Unwelcome ‘Guests’ : Housing: The Ojai City Council will decide on a moratorium on guest quarters and will study how such houses are used.

At the end of San Rafael Drive in Ojai stand two brand-new houses.

Or are there four houses?

Will the “guest houses” behind the two new homes--and behind new homes all over the city-- really be used by temporary visitors, as the city code requires?

Or will they eventually become dwellings for separate families, aggravating traffic, air pollution and demand for city services?

These are questions Ojai City Council members are scheduled to debate tonight, when they consider imposing a moratorium that would forbid new permits for guest houses for at least 45 days.

Councilman Steve Olsen said the city also will examine how existing guest houses are being used. He said residents’ complaints prompted the effort.

Under the Ojai city code, it is illegal to use a guest house more than 30 days a year or to install a kitchen in a guest house. Even so, the city experienced a more than threefold increase in guest house construction from 1988 to 1989, from three to 11.

“It seems almost every house being built now has a guest house,” said Marilyn Grauel, assistant city planner.

In a city where growth is tightly controlled and most lots are limited to a single dwelling, officials suspect that some property owners are converting guest houses to rental units.

“Even if you had a lot of bucks,” Mayor Nina Shelley said, “would you build a 1,000-square-foot building for 30 days a year?”

Some people who have guest houses say they use them legally, and they fear that a city crackdown will lower property values. They also say the guest house policy is inconsistent with other city construction rules and with the city’s desire for more affordable housing.

Of the 11 permits issued for guest houses last year, all but one had a bathroom, Planning Director William Prince said.

“Once you get that plumbing in there, it’s easy to convert to a dwelling unit,” Prince said. “You just move in an electric stove, and there you go.”

Shelley said guest houses are, in some ways, a remnant of another era, when wealthy “snowbirds” spent winters in Ojai and did a lot of entertaining. “It was fashionable to have a guest house,” she said.

“Now, with people paying half-a-million for a house, maybe there’s a thought in mind that rental of a guest house could help make the payments,” she said, estimating that such units could rent for $550 to $850 a month.

“We have to look and see if that’s a practice. . . . That would be turning every one of those houses into a duplex. In this town, we just don’t do that.”

Ojai allows only 12 new single-family homes to be built each year. “If 11 accessory structures were to be converted, that constitutes a year’s worth of growth allocation,” Prince said.

Growth is a sensitive issue for a number of reasons. Air pollution in the Ojai Valley already exceeds federal standards. Traffic on two-lane California 33--the main road into the area--is severely congested. Water is so scarce that the Southern California Water Co. announced last month that it would not take on any new customers in Ojai until further notice.

“When you listen to the concerns of the community, it’s traffic, growth and air quality,” Olsen said. “These people making second units . . . are one of major contributors to those problems.”

He noted that when property owners apply for a guest house permit, they must agree that no kitchen will be built and that the house will not be occupied more than 30 days a year.

Prince said some people with guest houses obey the rules. “There are bona fide reasons for guest houses,” Prince said. “Unfortunately, those who would use them for personal gain are spoiling the barrel for those who use them legitimately.”

Mike Cook, who owns one of the new houses on San Rafael, said he intends to use his guest house legally, but he is not so sure about others who build them. “I think most of them are doing it for a second dwelling,” he said.

A part-time real estate investor who also owns the Ojai Locker Market, Cook said he built his new five-bedroom, 4 1/2-bath house on speculation but intends to live in it for a while. He said his sons’ baby-sitter will use the two-story, 960-square-foot guest house, which has two bedrooms and one bath.

He said the guest house will be “a great resale tool,” but he acknowledged that it could be used illegally.

“I can’t tell the guy who buys it how to use the house,” Cook said. He said he fears the moratorium and increased scrutiny will lower the value of his property.

Dennis Guernsey, an Ojai real estate broker, agreed. “There’s no doubt this will affect property values,” he said.

Guernsey said he is building a 1,000-square-foot guest house for his in-laws, who visit every year from Seattle.

“I love them dearly,” he said, “but in my house? No way.

“Some people are building guest houses as separate residences,” Guernsey said. He complained that the city’s policies are inconsistent. Officials worry about the price of housing, he said, “but this just makes it go up.”

Olsen said that providing affordable housing is the job of the elected City Council, not individual property owners.

“All of us are low-density, slow-growth advocates,” Olsen said. “Our people want affordable housing but don’t want to lose the quality of life.”

He said some people in Ojai are hypocritical.

“They support slow growth but would rather see the almighty dollar in their pocket.”

Guernsey, Cook and others argue that it is hypocritical of the council to ban guest houses while permitting smaller “granny flats”--separate units of up to 640 square feet. Granny flats would not be affected by the moratorium.

Shelley said state laws require cities to permit granny flats as a way to provide more housing for the elderly. She acknowledged, however, that there is no requirement that an elderly person or a relative of the owner live in such units.

She said granny flats require city approval and are controlled by a restriction that they be no larger than 30% of the main dwelling’s size, up to 640 square feet. In addition, the property owner must live in the main structure or the granny flat; he cannot rent out both units.

Shelley said the real problem is a lack of affordable housing.

“I worry about what’s happening,” Shelley said. “If you don’t provide for people, they end up breaking the law.”

She said the city is discussing “in concept” a proposal by a nonprofit agency that is interested in building 20 or 21 moderately priced houses in Ojai.

“I would rather that we be out front and provide the affordable housing that we need,” Shelley said, “and keep people from doing the illegal things they think they need to do.”