Cathedral City has officially decided to phase out short-term vacation rentals by the year 2022. The vote passed Thursday night, but there are two main exceptions that will allow for the short-term rentals to continue.

This decision comes after more than a year of deliberation and public input. And now, a non-profit organization, who calls themselves, “I love Cathedral City” has submitted a legal letter to the city outlining many reasons as to why the city should not adopt the new ordinance.

“We are prepared to as an organization to come together and move forward with litigation if necessary if the city is unwilling to compromise with us in any way,” said Karyn Mcqueen, Vice President of I Love Cathedral City.

Cathedral City council has voted unanimously to phase out short-term vacation rentals. Representatives front the city say they want to restore the quality of life back to neighborhoods and they don’t have enough enforcement to deal with unruly renters.

“We had lots of complaints of noise, trash, people going to into other neighboring properties,” explained Chirs Parman, Communications and Events Manager with Cathedral City.

But a pro-short term rental group called ‘I Love Cathedral City’ says the city’s reasoning is flawed. Because when citations are given to short term rentals, they’re given to unlicensed operations

“The majority of citations given out to short term vacation rentals are given to illegal short term vacation rentals,” said Lindsay Jones, Treasure of ‘I Love Cathedral City’.

We checked with the city on that, they said they don’t think that is true but were not able to provide us with the data on citations. There are some exceptions tot he new ordinance, you can still rent out a single room or a casita as long as you remain on property during the rental period. Plus, HOA also plays a role.

“If you live in an HOA community and that HOA community permits short term vacation rentals.,” explained Parman.

And as for the owners of short term rentals.

“Those that are currently a short term rental vacation rental will have the 27 months, those who are trying to become a short term vacation rental that’s not possible,” added Parman.

Cathedral city says one option that is still in play is rental over 30 days.

“If you’re still wanting to maybe capture that snowbird market were the people come down for like four months, you can still rent out your home to snowbirds for more than thirty days,” said Parman.

Current short-term vacation rentals without the exceptions will have a base year to operate. A second reading of the ordinance will take place on September 9th and if passed the ordinance will go into effect on October 9th.

Cathedral City Plans to Phase Out Short-Term Vacation Rentals By 2022