Letter: Analyze data in future El Dorado County vacation home rental regulations

The following is a letter to the El Dorado County CAO, reprinted here at the author's request.

Dear Chief Administrative Officer Don Ashton,

As a 40-year company doing vacation rentals in the South Lake Tahoe area including El Dorado County we would like to make a request that we have made to our representative Sue Novasel many times. Before you implement regulations on vacation rentals, analyze the data which you should have been collecting for the last few years.

Such as:

• Where are the problems coming from?
• Is it because of an irresponsible owner who doesn’t screen or notify his renters of acceptable behavior? Or because of an overzealous neighbor who has a bias against tourists anywhere nearby?
• Does the number of renters or maximum occupancy contribute to normal frequent verifiable complaints?
• Are professionally managed properties less problematic than absentee-owned VRBO’s?
• What is the statistic between complaints versus citations? How many citations have been given?
• Is the anti-clustering concept by the “TRPA” supportable by any statistical analysis?
• Is enforcement working? What is the record? What is the percentage of suspended permits that you have?
• Have you reviewed the City of South Lake Tahoe’s statistics and what are your conclusions?
• What would be your goals in writing new regulations?

In conclusion, we have always participated in government hearings and sub-committees but it seems that the government’s minds are always made up before they have reviewed the input. We request that you review the data before making any decisions.

Please do not proceed on a ready, fire, aim basis in your future judgments.

Sincerely,
Jim Morris - a 40 year vacation rental business owner in the County of El Dorado