Short-Term Rental Ordinance

Project Status

On September 29, 2020, the City Council voted to adopt the Enforcement Ordinance (Ordinance No. 468). Ordinance No. 468 requires a new STR Permit in order to operate a short-term rental property and provides enforcement tools against nuisance properties while the Hosted STR ordinance is processed. The effective date of the ordinance is January 15, 2021, which was selected to allow sufficient time for the City and property owners currently renting their property on a short-term basis to prepare for the new STR permit protocols. A permit application and guidance information will be published soon to this webpage. Please sign up for e-notifications using the information below if you wish to be notified when the application is released.

On September 14, 2020, Council directed that the Santa Monica-style “Hosted” STR Ordinance, which involves a Local Coastal Program (LCP) amendment and Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) to the Malibu Municipal Code, to be updated and brought back to a future meeting (scheduled for October 26, 2020), with the changes listed below:

1. Allow guest houses to be used for short-term rental but require that a short-term rental permit designate only one specific unit on the single-family residence property to be listed; 
2. Require the property owner to be onsite during short-term rental except that a designated operator, other than the owner, is allowed to host short-term rentals for up to two months cumulatively per calendar year with two week notice to the City modifying the short-term rental permit; 
3. Require designated operator be present onsite between the hours of 9:00 PM and 6:00 AM during hosted short-term rentals; 
4. Allow one unit of a duplex to be rented short-term if the owner lives onsite in the other; and 
5. Allow up to 40% or up to two units maximum (whichever is fewer) of multifamily properties to be rented short-term if the other onsite units are rented long-term.

The “Hosted” ordinance would require the presence of an onsite host during most short-term rentals and the STR property be the primary residence of the property owner. If approved by City Council, the LCP amendment would have to be certified by the California Coastal Commission before the regulations could go into effect.

For more details, view the City Council August 10, 2020 and September 14 2020 staff reports, and the Planning Commission July 29, 2020 staff report, or watch the meeting videos at MalibuCity.org/VirtualMeeting.

BACKGROUND

A detailed history of the project starting in 2019 is provided in the Short-Term Rental Ordinance Staff Memorandum. For additional information, visit the Community Meetings & Public Input section below.