“How is it that we’ve gone through all these hearings and meetings, and we’ve arrived at the same place we were four years ago?” Supervisor Chuck Washington asked at the end of Tuesday’s hearing on Ordinance No. 927. “We don’t seem to be moving the needle here. I get the same complaints from constituents. It’s disappointing. I come to work to try to maintain or improve their quality of life.”

The Transportation & Land Management Agency, along with the Department of Planning and Code Enforcement, had sought modifications to the STR ordinance based on studies and community meetings. But after a 90-minute hearing during which more than a dozen people aired grievances, the board voted unanimously to table action to an unspecified date.

However, due to legislative constraints, the board was unable to automatically extend a moratorium on the issuance of STR certificates in Thousand Palms and the B Bar H Ranch. Technically, the moratorium will expire on Feb. 28. But the supervisors’ consensus pointed to the likelihood of their renewing the moratorium, possibly for another 10 months, when they return for their next regular meeting on March 3.

The board implemented a slate of countywide regulations tied to STRs under Ordinance No. 927 in October 2022. The measure has been largely untouched since then, and Tuesday’s hearing was sought by TLMA to make a series of “minor” adjustments.

Short-term rentals are defined as residential dwellings leased for a maximum of 30 days and a minimum of two days and one night. Prior to the ratification of Ordinance No. 927, the county had a somewhat informal process for permitting short-term rentals. Officials said there are now roughly 1,100 certificated STR properties in unincorporated communities countywide.

Most of the comments heard by the board Tuesday reflected the same issues the panel considered when the ordinance was first implemented — lack of enforcement or consequences for STR operators who don’t follow the rules.

“The same bad actors are really the ones we’re talking about,” a Temecula Valley resident named Ron told the board. “The real problem is Code Enforcement doesn’t write citations. You need to rethink the officers’ hours of operation. They’re heading back home just when the parties are starting at night. Noise disturbances are preventing us from sleeping. Without code doing an adequate job, this will never be solved.”

Another Temecula Valley resident complained that regardless of how bad conditions are in the STR property adjacent to his home — where one weekend renter recently rammed a vehicle through the front door — Code Enforcement is ineffectual.

“My life is a living hell,” he told the board. “Nothing is being done. They have massive parties there, and all we’re asking is that Code Enforcement do some actual enforcement.”

An East Thousand Palms senior said her dirt road has been virtually overtaken by partygoers regularly renting out an STR property directly across from her home.

“Sometimes there 100 cars parked on the road, and they go off-roading,” she said. “Some cities in the Coachella Valley have banned STRs. There are too many. We don’t need more.”

Supervisor Jose Medina was aghast at what he heard, noting that he’d never experienced anything remotely like the speakers’ circumstances in his 30 years residing in the same Riverside house.

“We all have the right to live in peaceful, safe neighborhoods,” he said. “I’m glad we won’t vote on this today. We need to see more cooperation between the Sheriff’s Department and Code Enforcement.”

Board members recognized that the majority of STR operators are law-abiding, but said people leasing out some properties for illegal events had grown accustomed to flouting regulations — and had not faced serious penalties to deter them from doing so.

Supervisor Manuel Perez expressed hope that the agencies, with the guidance of the board, could “work out the kinks” to improve Code Enforcement operations.

“We should consider after-hours enforcement,” he said.

Although the county maintains an overnight phone line staffed by a complaint taker, the most that can be done between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. is for the staffer to call the STR operator to alert him or her to complaints. Deputies will respond to properties to investigate excessive noise and other disturbances, but Undersheriff Don Sharp admitted they have to “prioritize” calls. He said they will only go if they’re not needed for something that rates higher, such as a domestic violence or assault report.

The amendments that were under board consideration included a new provision enabling the director of the Department of Code Enforcement, head of the TLMA or the director of the Department of Planning to declare an “urgent circumstance” that grants authority to immediately order the abatement of a public nuisance at an STR.

The ordinance’s proposed new language also specified that any “responsible operator” of an STR may be denied a certificate of renewal if he or she received three notices of violation in a six-month span, or five notices over the entire duration of an STR certificate.

The slate of amendments further called for an increase in the initial STR application fee from $740 to $1,040, and elevating the annual renewal fee from $540 to $750. The Planning Commission voted 4-0 last month to recommend that the board designate funds to expand the county’s STR Enforcement Team.

A moratorium established in April 2025 halted the issuance of all STR certificates in Thousand Palms and the B Bar H Ranch. That suspension followed a surge in boisterous parties at vacation rental properties throughout the communities.

The TLMA confirmed complaints continued in both areas after the moratorium was invoked, but the number over the last six months totaled fewer than 40. The moratorium’s official sunset date is Feb. 28, but the board will discuss resetting it next month.

The post ‘My Life Is A Living Hell’: Complaints Continue About Short-Term Rentals In Riverside County appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

City News Service | Contributed

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to extend a moratorium on the issuance of new short-term rental permits in the Temecula Valley, as well as the Idyllwild-Pine Cove area, giving county staff additional time, beyond the year they’ve already had, to apply finishing touches to a revised ordinance.

“I do not like extending this moratorium,” board Chairman Kevin Jeffries said. “I understand the reasoning of why we did it the first time (last year). The county needed some breathing room to figure out what’s going on. But private property rights exist on both sides of the fence, and those rights have to be respected on both sides.”

Despite his reservations, Jeffries joined his four colleagues in voting to implement a second 10-month-long moratorium. Riverside County Transportation & Land Management Agency officials indicated that the duration would not be close to the full period, but probably more like two or three months, with hearings on a proposed modified Short-Term Rental Ordinance, with new conditions applicable only to the Temecula Valley and Idyllwild-Pine Cove, coming as soon as October.

Idyllwild property owner Gerardo Morales told the board any extension was too long, saying he and his family have been in limbo since the last one went into effect nearly a year ago.

“We were really shocked (when the first moratorium on permits was declared last September),” Morales said. “The majority of (short-term rental operators) are living in peace. There’s a very small number of bad apples leaving a bad impression.

“We have been hoping for a chance to obtain a permit. We were told it would be over by September. But now you’re extending it? Extending it will be so detrimental for so many of us who have invested blood, sweat and tears. It’s not fair.”

The current moratorium was slated to expire on Sept. 9. However, TLMA administrators requested the extension because they’re not finished writing proposed amendments to Ordinance No. 927, focusing on language “narrowly tailored to address unique concerns of each community and alleviate … secondary effects and adverse impacts to the public … caused by short-term rentals,” according to a statement posted to the board’s agenda.

The supervisors approved an urgency ordinance establishing the moratorium in mid-September 2022. However, that was only for a 45-day period. So a longer-term moratorium under a modified urgency ordinance was passed on Oct. 25, 2022.

Last Oct. 18, the board signed off on a new short-term rental regulatory framework for unincorporated communities, but Supervisor Chuck Washington and TLMA officials supported excluding the Temecula Valley and Idyllwild-Pine Cove from the new Short-Term Rental Ordinance until specific problems related to enforcement of STR regulations in each location could be ironed out.

The regulatory framework established under Ordinance No. 927 focused on occupancy limitations, noise controls, parking designations and other health and safety provisions for short-term rental properties. It was in response to increasing problems stemming from unlicensed vacation rentals.

TLMA officials told the board last September that applications for rental certificates had surged over the previous 13 months, leading to an average of 54 new certificates being issued every month, a disproportionately high number of them going to property owners in Idyllwild-Pine Cove and the Temecula Valley.

“If the increase continues, adverse impacts that have the potential to endanger the health and safety of residents, guests and the very environment and resources that attract visitors to the county will increase,” according to a TLMA statement.

There are an estimated 1,130 licensed short-term rentals in unincorporated areas countywide, with the greatest concentrations in the Temecula Valley and mountain communities, according to TLMA.

Short-term rentals are defined as residential dwellings leased for a maximum of 30 days and a minimum of two days and one night.

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