Letter: Impact as short-term rental owners positive for the community
To the editor,
Three years ago, my wife and I fell in love with Paso Robles and decided to buy our future retirement home. We visited because of the wine, but we couldn’t wait to return because of the people. Since we still have many years of work ahead of us, we visit as often as we can and rent out our house to help make our dream viable and introduce new people to this wonderful city.
It is because of short term rentals that we were able make this discovery. As nice as our first visit at the Paso Robles Inn was, we, and many visitors, prefer to stay in a house. We can walk home from Fish Gaucho or LXV, sit on the couch with our dog, relax in our pajamas over breakfast, wander through the neighborhood and meet the neighbors.
We believe that our presence in the Paso community is a positive. We bought a 90 year old house with 50 years of deferred maintenance. The house was an eyesore with dead trees, chipping paint and nothing but weeds and dirt for a yard. We hired local plumbers, electricians, carpenters and tradesmen of all sorts. We pay for our business license. We collect hotel taxes when we rent out the house. We strive to create an experience which helps grow the tourism industry that is integral to the city’s long term success. We do all of this because we are committed to helping Paso stay Paso, we are invested in nurturing the community where we want to retire.
Housing scarcity is a real concern and we appreciate the need for the city to work to address it. But a ban on short term rentals is not the right solution. We need to work with each other to build a long term strategy that optimizes the value we bring to the community without damaging it. For example, the city could require submitting formal applications to do short term rentals with clear standards for parking, noise and other concerns. We look forward to the conversation.
Michael Turner
Sunnyvale, CA
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