In the idyllic, coastal city of Pacifica, a civil war is unfolding over what some say their lifestyles and livelihoods depend on: Airbnb.

On one side of the debate, residents say short-term rentals have subjected them to a living hell of loud parties, overflowing trash, and parking wars. On the other, some homeowners say Airbnb income allows them to afford their mortgages. The city already has a cap of 150 short-term rental permits, and hosts fear further restrictions being devised by city officials would effectively ban the practice.

Pacifica is not alone in its plans to restrict vacation rentals. Oceanside and Half Moon Bay recently passed restrictions, and other seaside communities have been cracking down for years. In 2018, Pacific Grove capped the number of short-term rentals at 250 units; two years earlier, Laguna Beach banned new vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods. 

Officials in Pacifica are considering capping the amount of time a home can be rented out at 60 days, limiting the number of short-term rentals on any given street or in a particular neighborhood, and requiring that the rentals be the host’s primary residence.

Airbnb hosts who live in the homes they rent out — or plan to move back to them one day — say the proposed regulations could force them out of the city.

Wayne Thai and his wife moved to Pacifica in 2019 after purchasing a three-bedroom house on Milagra Drive for $1.3 million. When the couple decided to move back to the East Bay to care for ill relatives, they listed the home on Airbnb and its competitor Vrbo. Thai said the income they get from renting out the house — $70,000 a year — goes toward home improvements and paying off the mortgage. The couple rents it out for nine months a year, just enough to break even, Thai said.

“We could lose the home,” the 40-year-old said of the proposed restrictions. “I want to work out a solution rather than a straight ban.” 

In the 11 months he’s listed the home on Vrbo, Thai said, he’s had no party or noise complaints. Officials and law enforcement did not provide evidence to the contrary. Thai added that he encourages guests to support the local economy by recommending businesses.

“If there were parties, I would hate it,” Thai said. “I know there are bad eggs in that realm. But there are tons of STR hosts who love Pacifica, want to share the city, and pay the bills.”

Russell Jones, who owns a two-bedroom house a block from the beach, also said he needs Airbnb income to make improvements and pay off his mortgage. He and his husband, Albert, bought the home in 2021 for $1.3 million. The money they make from renting it out, which has added up to roughly $30,000 a year, has allowed them to repair the roof, fix the fence, and add solar panels.

Jones and his husband, who make fresh muffins for their Airbnb guests, stay in motels when the house is rented. He insists the home isn’t used for parties. 

While the money is helpful, Jones said, one of the joys of renting out the house is allowing people from all over the world to experience Pacifica. The child of the previous owner even rented the home to spread their mother’s ashes at sea.

“This isn’t corporations. We’re doing this to benefit ourselves, for people to have beautiful road trips to Pacifica,” Jones said. “These aren’t college kids coming to Pacifica instead of Fort Lauderdale.”

Aaron Gregory, who owns the T-shirt shop Cotton Crustacean in downtown Pacifica, said he relies heavily on foot traffic from short-term rentals, since there is only one motel in the area.

“The Airbnbs bring tourists here, and they look to shop along Palmetto Avenue,” Gregory said, referring to the main street where his store is located. “We don’t get as many people as they have down in Rockaway Beach.” 

It’s not just hosts who make money off the rentals. The city of Pacifica nets roughly $2 million a year in taxes and fees from the listings, accounting for just under 4% of the $53 million budget. 

Councilmember Mary Bier acknowledged in a phone interview with The Standard that the city could use the money from rentals, pointing to a 20% staffing deficiency across all departments, including police. 

“We always need money. That’s a big part of it,” Bier said.

Still, she said the restrictions are necessary to maintain Pacifica’s character.

“We’re a bedroom community,” Bier said. “People are scared, because they don’t know who their neighbors are.”

Some longtime Pacifica residents say the rentals have worsened their quality of life. The most common complaint is loud parties. 

Jeff Jones, a member of Pacifica Homes Are Not Hotels, said he has called police roughly 35 times in the last four years to complain about guests at a rental property at 400 Belfast Ave. When asked to provide photos, video, specific dates and times, or police case numbers, Jones said he didn’t have any and claimed police never gave him case numbers. The Pacifica Police Department declined to confirm Jones’ account or the number of times he has called, saying it doesn’t release that information to the media. 

Jones, 80, said people throw loud parties at night on the home’s deck, which he can see and hear from his house. Over Memorial Day weekend in 2020, one of the rental’s guests showed up at his door at 11:30 p.m. to confront him after Jones called police to complain, he said. 

Marbella Lane, the company that manages the property for rentals, said it has no record of Jones reaching out. The company says it doesn’t condone parties and uses noise-level monitors and cameras in the homes it manages.

“We are committed to maintaining a peaceful environment for our neighbors and promptly addressing any concerns,” a spokesperson said in an email.

Jones said he is not sympathetic toward people like Thai, who fear they will be forced out of Pacifica if a day limit goes into effect.

“If they’re having financial difficulties, they should sell the house,” Jones said. “I don’t know of a single home in Pacifica that’s going for under $1 million.”

A search of listings on Zillow and Redfin shows that the only Pacifica homes priced at less than $1 million are condos and a handful of seaside bungalows.

Another resident, Patricia Kephart, 67, said she frequently sees trash strewn around the street collection bins, which she attributes to Airbnb and Vrbo guests. Kephart said guests’ cars often pack her street and block emergency vehicle access. She is convinced that the rental on her street is owned by an investor who doesn’t live there.

“It’s an ongoing parade,” Kephart said. “I don’t know these people, and it doesn’t feel safe.” 

When asked for evidence of excessive trash and parking issues, Kephart sent a photo of a garbage bin with trash stacked against it and a photo of eight cars parked on both sides of her street; the cars do not appear to block the street. Kephart said in a text Wednesday that she has never filed complaints with the city.

Kephart, a former teacher at Bayshore Elementary School in Daly City, said she would prefer that families with children occupy the rental homes long-term. Higher enrollment at local schools would boost funding, she said, and families would spend money at local businesses year-round, not just during peak tourist season.

In response to the proposed restrictions, 30 rental owners created the group Pacifica for Responsible Tourism. Its website states that it is willing to maintain the current 150-unit cap on short-term rentals but advocates for a policy that will weed out party houses while ensuring tourists can stay in Airbnbs. 

While the anti-rental faction claims the problem homes are corporate-owned, Airbnb’s data do not support their assertions.

In an Aug. 26 letter to the Pacifica City Council, Airbnb said 80% of hosts in the city list just one property on the platform, and most listings are booked for a little over three months a year. Nationwide, nearly three-quarters of Airbnb rentals are owned by hosts who have multiple properties on the platform, and nearly half are owned by hosts who have six or more, according to data from analytics firm AirDNA.

Airbnb said permanent listings make up less than 1% of Pacifica’s housing stock. The company further said vacant second homes account for three times as much housing in Pacifica as short-term rentals.

The company said “disruptive gatherings” are banned at Airbnb rentals, and only 0.035% of reservations globally have resulted in a report of a banned party.

According to the city’s official count, there are 173 short-term rentals in Pacifica. But Bryan Reinero, a member of Pacifica Homes Are Not Hotels, said his group’s analysis suggests there are more than 230. Reinero said the group used data from Inside Airbnb, which monitors the rental company’s impact on residential communities.

Founder Murray Cox said in an email that Inside Airbnb counts the number of listings on the rental platform each month and publishes data quarterly.

Pacifica Assistant City Manager Yulia Carter did not dispute the data from Inside Airbnb but suggested in an email to The Standard that the discrepancy could be due to duplicate listings. 

Carter said the city contracts with a third-party company that scans more than 10,000 booking websites and platforms to trace multiple or duplicate ads that would be difficult for the public to detect. She added that the vacation rental market is fluid, and hosts regularly enter and exit the market or temporarily take down their listings, which can make it hard to have a definitive count of rentals at any given time.

Data presented in June by city staff show that just four homes were responsible for half of the 66 complaints filed against rentals last year. The calls accounted for 0.2% of more than 37,000 police calls for service in Pacifica in 2023, according to the report.

The City Council will meet Monday to vote on the new rules. Then the California Coastal Commission will have the final say, on a date yet to be scheduled.

Pacifica resident Pam Raymond said during an Aug. 26 public meeting that she wants regulation that allows responsible operators to rent out their homes, while limiting corporate-owned rentals.

“This community needs a balanced approach,” Raymond said. “With short-term rentals taking over the neighborhoods, it’s not too late for Pacifica to tighten up and dispel the reputation that Pacifica is a permissive city that attracts corporations to buy up existing properties just to make them into rentals.”