Hotel Moratorium Extended

A moratorium on new residential hotels or motels in Santa Ana was extended for a year Monday by the City Council.

Of the city’s 39 hotels, 18 are considered residential, said Jeffry Rice, principal planner for the city. He described a residential hotel as one that rents more than 25% of the rooms for long-term stays.

Some of Santa Ana’s older hotels have become de facto apartment buildings, he said, which is not what they were designed for.

An increase in calls to police from those hotels caught city officials’ attention, Rice said. The moratorium has been in effect for about a year.

City Manager David N. Ream said: “We decided it was time to take a hard look at this ourselves. We’re not totally against it.”

Citing concerns about crime and substandard living conditions, officials in three other Orange County cities--Buena Park, Cypress and Garden Grove--have laws limiting motel guests’ stays to 30 days. Stanton is considering such an ordinance, and Anaheim has limited stays at two motels known for housing people long term.

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The laws have met with resistance. A group of motel owners in Buena Park is suing that city in the hope of changing the ordinance there.

Advocates for the homeless say that many people living in motels would like to move but cannot afford apartments in Orange County. They are critical of the 30-day ordinances, arguing that they force families to move from motel to motel, which often requires children to change schools every month.

Several Santa Ana motel owners attended Monday’s council meeting to express their concerns about the city’s strategy. They said they were not given notice last year before the moratorium was adopted, violating due process. They said they may form a hotel-motel owners association to ensure themselves a voice in setting permanent policy.

City Manager Ream said Santa Ana’s situation is not as severe as that in some other cities and that his staff hopes to resolve the issue by working with the owners, perhaps to implement a conditional-use permit process.

A permit might require hotel owners wanting to convert units into apartments to modify them, upgrade landscaping, wiring and plumbing, and offer recreational facilities for children, officials said. Permits would be granted on a case-by-case basis.