Clovis officials will decide Tuesday whether to update city code regarding short-term rentals, which some neighbors say have become troublesome.

The move comes after Fresno formed a partnership with AirBNB earlier this year to better ensure property owners pay their taxes.

Clovis officials want to bring the more than 100 rental units into compliance, as a staff report states the properties require more in police and fire services than the typical residence or hotel room.

“Short-term rentals have caused more calls for service than a traditional hotel on a per-room basis,” the city’s staff report stated. “Nearby residents have also expressed concern of the impact of the units on neighborhood quality and character.”

City staff want direction from the Clovis City Council on how to best regulate the industry.

And with the city rules dating back to 2018, Clovis Mayor Lynne Ashbeck thinks it’s time for an update. While staff want to collect more data, she says she wants to see action taken to restrict the market — both to decrease needs for city services and for safety.

“There’s a whole bunch of gaps, we don’t know where they are, we don’t know how to track them, we can’t measure their calls for service,” Ashbeck said. “It was all of those factors that came together. So, we need to know more, we need to have a better database, we need to have a clear sense of where they are and the impact that they’re having on our neighborhoods.”

Rentals Cost City More Than Hotels and Bring in Less: Report

Staff estimate the city has 137 short-term rental units. But those rentals generate about 150 calls a year, according to Clovis police — double that of hotel rooms. With on-site management, most hotels can self-regulate, the report stated.

Beyond noise and safety complaints, police have seen some rentals used for gang activity.

According to Ty Wood, public information officer for the Clovis Police Department, officers have witnessed known gang members at house parties hosted at rentals.

Sometimes, it’s just gang members attending parties, but other times, gangs will book rentals specifically for an event. Police responding to calls from neighbors have found more than 30 people at homes, firearms, underage drinking, and uncooperative people, Wood said.

Hotels also generate more revenue for the city. The average hotel room generates about $4,290 per unit each year from the city’s transient occupancy tax. Rental homes generate only $753 a year per unit on average. The higher need for police and fire services from these rentals further decreases any money made by the city on the rentals, the report states.

In total, those rentals bring the city about $200,000 a year, according to the staff report. Staff hypothesize more regulation would increase revenues and decrease calls for service.

City Trying to Get Rentals into Compliance

Clovis’ rules around rentals go back to 2018. The city outlines how late music can be played and how many people can be in one rental.

Rental units become points of consternation for some neighbors.

It usually takes a significant crime or calls from neighbors for the city to suspect a house of being a short-term rental, the report stated. The city partnered with tech company HDL to come up with the estimate, using the 20 or so rental websites to come up with the figure.

The Fresno City Council in March partnered with rental company Airbnb to create a database of rentals. The partnership involves Airbnb collecting the city’s 12% transient occupancy tax and then paying that to the city. The estimated 1,000 units could bring in $1 million, city communications director Sontaya Rose said in March.

Before the partnership with HDL, no more than 20 units were following Clovis ordinances regarding rentals. After researching the number, staff engaged with property owners to bring 99 of those rentals into compliance.

Clovis to Consider How to Limit Short-Term Rentals

Cities such as Costa Mesa, Hermosa Beach, and West Hollywood banned or severely restricted short-term rentals, according to the report.

Others limit how long a home can be used for short-term rentals, especially out of fear of the impact the market has on housing stock.

In Summit County, Colorado, officials estimated as much as 30% of the housing stock was being used for short-term rentals, according to legal website Colorado Lawyer.

But with less than 1% short-term stock in Clovis, staff doesn’t share the same fears. In some cases, rentals have increased investment in neglected neighborhoods, according to the staff report. But some clusters have put upward pressure on housing prices through lack of availability, according to the report.

Ashbeck said some cities have limited how many can be on a street or in a neighborhood. When Ashbeck was on the city’s planning commission, it used to be that a prospective business had to get signatures from 10 neighbors before being considered. That rule no longer exists in Clovis, Ashbeck said.

But a rule like that could let people know what’s coming to their neighborhood, she said.

“There’s lots of best practices out there,” Ashbeck said. “I think we need to find what works for Clovis and put something in place because our existing neighborhoods deserve that.”