What Does the Future of Short Term Rentals Look Like in Redding, New Plans for Nur Pon Open Space and More in this City Council Update
What Does the Future of Short Term Rentals Look Like in Redding, New Plans for Nur Pon Open Space and More in this City Council Update: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
What Does the Future of Short Term Rentals Look Like in Redding, New Plans for Nur Pon Open Space and More in this City Council Update: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Steve:
Welcome to a Redding City Council update for full details on each of the items covered or to watch meeting online. Visit the city of Redding dot org or find the links in the episode show notes for any questions, suggestions or comments. Please Email podcast at City of Redding dot org.
Katie:
Welcome to the Redding City Council update for August 2nd, 2022. To start the meeting, the Nur Pon Open space item that was originally on the consent calendar was moved to the regular agenda. More on that item coming later in this recap. For the consent calendar. There were a few notable items that were approved. Council Member Winter called out specifically the sale of a couple lots at Stillwater Business Park, noting that it's great to see additional momentum there. She also highlighted the resolution to approve a surplus property sale at Avtech, which is Redding Electric Utility. She was asking specifically why we were selling and City Manager Tippin explained that the property was no longer needed for its intended original use but to do something else with the property, such as expanding the Corp yard, which the City of Redding, is considering, it has to follow surplus property laws.
Steve:
Council member Mezzano had some questions about the large purchase cost of a new solid waste garbage truck and Public Works director Chuck Aukland explained that this new truck needs to be a specific type in order to adhere to the new SB 1383 regulations from the state of California. This is important because as aging equipment is replaced, the city may be required to purchase different models that follow current state regulations. Also notable, the mayor will send a letter of support to the Shasta County Arts Council to be included in its application for a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 2023. I'm sure we'll hear more about this grant in the next year if it's successful.
Katie:
As we've mentioned in several other podcast episodes, the City of Redding Wastewater Division is looking to Pyrolysis as a way to divert food solids from the landfill to comply with SB 1383. Several large equipment items and construction costs were approved to start this process. It's important to note that Redding will be one of the first cities in the state to utilize this technology to address the new state regulations.
Steve:
And now on to the regular agenda. To start the night, City Council approved the hiring of a consulting company, Berry Dunn, to help implement a new Enterprise Resource Planning software. This is a financial system that helps track and manage city costs and personnel, and hiring an experienced financial firm is more cost effective to execute and manage this very large and complicated two year process for the city.
Katie:
Next, the city council approved four resolutions for the Block 7 development agreement, part of which includes accepting a grant from the Clean California Local Grant program for a new downtown Park Plaza. Cost for the park is estimated at 4.7 million and will be funded by park and rec impact fees as well as this grant. The city of Redding will approve the design and the construction as part of the agreement, and the initial designs and plans for this park are pretty impressive.
Steve:
There was also a very interesting educational presentation about the City of Redding evacuation zone map by the city of Redding GIS, which is the Geographic Information Systems, manager Steve Kincaid. In this presentation, he highlighted how in the wake of several fires in our area, most notably the Carr Fire, the GIS team created a timely and informative map that tracked fire lines. Since then, the GIS team has been working to improve this map by outlining and identifying the evacuation zones and the city of Redding to be used if needed. Instead of listing out streets for evacuations, community members would just need to know their zone. Look for more information coming soon about this map launch and how you can find out what zone you live in.
Katie:
Another topic that will interest many in our community is the approval of a Tree Ordinance Committee to review and update the City of Redding Tree Ordinance, which was last updated in 2006. Many community members have been concerned with the need to protect and preserve native tree species and all the recent development that Redding has seen. In order to find a balance between sustainable development and the need to protect native tree species, this Tree Ordinance Committee will review and make recommendations. This committee would engage the community on what updates, if any, need to be made to the ordinance. As it stands, the city will begin taking applications to be on the committee from the community soon. There will be a total of 15 members. Ten will be identified by the city council. Three will be sitting planning commissioners and two will be from the Community Services Advisory Commission.
Steve:
The City Council also approved adopting new park hours for the Nur Pon Open Space to allow the city to fence and patrol the area with the new RPD park rangers. This effort would help manage and mitigate overnight camping in the area and new park hours would be from dawn to dusk. It's important to note that the city is working in partnership with the county and local nonprofits to move those who are unsheltered into housing situations. The goal is to have enough, if not more, shelter beds for any unsheltered individual, while at the same time protecting the open spaces so they are available to all members of the community.
Katie:
The big discussion of the evening focused on the future of short term rentals or STRs in Redding. Short term rentals are properties that owners rent for a period of time less than 30 days. These are different from hosted homestays, which are long term rentals in which the owner of the property lives on site.
Steve:
Currently permitted STRs bring in roughly $500,000 in transient occupancy tax each year to the city. However, some community members have expressed frustration with neighborhood STR's due to excessive noise violations, parking and lack of consistent neighbors.
Katie:
City Attorney Berry DeWalt presented the idea of an emergency ordinance or a moratorium on short term rentals to give city staff time to evaluate and rework the current STR permitting process. An urgency ordinance requires at least four out of five council members to vote yes and can be valid for 45 days at a time.
Steve:
There was much public comment in council discussion around the safety, economic impact and permitting process for STRs. Police Chief Schueller broke down calls for service pertaining to STRs in Redding and related that of the 71 calls for service, many of the calls were actually from those staying in the short term rentals themselves. Of the complaints from the community members, many were for loud parties and suspicious circumstances. Overall, calls for service have not been an undue burden on the department, according to Chief Schueller.
Katie:
Council discussed concerns about changing the integrity of neighborhoods with STRs and neighbors, not having an opportunity for input before STR permits are granted. After much discussion, the City Council voted 4 to 1 that the current process and regulations need to be re-evaluated. They directed the city attorney to bring back an urgency ordinance declaring a moratorium for vacation rentals only and not hosted homestays. The moratorium will come back for a final vote and reading at the next council meeting.
Steve:
We encourage you to listen to our previous podcast with planning manager Lily Toy on short term rentals in Redding, as well as watch the council meeting video for full details both linked in the show notes for this episode. That's it. Thanks for listening and have a great week.
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