Duarte : Motel Code Amended

The City Council has amended its code dealing with motel occupancy to exempt motels with more than 40 units from having to file monthly occupancy information forms.

The report is intended to ensure that motels are not operating as apartments. The code was amended at the request of the 72-unit Travel Lodge, which told the city that it could not manage to file such a report every month. Travel Lodge and a 50-unit Comfort Inn now under construction will have to report biannually.

Don Anderson, public safety coordinator, said newly constructed, larger motels are less apt to operate as apartment complexes than the smaller and older motels in the city.