The Santa Barbara City Council has moved its proposed rent stabilization ordinance another step closer to adoption. After a month of public feedback, council members directed staff to revise the measure by narrowing potential exemptions, expanding tenant protections and laying the groundwork for a citywide rental registry.
The council spent several hours reviewing more than 100 suggested changes to the proposal. It then directed staff to prepare a revised draft for another public hearing.
One of the council's biggest decisions was to keep nearly all rental housing covered by the proposed ordinance. Council members agreed government-owned and Housing Authority-operated housing should remain exempt, but postponed a decision on whether privately owned deed-restricted affordable housing should also be excluded while staff conducts additional analysis.
Councilmember Wendy Santamaria said she was concerned broad exemptions would weaken the proposal.
“I really want for us to narrow the scope of the exemptions because every exemption for one type of provider is leaving hundreds of tenants unprotected,” Santamaria said. “And so I don't want to leave higher-ed staff or students unprotected.”
The council also postponed a decision on whether privately owned rental units participating in the federal Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program should receive an exemption. Members asked staff to work with the Housing Authority to provide additional analysis before the ordinance returns.
Council members also endorsed creating a rental registry that would eventually include nearly every rental property in the city. Although, staff said the registry would likely be phased in, beginning with rent-stabilized units before expanding to all rental housing.
Assistant City Attorney Dan Henschke said the registry would serve purposes beyond enforcing rent caps.
"The regulatory purpose for including everybody really relates more to identification of properties, identification of owners, identification of tenants for the implementation of all of the other tenant protections that exist because they're not rent controlled," Henschke said.
The council also strengthened protections for tenants displaced by major building renovations. Under the revised ordinance, landlords planning major building repairs would be required to provide advance notice, prepare a capital improvement plan explaining how construction would affect tenants and develop a relocation plan if renters must temporarily leave their homes during the work.
City staff will return with a revised draft ordinance incorporating the council's direction before the measure comes back for another public hearing and a final vote.
