Instead of criticizing City Councilmember Jeff Heller’s solitary stance against Morro Bay’s policy on vacation rentals by owners (VRBO’s), I applaud him for taking a stand against an industry that can come into our town and change residential areas into tourist-serving zones (“Neighborhood character,” Nov. 5).
I moved here in 1979, and I rented from people who had purchased homes here for retirement. Renting from roughly six different people at reasonable rents, I did this for about 20 years. Many of my friends did the same thing. Although not all out-of-town property owners do this, the fact is these second homes have provided a very important part of the workforce housing market. These places allow renters to live here full time and participate in our community.
Rather than protecting this important segment of our population, the city’s VRBO policy jeopardizes their available housing. Plus it circumvents existing zoning, allowing residential zones to be used for commercial purposes.
Our elected officials have allowed spec houses to be built on commercial land on Main Street in North Morro Bay—and that was suitable for tourist purposes. A bad decision. Any vacation rentals should be kept within the commercial districts of Morro Bay or maybe limited to a two-block radius of downtown.
Like many others, I wrote a letter opposing the council majority’s vacation rental plan. Again, I thank Mr. Heller for being the only one to watch out for the residents of Morro Bay. I appreciate that he’s not just a rubber stamp on issues like this VRBO policy and the new wastewater treatment plant. He not only looks at short-term financial gains but at what really benefits our town in the long term.
David Nelson
Morro Bay
This article appears in Nov 19-29, 2020.
We lived in Fresno for generations. Our family vacations were at Bass Lake for years but then my parents discovered the Central Coast and, specifically, Cayucos. They began renting there every summer and did so for years. They fell in love with the communities of SLO – Cayucos, Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo. They bought a lot in Cayucos in 1973 and then the adjacent lot in 1975 and built their dream home on the lots in 1976. My dad died in 1979 and is buried in Cayucos. My mom lived on in Cayucos until 2010. Over those years the family (they had three sons, of which, I am one) grew and would reconnect over Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Fourth of July (the famous Cayucos parade). After mom passed in 2010, we thought we’d have to sell the house. While one of my brothers lives in Sacramento, I live in Massachusetts and our other brother lives in Rhode Island. Enjoying Cayucos would be easy for one and difficult for the other two. The solution was VRBO. The income would allow us to pay the expenses and still have the availability of the home. It did more than that…the income allowed us to replace all of the windows int the house, pull out the wall-to-wall carpeting and replace with wood flooring and redo the kitchen. When I went to my high school reunion over in Fresno, I scheduled a week at the house. My brother from Rhode Island, took his son and spent a week there. My brother from Sacramento, on the other hand, was the property manager and used it frequently. He and his family hadn’t missed a Fourth of July in Cayucos since 1977. Then SLO sent the cease and desist letter. Apparently there was an ordinance that two rental properties couldn’t be closer than 100 feet and a house across the street was ahead of us in rental seniority. My brother made multiple appeals the SLO but to no avail. We couldn’t afford to keep the family home without the rental income. We were forced to sell.
The background problem here is the Liberals do not enjoy divergent opinions, regardless of what that entails.
Ron Banuk
The root problem here is that Liberals do not enjoy divergent opinions on any subject.
Ron Banuk