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VOL. 9,
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County board revises short-term rental rules for Idyllwild, Temecula Valley
County due for federal assistance stemming from Tropical Storm Hilary
By City News Service
By City News Service
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he Board of Supervisors on Tuesday tentatively approved a bevy of amendments to Riverside County's short-term rental ordinance, focusingon minimum age, family transfer and related regulations of rental properties in IdyllwildPine Cove and the Temecula Valley Wine Country. "This is not perfect, and there are quite a bit of tradeoffs," Supervisor Manuel Perez said. "Maybe we see some great results. There are things here to hate and maybe to love. It is what it is." The first hearing on modifications to Ordinance No. 927 was held on Nov. 7 and spanned about five hours, but the board was undecided on multiple issues, culminating in a second hearing, which took less than two hours on Tuesday. In the end, the board compromised on roughly a half-dozen proposals. Chairman Kevin Jeffries' chief concern was a recommendation favored by Supervisor Chuck Washington to constrain so-called "family transfers," or the ability of an existing short-term rental homeowner to pass on the property and its current short-term rental certificate to an immediate family member, in the Temecula Valley Wine Country. "I hate the idea of opposing generational wealth and the government destroying it for the sole reason of 'we just don't want
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iverside County is in line to receive federal disaster aid stemming from the impacts of Tropical Storm Hilary three months ago. The Biden administration announced last week that, under a Major Disaster Declaration, the Federal Emergency Relief Agency had been authorized to administer aid for storm-related repairs to facilities in Riverside, Imperial, Inyo, Kern and Siskiyou counties. The total amount of grants slated to be made available was not specified. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 29 formally declared a local emergency because of damage caused to flood channels, roads, electrical transmission lines and other infrastructure during the Aug. 19-20 storm. Similar emergency declarations were issued by the cities of Desert Hot Springs, La Quinta and Palm Desert. Storm cells spawned by Hilary, which began as a Category 4 hurricane before making landfall in Mexico's northern Baja See Tropical Storm Hilary Page 15
31st Palm Springs Festival of Lights Parade marches Saturday | Image courtesy of miheco/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
you to own it anymore,'" Jeffries said. "We need to institute the ability ... to go back to family transfer opportunities." Jeffries described the approach as relying on "attrition" to ultimately remove short-term rentals from certain locations, prompting Washington to offer a compromise of limiting transfers only in segments of the Wine Country where there is a manifest "saturation" of STRs. The entire board accepted that proposal.
The board also unanimously agreed that the minimum age of anyone applying for a short-term rental certificate in the Wine Country should be 25 years old, while in the county's other unincorporated communities it will remain 21. The board further backed dropping a previous proposal to limit short-term rental owners and operators to two certificates in Idyllwild and
Wine Country if they already have more than that number certificated and available to rent. The supervisors gave their nod to a biannual "lottery system" for the awarding of certificates in the mountain communities and Wine Country whenever existing caps on STRs are not hit and there are more than 10 applicants for newly available certificates. The board signed off on a
See Temecula Valley Page 28
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By City News Service
he 31st annual Palm Springs Festival of Lights Parade will be held Saturday with sports broadcaster Fred Roggin as the celebrity grand marshal and Canine Mayor Buddy Holly as the first ever canine grand marshal. "The entire Coachella Valley and beyond is invited to bring the whole family and your four-legged friends and come celebrate the holidays in beautiful Palm Springs, California, truly like no place else," Mayor Grace Garner said. The parade will get underway at 5:45 p.m. Saturday at Palm Canyon Drive and Ramon Road, according to a statement from the city. The holiday event brings as many as 100,000 people to downtown Palm Springs annually. Onlookers can also expect to see Community Grand Marshals "Love Island" winner Hanna Wright, NBC Palm Springs film critic Manny the Movie Guy and the city's new
See Festival of Lights Page 14