LINK TO PDF of LETTER: Supervisor Potter _ April 4_2016

April 4, 2016
Supervisor Dave Potter
Monterey County Board of Supervisors Monterey Courthouse
1200 Aguajito  Road,  Ste. 1
Monterey, CA 93940

Re:  Short Term  Rental  enforcement  in Big Sur Coast Planning Area

Dear  Supervisor Potter,

On behalf of the Big Sur Local Coastal Program Defense Committee, I would again like to thank you for the time and engagement you and your office have spent over the last two years discussing and reviewing our concerns regarding short term rentals within the Big Sur Planning Area.

The Big Sur Local Coastal Program Defense Committee represents  over 200 Big  Sur Planning Area residents who are united in their belief that short term rentals are inconsistent with the Big  Sur certified Local Coastal Program and that they represent  a significant and increasing  conversion  of the very  limited  amount of existing affordable  housing.

As you may know, advocates for legalizing short term rentals in the Monterey County Coastal Zone are currently engaged in a letter writing campaign to the Board of Supervisors to request a moratorium on enforcement efforts until a new short term rental ordinance is drafted and approved.

The Big Sur Local Coastal Program Defense Committee strongly supports the County’s enforcement of existing ordinances which prohibit short term rentals in the Big Sur Planning Area. Without timely and effective enforcement efforts by the County, scarce affordable housing is being lost through conversion to unpermitted and illegal short term rentals.

We thus, respectfully request, that the County continue to engage in timely and effective enforcement of the prohibition of short term rentals in the Big Sur Planning Area and decline to support current requests for a moratorium or suspension of those efforts.

Please feel free to call meat 831.667.7326 if you have any questions or would like any additional information.

Kirk Gafill 

Big Sur Local Coastal Program Defense Committee
48460 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920