San Clemente : Bed-and-Breakfast Inns Back on Council Agenda

The City Council tonight will again consider whether to permit the operation of bed-and-breakfast inns in San Clemente. It will mark the fourth time in five months that the proposal has come before the council.

On April 17, the council voted to continue the question in order to allow the planning staff to modify the ordinance’s text after considerable discussion about how the city would license the operations and what constituted a bed-and-breakfast inn.

The new ordinance, to be voted on tonight, would define a bed-and-breakfast inn as “a residential structure wherein rooms are rented to the same person on a night-to-night basis . . . and where for compensation . . . one meal is served daily in a common dining area.”

The ordinance also creates a sub-category of bed-and-breakfast inn, to be called “homestays.” The text defines a homestay as a residence in which limited guest accommodations are provided on a temporary and intermittent basis with no more than 20% of the floor area of the home to be used for the business.

San Clemente residents wanting to open the businesses in their homes would have to obtain business licenses and also would be required to file applications with the City Planning Division. Applicants wanting to open inns in high-density residential areas would be required to obtain use permits from the city, while those living in commercially zoned areas would need to undergo the same administrative reviews as any other business.