Long-term anger over short-term rentals surfaces on Newport Island

The midweek sunrise rooftop revelry. The vomit on the street. The guy with the video camera filming women in barely-there apparel.

Newport Island residents can list recent standout moments with guests at the increasing number of short-term rentals in the dense, traditionally residential neighborhood.

They describe offenses that — alongside continual complaints of noise, illegal parking and discourteous driving — have some neighbors calling for a moratorium on vacation rental permits in the enclave of roughly 110 homes, 18 of them permitted for short-term stays.

Mark Markos moved from bustling B Street along the Balboa Peninsula to quieter 39th Street on Newport Island 10 years ago, enjoying that his two young daughters could pass out fliers for neighborhood potlucks.

Recently, Markos said, neighbors confronted guests smoking marijuana and shouting vulgarities outside a home one street over.

“A year ago, we didn’t have to do that,” Markos said.

Sabrina Peden bought on 38th Street wanting neighbors but didn’t get them. Instead, she’s been awakened by parties more times than she can count, and on early-morning dog walks she’s had to step around vomit, she said.

“Something has to be done now,” Peden said.

Triangular Newport Island is tucked in the northwest corner of Newport Harbor. It has only six roads of varying length, filled tightly with modern builds and midcentury cottages with mature citrus trees heavy with fruit.

Streets allow traffic to flow in either direction, but at about the same width as the island’s alleys, they’re functionally one-way. Half the curbs are painted red, few garages have full driveways, and the sidewalks are barely spacious enough for two adults to walk side by side. The only public amenity: a small park with a slide and monkey bars.

Most of the vacation rentals are harborfront homes, many of them newly permitted to allow stays of less than 30 days.

Fifteen of the 18 short-term rentals were permitted in 2018 or 2019, according to city records. If every rental reached capacity, 138 overnight guests could stay on the island.

“I didn’t even know this was allowed until like two years ago,” island resident Larry Robinson said at a recent City Council meeting. “Who are all these people here that I’ve never seen before?”

The Newport Island movement comes as the city is considering a wide-ranging package of changes in short-term lodging rules, including a two-night minimum stay, a limit on occupancy, a requirement for off-street parking and informational signage, and a citywide cap on the number of permitted rentals.

At the Feb. 11 council meeting, where the panel took its first vote on the rule changes, island residents Robinson and Stacy Wyatt spoke about the changing character of their neighborhood.

“Sixteen percent of our homes are now more business than they are residential,” Wyatt said.

Short-term rentals are allowed only in neighborhoods zoned for duplexes or multifamily housing.

Councilwoman Diane Dixon noted the rapid swelling in a neighborhood with mostly single-family homes. But it’s legal since the island is zoned for duplexes.

City Community Development Director Seimone Jurjis said property owners may have purchased a property with a duplex, torn it down and rebuilt with a single-family unit — a common scenario in Newport that doesn’t change the underlying zoning.

Newport has 1,800 single-family homes on duplex lots citywide — 200 permitted for short-term rentals, Jurjis said.

“Our current code ... just says that you have to be in the right zoning,” he said. “It doesn’t say anything about the structure type.”

The city plans to resume a discussion specific to Newport Island vacation rentals.

Gary Cruz has lived in his 38th Street home since 1988. His father bought it in the 1970s for $50,000, and California’s favorable property tax laws for heirs made it accessible to his middle-class income as a mail carrier.

People buying recently in his neighborhood — where the lowest-priced sale listing is $2.5 million, according to Zillow — may have to make their house work for them, Cruz said.

His main issue is parking. The area is already stressed by construction vehicles for rebuilds and renovations and full-time residents who use their garages for household storage, and the vacationers exacerbate the shortage by parking on sidewalks and in red zones, he said.

Requiring one off-street space for short-term rentals isn’t enough, in Cruz’s view.

Markos said he’s uncomfortable letting his daughters walk to the park because visitors drive aggressively. And last summer, neighbors complained about a raucous house where a man was directing scantily clad women on the waterfront deck to perform.

Cruz said he’s lucky that his neighbors on either side don’t rent out their homes, but that could change.

“You’re only as comfortable as your closest neighbors,” he said.

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