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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3C - Public CommentFrom: Jeffrey B. To: Lisa Middleton: Grace Garner: Dennis Woods: Geoff KQr Christy Holsteae: Justin Clifton Cc: City Clerk Subject: Public Comment on City Council Agenda Item 3C Date: Wednesday, March 9, 2022 1:42:00 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Mayor Lisa Middleton Mayor Pro Tern Grace Garner Councilmember Christy Holstege Councilmember Dennis Woods Councilmember Geoff Kors City Manager Justin Clifton Re: City Council Agenda Item 3C, March 10, 2022 City Council Meeting Honorable Mayor, Members of the City Council and City Manager, I'm writing to urge you to include the importance of locally owned businesses in the General Plan. There are two priorities listed that reference our businesses 4. Maintain and enhance a diverse range of retail, dining and entertainment opportunities for local, regional, and tourist markets. Encourage diverse and appealing shopping opportunities for residents, tourists, and the regional market that will generate sales tax revenues, attract customers from neighboring communities, and enrich the quality of the life for those living in and visiting Palm Springs. And NEW PRIORITY 2. Nurture retail opportunities for residents in all neighborhoods. Strengthen and promote equitable and convenient access to a variety of retail opportunities that serve the needs of daily lives in close proximity to all residential neighborhoods Neither of these reference our unique, locally owned businesses. I've advocated for our local businesses for ten years and I know most if not all of you agree with the importance. It is essential we cement this in our vision for Palm Springs for the next twenty years. Several developments in the past few years have increased the urgency for this. First, we are seeing many shopping malls close or lose businesses. Those businesses are now opting for 3/10/2022 Public Comment Item 3C smaller "main street' storefronts more as branding and promotion of their online business. These national chains, in limited amount, are often good for the community. But if our downtown becomes home solely to national chains, we lose much of the vibe of Palm Springs. Second, online delivery and fulfilment centers are expanding rapidly. While these provide great benefits in many ways, they can threaten local businesses if we are not careful. The national chains referenced previously can have their small main street store fronts but use the fulfillment centers as their warehouse. We saw similar effects many years ago when the big box stores entered very small towns. Third, restaurant chains (from fast food to fine dining) are expanding rapidly in smaller cities. Local businesses are not just good for the business owners, but for our community, non- profits, and tourism (our key economic driver). Local business owners are part of the community. They live here, their profits are spent here, they have a connection with their employees. Small business owners care about public safety, our neighborhoods, our parks, etc. in a way that national chains do not. Local Businesses are often much more vested in our non -profits, again, because they are part of the community. We all know from first-hand knowledge just how much our local businesses support our non -profits. Conversely, the national chains, while they may do so on a national level, are rarely supportive of our local non -profits. Most importantly for Palm Springs, local businesses are key to our tourism. Our local restaurants, retail, attractions, even gyms are a key element in what makes Palm Springs Like No Place Else. People visit Palm Springs to dine at our local restaurants, shop our local stores, etc. Please make the necessary revisions in the General Plan to ensure that supporting locally owned businesses is part of our vision for the next twenty years. This will also encourage policy, commercial development approvals and economic development actions that support our local business community. Thankyou Jeffrey Bernstein Owner, Destination PSP Candidate for Palm Springs City Council, District 2 3/10/2022 Public Comment Item 3C From:Lauren Wolfer on behalf of Christy Holstege To:Bernie A; City Clerk Subject:Re: Many Faces of Palm Springs Long Term Renters Date:Thursday, March 10, 2022 4:03:46 PM Hi Bernie, Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this issue, we will consider your comments carefully. I’ve copied the city clerk so that your comments will be entered into the public record. From: Bernie A <bernieps@live.com> Sent: Wednesday, March 9, 2022 8:29:07 PM To: Lisa Middleton <Lisa.Middleton@palmspringsca.gov>; Grace Garner <Grace.Garner@palmspringsca.gov>; Geoff Kors <Geoff.Kors@palmspringsca.gov>; Christy Holstege <Christy.Holstege@palmspringsca.gov>; Dennis Woods <Dennis.Woods@palmspringsca.gov> Subject: Many Faces of Palm Springs Long Term Renters NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. My husband and I are full time residents who had been renting homes in Palm Springs for years, that is up until 4 years ago. No one seems to want to talk about the effect vacation rentals have had on the long term rental market. When the PS Post published the vacation rental addresses, we went over their map. We knew so many of the homes because we had looked at them or seen them for rent when they were long term rentals. You can gather all the “data points” you want but that won’t tell you the true story of the real effect on residents who in the past have rented and lived full time in Palm Springs. We have friends and customers who have children and pets that had been renting homes in Palm Springs for years. Since vacation rentals, there are none available. They do not need nor qualify for rent subsidies or “affordable” apartment complexes and neither do we. They just want a home for their kids and a yard for their pets and kids to play in. They along with us were always willing and able to pay for a rental home. I remember the animosity between residents and lobbyists when the vote was taken for vacation rentals in Palm Springs. The money behind the lobbyists was so striking. Residents were no match. Right3/10/2022 Public Comment Item 3B now, those same lobbyists are poised ready to pounce because other City Councils in the valley sided with their residents and voted against them. They are hoping Palm Springs doesn’t take a close look at their damage to actual full time residents. I know nothing I say nor other residents say will change anything. I just wanted you to know there are other sides to this story that collecting “data points” won’t cover. Thank you. Bernie Arnowitz 496 Paseo Soleado Palm Springs bernieps@live.com 3/10/2022 Public Comment Item 3B General Plan The results of the PSHA/GENERAL MAGAGERS meeting were never included in the update to the goals and priorities. Those comments are include in the package, and the goals and priorities should be included. Council needs to know that this section needs to be revisited. Priority 1A – This section needs cleaning up. We got the majority of our comments about “saving open Space” and keeping open space open. These are my suggestions. 1A Foster and enhance opportunities for open space retention and expansion that allows neighborhood access throughout Palm Springs and its adjacent areas. Encourage open space protection and improve access to open spaces throughout the community for community enjoyment, mitigating climate change, health benefits and biodiversity. Where open spaces are accessible to the public, promote safe access for all regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, native language, culture, abilities, and disabilities. Open spaces should include passive and active forms of recreation where possible. 2 A Continue to advance Palm Springs as a sustainability leader. Promote the sustainable and affordable use of materials, energy, land, water, air and other natural resources to enhance the long- term livability of our community for all residents regardless of socio-economic position. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and proactively anticipate and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Reduce wastes going to landfill through source reduction, reuse, recycling and other methods. 2B Anticipate Climate Change and activitely mitigate against it. This includes making the code changes necessary to reduce the warming in the valley (look at Paul Lewings letter. 3.A Diversify and strengthen the City’s economy and promote education and innovation. Develop and encourage new businesses, employment and educationopportunities that will maintain a sustainable, livable, resilient, and diverse economy andworkforce. Promote businesses that will provide a living wage. Invest in improvingaccessible public and private infrastructure for a digital future for all. Promote employmentopportunities in renewable energy and other green businesses.3b. Establish a university in palm springs. Universities will strethen our existing businesses as well as spin off new industry. Maintain, and enhance a diverse range of retail, dining and entertainment opportunities for local, regional, and tourist markets. Encourage diverse and appealing shopping opportunities for residents, tourists, and the regional market that will generate sales tax revenues, attract customers from neighboring communities, and enrich the quality 3/10/2022 Public Comment Item 3C of the life for those living in and visiting Palm Springs. Encourage additional entertainment venues for a boader range of people. Work to solve the noise and parking related issues to enhance the destination our downtown core. Encourage more full time residential opportunities to expant the summer season. 5. Provide for a broad range of housing opportunities for all residents. Encourage development of resource efficient and high-quality housing units at a range of densities for all life stages, economic levels and diversified, multifaceted populations. Identify solutions to reduce rent burden, housing instability, and homelessness. Develop acomprehensive affordable housing policy that includes inclusionary housing, up zoning where necessary, and develop the staff to implement the program. 3/10/2022 Public Comment Item 3C From:Michael Bourque To:City Clerk Subject:Public Comment on Agenda // Meeting Tonight Mar 10 2022 / Agenda Item: DISCUSSION OF VACATION RENTAL STUDY SESSION Date:Thursday, March 10, 2022 5:08:36 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. City Council Members, As a homeowner, full-time resident, and VR operator in Palm Springs, I am writing to provide Public Comment on the agenda item planned for tonight's City Council meeting about the planned data analysis the Council requests for an upcoming review of the Vacation Rental Ordinance (#1918). To ensure accurate and useful information be obtained from the analysis and also ensure that any actions that are ultimately taken by it are fair and correctly targeted without unduly harming those like us who occasionally rent our home/primary residence out on a limited basis to supplement our income, we respectfully ask that you request the following in the data analysis: There likely are at least 2 types of owners who offer properties for VR: 1.Secondary or Primary Home -- Who offer vacation rentals as a way to supplement income and expenses on the house, but only rent occasionally and limit the number of nights they rent since they also occupy their home frequently, seasonally, or most of the time. 2.Pure Investment Property -- Who offer vacation rentals to gain a return on investment and want to maximize the number of nights rented since they seldomly, if ever, occupy the property themselves. It would be very informative to see the analysis of the key measures (such as hotline calls, citations, neighborhood concentration, etc.), done by breaking the data out by these categories, which could be inferred by the total number of contracted nights annually and sorting the data into 2 or 3 groups based on the distribution of contract nights: Light=1-33rd percentile; Medium=34-66th percentile; and Heavy=67-99th percentile. Or, some other appropriate statistically-based method of grouping. For example, it would be interesting for the purpose of making decisions about the code to know if properties with "light rentals" have fewer citations as a percent of contracts than properties with "heavy rentals" do. Or, if the types of citations issued for "heavy rentals" are different or occur at different frequencies than they do for "light rentals". Also, do certain neighborhoods have a higher concentration of "heavy rental" properties than others? Without looking at the data this way, the City Council may run the risk of taking drastic measures based on less precise data that would hurt owners like myself that are in the 1st category I mentioned (those who rent a primary or secondary home here on a limited basis to3/10/2022 Public Comment Item 3C supplement their income.) I respectfully request that Council asks for data to be provided in this or like manner. Thank you, Michael Bourque & Jerome Gentes 1131 E Sierra Way Palm Springs, CA 92264 3/10/2022 Public Comment Item 3C