Unregulated until now, Sand City is finally taking on short-term rentals.

There is but one city left on the Monterey Peninsula that doesn’t have an ordinance to regulate or ban short-term rentals: Sand City. But that is set to change.

On March 15, Sand City’s Acting City Manager Vibeke Norgaard presented a draft ordinance to the City Council, seeking further direction to refine it. Among the things discussed were whether the council should establish a cap on how many short-term rentals can operate in the city. Ultimately the council decided that, alongside a cap, every short-term rental in the city should be hosted – meaning the owner of the property lives on it.

Councilmember Greg Hawthorne argued that restriction alone would greatly limit the number of short-term rentals in the city and prevent, he said, residents of Carmel or Pebble Beach buying up Sand City properties and using them as hotels. “That’s what we’re stopping,” he said.

The council first brought the issue forward last summer and asked Norgaard, the city attorney, to draft an ordinance. But because Norgaard has also been acting city manager since the resignation of Aaron Blair last November, she says it’s taken longer than anticipated. And though the South of Tioga development – which includes 356 apartments, 52 of them affordable – is edging toward completion, Norgaard says that wasn’t the impetus for the council taking action.

“The council kept seeing these short-term rentals crop up in the community, and the concern is we’re a very small city, and we need more residents, not fewer,” she says. “There was concern about taking away housing in a housing crisis.”

Norgaard hopes to bring back a refined ordinance at the council’s next meeting in April.

Mayor Mary Ann Carbone says the regulation is key to retain the city’s character, and asks, “Where’s the heart of your city? We’re there as a community. Do we value our community by getting overrun with short-term rentals?”