Vacation Rentals Create Problems

A vote for Bruce Porter, candidate for 3rd District supervisor, is a vote against the residents of Los Olivos and all Santa Barbara County neighborhoods. Porter’s record as an executive board member of the Central County Coalition (CCC) shows Porter to be an advocate of unrestricted short-term vacation rentals everywhere.

You take a family out of a Los Olivos residence, and you take children out of the Los Olivos school district. Teachers are laid off. Classrooms are combined.

You take a family out of a Los Olivos residence, and you cut a hole in the fabric of the neighborhood. Neighbors rely on each other: Watch each other’s children, fix dinners when a neighbor is sick, feed pets when a neighbor is away. Yes, we are a Mayberry, and this is the Los Olivos I bought into. Vacation renters already are taking that Los Olivos from me, even though the county does not expressly sanction them as a lawful use of a dwelling.

Last but not least, Porter knows — or at least should know — that the town of Los Olivos is in a “special problems area” as defined by the county. Our wastewater problem requires immediate attention. A per capita increase in the number of people using a VRBO residence only exacerbates the town’s sewage problem at a time when Los Olivos residents need to evaluate the alternative solutions to this problem.