Lemon Grove holds tenant protections workshop as officials weigh permanent ordinance

Lemon Grove staff outlined this city’s emergency tenant-protection ordinance at a community workshop March 24 and asked residents for input on whether to convert temporary changes into a permanent local law.

City Attorney Kristen Stenke told attendees that the state’s California Tenant Protection Act (adopted in 2019) sets baseline requirements — including many no-fault grounds for termination and specific notice and relocation rules — and that cities may adopt regulations that are more stringent than state law but not weaker. Stenke said the city’s urgency ordinance (adopted Feb. 3 and amended March 17) keeps enhanced relocation payments while removing an initially adopted 120-day notice that conflicted with state law. "The city council adopted the urgency ordinance that increases relocation, where there is a no fault just cause termination to 1 month of fair market rent and 1 month of actual rent then in effect for everybody," Stenke said.

Under the urgency ordinance staff reviewed, tenants subject to a no-fault termination generally receive one month of actual rent plus one month of fair-market rent; Stenke said tenants in certain protected circumstances — households with income under 80% of area median income, residents age 60 or older, people with disabilities, or homes with minor children — are eligible for higher relocation (described in the workshop as two months of fair-market rent plus one month of actual rent). The ordinance was adopted as an urgency measure with a 180-day sunset in August unless the council extends it or replaces it with a permanent ordinance.

Staff and the city attorney reviewed how state law defines substantial remodels (work that requires permits and forces tenants to vacate for at least 30 consecutive days) and cautioned that some landlords have claimed substantial remodels for smaller projects, then raised rents after tenants leave. Stenke summarized enforcement options: tenants can sue landlords under civil-code provisions cited in the presentation, while the city can bring enforcement actions seeking injunctive relief but generally cannot recover monetary damages on behalf of individual tenants.

Residents at the workshop voiced mixed reactions. Crystal Hall said rapid emergency actions alarm homeowners and urged transparency: "Do things in the light and let us know what you're doing before you do that," she said. Hall and other commenters warned that stricter local rules could discourage investors from renovating older units, while others, including Cynthia Chang, said the city should strengthen protections for vulnerable residents and mobile-home–park tenants.

Richard Hamlin, who presented a local parcel analysis, said most of Lemon Grove’s multifamily parcels are small (he cited city assessor-derived figures showing hundreds of duplexes and a small share of larger complexes) and urged the council to avoid imposing costs that would disproportionately affect small, local landlords.

Staff said Lemon Grove does not currently have a dedicated housing department and that, absent exceptional cases the council directs the city to pursue, enforcement of landlord-tenant disputes will typically be handled by tenants in civil court or by county/state enforcement agencies. Staff encouraged written comments to the city clerk and said it will present a recap of tonight’s input, hold a second public workshop on April 9 at 6 p.m., and then bring public feedback and a planning-commission review to the council in May.

The workshop closed with council members thanking participants and inviting one-on-one conversations and written feedback; the council adjourned the meeting after staff reiterated the timeline for next steps.

Note on speaker name appearing in the transcript: one line in the agenda text referred to "Tony Green," but the presenter self-identified at the lectern as Tony Winnie; this article uses the name the staff member gave in public comments (Tony Winnie). Some place names and strings in the transcript were typographical; this write-up standardizes those (for example, "Lemon Grove"), and numeric figures reported by presenters are presented as approximate where the speaker used qualifiers such as "about" or "approximately."