ENCINITAS — The Encinitas City Council on Wednesday decided to stick with its current short-term rental ordinance and continue negotiating with the California Coastal Commission over a proposed reduction to the city’s three-night minimum stay requirement for non-hosted vacation rentals.
In 2021, the council initiated a reevaluation of how the city would regulate property owners renting units on a short-term basis, including through platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo, according to city documents.
In December 2022, the council adopted two ordinances seeking to establish limitations on short-term rentals, including a 4% cap on non-hosted short-term rentals west of Interstate 5; a 2.5% cap citywide; a 200-foot minimum radius between non-hosted short-term rentals; and language regarding permit renewal or revocation.
According to city data, Encinitas currently has 319 short-term rentals throughout the city and 257 west of Interstate 5. Regarding the proposed policy, the city has 251 non-hosted units citywide and 207 west of Interstate 5. Those account for 0.96% of the housing stock citywide and 2.2% west of Interstate 5.
In October 2023, city staff submitted that suite of proposed changes to the California Coastal Commission. At a Feb. 5, 2026, hearing, the commission approved all the amendments, but with modifications changing the city’s current three-night minimum stay to a two-night minimum for non-hosted short-term rentals.
That left the current City Council at a fork in the road: keep its existing three-night minimum stay or accept the Coastal Commission’s modification.
Councilmember Joy Lyndes — who was part of the original 2021 ad hoc subcommittee along with then-Mayor Tony Kranz — said she would prefer to accept the Coastal Commission’s modification for now in order to establish the other limitations and then return to the state agency to renegotiate the stay minimum.
“I see it as a tradeoff,” Lyndes said. “Is it more important for us to have the cap and the 200-foot radius or to double down and say, ‘We’re going to keep the three nights for non-hosted?’”
Councilmember Luke Shaffer said the three-night minimum was “a much greater deterrent to a certain type of group” more prone to excessive partying than the 200-foot distance minimum.
Shaffer also questioned the value of the percentage caps, saying he believed the marketplace for short-term rentals was “self-regulating right now to some level.”
During the April 22 meeting, the council voted 3-2 — with Shaffer, Deputy Mayor Jim O’Hara and Councilmember Marco San Antonio voting in favor, and Lyndes and Mayor Bruce Ehlers opposed — to deny an ordinance that would codify the Coastal Commission’s modification and instead have city staff return at a later date with a different ordinance proposal that included all the policies the city wanted.
Ehlers said locking down most of the regulations — particularly the 200-foot minimum distance and the percentage caps — now would make the subsequent request to the commission “much, much smaller” by only needing to tweak the night-stay minimum rather than renegotiate everything.
Charlotte Brenner, a planner with the city, said the “unexpected modification” was part of an effort by the Coastal Commission to preserve beach access.
“The Coastal Commission found that a three-night minimum stay requirement does not align with the traditional 5-day work week, thereby limiting availability of coastal access for visitors and creating an equity issue,” Brenner said.
Shaffer countered that Encinitas beaches remain accessible to all because free parking is available near the coast.
Neighboring coastal cities
At the same Coastal Commission meeting in February, the nearby coastal North County city of Del Mar received approval for a three-night minimum stay.
Brenner said that, based on extensive data submitted by the cities, the commission concluded that Del Mar served fewer visitors “because they’re such a small city.”
Solana Beach has a seven-night minimum stay requirement.
Noting the subset of the city included in Del Mar’s calculations and the weeklong minimum in neighboring Solana Beach, Ehlers speculated that Encinitas would have a strong argument for adjusting a two-night minimum stay to three nights if it accepted the rest of the tools the commission approved.
“I think we can make one heck of a good argument in the future when we come back to it that we could get a three-night stay,” Ehlers said. “And I think three nights is the correct one. I think seven is too much.”
Shaffer said that between Del Mar’s midnight curfew and the fact that “Solana Beach doesn’t have the greatest nightlife, that puts us as the first major nightlife north of PB (Pacific Beach).”
He added that holding out for the three-night minimum would help deter the worst effects associated with such uses.
“When you hit the two nights, it’s easier for a bunch of college kids to throw down a bunch of money and you know, frat houses to come in and have a place to party for a night,” Shaffer said. “And it’s just not what this community was designed around. I don’t mind tourism, but done right.”
Lyndes said the 200-foot minimum could also play an important role in maintaining community character.
“When you’re getting a whole street that ends up being taken over by short-term vacation rentals, you no longer have a residential street,” she said. “You have an active hospitality zone. And that’s my fear.”
Lyndes said preventing disruptive short-term stays while being fair to vacation rental owners creates “a delicate balance.”
“I would rather make the bet right now on the sure thing that limits the number of short-term vacation rentals by the cap and by the distance because I think that’s going to be a real value to our communities to preserve our community context and to preserve our quality of life,” she said.
O’Hara said the discussion touched on broader conversations surrounding housing.
“We need to figure out how to limit corporate ownership of properties in Encinitas,” he said. “It’s not helping anybody. It’s not helping our short-term rentals, it’s not helping our long-term rentals, it’s making it less affordable. I think to a certain degree you [Lyndes] just brought it full circle to the quality of life question.”
O’Hara said the issue had “no perfect answer — big shocker there as far as government goes” but ultimately voted to return to the Coastal Commission at a future date in order to lock in the three-night minimum stay.
