On behalf of our group of Concerned Idyllwild/Pine Cove Neighbors  I want to thank you all for signing our petition to increase the enforcement and regulation of STR's in our community. With over 1,000 signature (795 on-line and 267 in person) we sent our petition with a cover letter to our county Board of Supervisor representatives as well as Sr Planner Steven Jones in December, 2021. We followed up with them again in early January, 2022. Unfortunately to date we have yet to receive any response or recognition whatsoever and we are not sure why. Nonetheless, we, like you, are resolute in our desire to preserve the peace, safety and tranquility of our neighborhoods.

We are therefore urging you to please send an email to Supervisor Chuck Washington at cwashington@rivco.org and Sr Planner Steven Jones sjones@rivco.org reminding them of our concerns about the  unchecked, unregulated growth of STR's in our neighborhoods. A few items of fact to consider when sending your emails:

1) Although the county now lists approximately 420 STR's in our area (up from 350 just over a year ago) on-line advertising (non-duplicated) indicates 601. This represents 1 out of every 6 homes in our community or 16.7%. To put this in perspective this amount of STR "saturation" is TWICE  what many other resort communities such as Palm Springs, La Quinta, Temecula, and Cathedral City were experiencing before they set up strict STR regulations. 

2) Due to the continued growth of STR's we urge you to include and emphasize our request for a 12 month moratorium on the issuance of any new STR approvals while we assess what we have and how to best handle the tremendous influx of STR's in our community.

3) The recent hiring of a real estate data firm by the county indicates that the county has recognized there are many unregistered STR's in our area as well as other areas of unincorporated RivCo. However, though early, it appears that this firm's primary mission is simply to identify unregistered STR's and get them to register. In other words, to increase transient occupancy tax (TOT) revenue to the county. 

4)  In 2020 the county (per it's own reporting) collected over $1M in TOT from Idyllwild/Pine Cove STR's - and this is when there were only 350 registered and paying TOT. With now over 600 the county, if it gets all of them to register, stands to gain over $600,000 in added TOT bringing the total to over $1.6M and this does not include application and renewal fees. Our question is: where is this money going and why can it not be spent to make our neighborhoods more quiet and secure? 

5) Finally, Ordinance 927.1 which will update the rules and regulations for STR's in unincorporated RivCo is not yet out in draft form for public review and comment so it is not too late to send in your emails to make an impact!

Thank-you again for supporting our neighborhoods!