The California Apartment Association is calling on its members in Culver City to oppose a permanent rent control ordinance up for consideration this coming Monday.
If adopted, Culver City’s ordinance would become one of the strictest rent control measures in California.
CAA has asked its members in the Los Angeles suburb to send emails to Culver City’s mayor and council detailing the myriad problems with the ordinance.
Among other things, the measure would:
- Peg allowable rent increases to the Consumer Price Index.
- Establish rent registry requirements annually and upon a new tenancy.
- Remove owner protections in the for-cause provisions provided under AB 1482, the statewide rent cap and just cause legislation that took effect Jan. 1.
CAA contends the city failed to provide adequate outreach to the rental housing industry while creating the ordinance.
“There must be more good-faith efforts by council to hear my concerns and incorporate reasonable elements into the program,” says a sample letter to the mayor and council. “There are over 50 pages of new regulations with key provisions that have not been discussed with housing providers.”
Although Culver City’s draft ordinance is already draconian, a statewide measure on the Nov. 3 ballot, Proposition 21, would authorize Culver City and other local governments to impose even more extreme policies.
Proposition 21, like its predecessor Prop 10, is a crusade to dismantle the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act — the single most vital California law for rental housing providers.
Prop 21 would let local governments apply vacancy controls, capping rents between tenancies. It also would let councils and county boards impose local rent control ordinances to newer apartments — as soon as they turn 15 years old — and to a greater number of condos and single-family homes.
“The combination of Culver City’s backward rent control ordinance and the threat of Prop 21 have put the rental housing industry here in great jeopardy,” said Fred Sutton, CAA’s senior vice president of public affairs for the Los Angeles region. “To keep the industry viable, we must demand that the council rework its rent control proposal and take steps to defeat Prop 10 at the ballot box this fall.”
For more information about the campaign against Proposition 21, visit NoOnProp21.vote.
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