Santa Barbara planning panel forwards draft short‑term rental ordinance to ordinance committee after hours of public comment

The Santa Barbara City Planning Commission on March 5, 2026 voted to forward a draft short‑term rental ordinance to the city ordinance committee, asking staff for detailed follow‑up on enforcement tools, projected transient occupancy tax (TOT) impacts, parking waivers and whether a cap or lottery model would better distribute short‑term rentals across neighborhoods.

The commission heard a multi‑hour staff presentation from project planner Laura Bridal and an interdepartmental team, who said the draft ordinance was written to preserve long‑term housing and provide an online licensing path to regulate and mitigate neighborhood nuisance. Bridal told the commission the ordinance is designed to “engineer compliance” through screening, operational standards and posting requirements, and that staff coordinated iteratively with the California Coastal Commission while drafting the coastal provisions.

The draft would allow whole‑house short‑term rentals only inside a defined coastal license area and certain commercial zones, while allowing “home shares” — hosted rentals where a resident is present — more broadly in parts of the coastal zone. The…