the state, they had a solution to housing thousands of visitors to Pacific Grove and at the same time provide millions of dollars in Transient Occupancy Tax.
Then according to the group, the City Council popped up with a lottery which is “based on complicated criteria that do not correlate with verified complaints lodged against STRs.”
As a consequence, they decided to retain an attorney, David Lanferman of Rutan & Tucker LLP of Palo Alto who filed the writ. It asks for the City Council’s decision to be reversed and that there be a permanent injunction to prevent any STR lottery, and that the City be required to pay reasonable litigation expenses, costs and attorney’s fees plus any other relief the court might deem just and proper. The complaint also asks that no action be taken to “impair, suspend, terminate, or non-renew any transient use license currently in effect.”
Members of STRONGpg who have joined the effort include Joy Colangelo, Kevin Delaney, William B. Harder, Alka Joshi, Kathryn Kranen and Spencer Tall.
“People are concerned, not just for restrictions placed on the future use of their own properties, but for neighbors and friends who will lose out in the Lottery,” they said in their statement.
A hearing is set for August 7, 2018.
A group which opposes short term rentals and states, “Pacific Grove residents concerned about vacation rentals disrupting their neighborhoods have proposed a ballot initiative to keep the commercial operations out of their residential zones,” is circulating a petition to put a ballot measure on the docket for the upcoming election believe that such a ballot measure – by making the voters decide — will put an end to the never-ending short-term rental saga. The petition is bing circulated by a group calling themselves PG Neighbors United and they can be reached at https://pgneighbors.com/
