Riverside County’s short-term rental regulations for properties in the Idyllwild and Temecula Valley Wine Country are “not working” as they were envisioned, and stronger enforcement efforts are required to net the results the Board of Supervisors always intended, Chairman Chuck Washington said on Tuesday.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t have to shoulder the burden of getting a short-term rental operator to function in a community-friendly way,” the chair said during a hearing on Ordinance No. 927, the county’s Short-Term Rental Ordinance. “We need to go back to ensuring that a property owner takes responsibility for operating their property. These folks need to know they’re going to get fines. We need to hold them accountable.”
Washington’s comments followed a Transportation & Land Management Agency report on the STR regulatory framework specifically established for the Wine Country and Idyllwild-Pine Cove. A bevy of speakers, mainly from the Temecula Valley, addressed the board, imparting personal experiences with repeat STR offenders who disturb their daily lives with loud music, parties and related intrusions…