Clear Lake council pauses rental-registration ordinance after wide public concern

The Clear Lake City Council opened a public hearing March 20 on Ordinance No. 279-2025, an amendment to section 9-4 of the Clear Lake Municipal Code that would revive and update a long-dormant rental-unit registration and inspection program. After more than an hour of staff presentation and public comment, the council directed staff to pull the ordinance from the agenda and asked for additional stakeholder review before returning the item for action.

City Manager Flora and Associate Planner Taylor told the council the city is recommending an annual registration fee of $105 per property and an inspection fee of $135 for parcels with one to four units (higher fees were proposed for larger buildings). Staff said suspected rentals number roughly 3,400 of about 6,000 residential parcels and that city records show 194 complaints about substandard housing between January 2023 and December 2024.

Supporters of stronger enforcement said the program would help identify unsafe, occupied housing. “If these units don’t have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors people die,” Council Member Hooton said during the meeting, endorsing the need to address safety issues. Staff said the ordinance was first adopted in 2001, was not actively administered after the Great Recession and that new software — including a Ptolemy data tool and a Slate registration portal — would help the city identify and prioritize problem properties.

Opponents, including multiple local real estate brokers and landlords, urged a slower approach. Real estate broker Mary Benson said the proposed language would let city officials enter units without adequate tenant notice and warned the timelines and remediation windows were impractical for homeowners and renters. Broker Katie Evans and landlord August Schmidt said the 60-day implementation schedule was unrealistic for the roughly 3,400 suspected rentals and that the proposed fees risked pushing investors away and increasing rents.

Other public commenters suggested alternatives including point-of-sale inspections, limiting inspections to problem properties identified through code enforcement, virtual inspections, exemptions for properties already inspected under federal programs and clearer tenant-notice protections. Several speakers asked for more time for local stakeholders to propose changes.

After hearing public comment, several council members said they wanted more refinement. Council Member Downey suggested a one-time registration fee instead of an annual charge, a tenant hotline and options for virtual inspections. Council Member Wilson and Council Member Hooton both supported returning the item with input from local property managers and Realtors.

The council directed staff to remove the ordinance from the agenda for further work; staff and the council also encouraged the Lake County Association of Realtors to form a small review group and submit recommendations. A realtor-led group agreed to provide suggested revisions and return them to the city within 30 days. City staff said they will not proceed with the fees or inspections while the item is reworked and will bring a revised proposal back to the council at a future meeting.

What happened next: staff will take the ordinance off calendar, solicit stakeholder recommendations and return the item after revisions. No formal vote on the ordinance was taken at the March 20 meeting.

A note on scope and sources: this report is based on the March 20, 2025 City Council meeting. Quotations and specific figures (fees, complaint totals, dates) were stated aloud during the meeting by staff and public speakers and are attributed to those speakers in the meeting transcript.