It’s a topic that inflames passions every time it’s brought before the Santa Barbara City Council — rent control. And this Tuesday was no exception.
In only his third meeting in the big seat, Randy Rowse flexed his mayoral muscles over a proposal by City Hall to spend $200,000 on an economic analysis to determine if and how a rent-control ordinance might work in Santa Barbara. Specifically, to cap annual increases at 2 percent, plus a yearly consumer price index (CPI) adjustment. Thus far, staff have looked to Beverly Hills’s system as a potential model.
The groundwork for such an ordinance was laid last year by Rowse’s predecessor, Cathy Murillo, in an effort to address the city’s chronic, crisis-level housing shortage. But Rowse voiced a very different position on the issue, describing the proposed cap as government overreach and insisting that lease agreements between landlords and tenants are where all necessary regulations are contained. “It’s a private relationship,” Rowse said. “I think that’s a beautiful thing. A written contract between two private parties is exactly where [the rules] should be. All of the control should be right there.” If the rules are broken, Rowse said, the city’s Rental Mediation Task Force can and will intervene.