Council directs staff to draft short-term rental rules after residents cite brothels, neighborhood safety concerns

National City residents pressed the City Council on April 1 to adopt new regulations for short-term rentals, arguing that unregulated short-term listings have enabled prostitution, trafficking and public-safety problems in some neighborhoods.

At a lengthy staff presentation, Martin Reeder, assistant director of community development, told the council the city currently lacks a short-term-rental ordinance and that online platforms show “around 200” listings in the city. Reeder said staff had identified multiple vendors who could manage registration, enforcement and transient-occupancy-tax collection for the city, and that a vendor-managed program typically costs the city in the low…