Kernville Chamber discusses AirBnB issues. Photos by Catherine Stachowiak
Board members discussed a movement requesting an ordinance restricting the number of Air BnBs in Kernville, Monday July 22, at the Kernville Chamber of Commerce meeting.
Vice president of the chamber Gary Ananian moved the meeting into an open forum period saying that the chamber received a letter from a member of the public.
Administrative staff personnel Tara Overall announced, during open forum period, saying, “Tim (Timothy Lambirth, local attorney) is heading up communicating with California government about trying to get some Air BnB restrictions in place in Kernville. As He states in his letter a lot of people have been concerned about it. Other counties including Inyo County and I believe parts of Palm Springs have all put restrictions in the number of Air BnBs per the number of permanent residents. So we did print out copies of his letter. If anyone is interested in sending additional letters, he welcomes you to use that as a template, or inspiration. The more voices the better.”
A couple members of the board said they agreed with Tim’s letter though the president of the chamber, Orion Sanders, told the Kern Valley Sun in a statement Friday that the board is not, as an entity, officially backing the movement to place these restrictions.
Board secretary Tawnya Torgl said, “It’s the abundance of Air BnBs and how there’s (not) enough people living in the towns so there’s less foot traffic for the local businesses.”
Board members also said local restaurants don’t benefit from AirBnBs because the homes have kitchens within. They also said that less permanent residents means there would be less students enrolled in the public school and the school in Kernville is threatened with lack of students and a possibility of closing. A prediction for numbers of students at the school is barely 90 students and they need 100 students to keep it open. The chamber was also concerned about business closures.
Ananian said he recently spoke with economic chief of the county Jim Damien about business closures leaving vacant businesses. Ananian said Damien swears the Kernville economy is doing better than most parts of the county. Ananian promised to invite County Supervisor Philip Peters or his field director Cody Criswell to come speak at chamber about faltering business numbers and the Sierra Way issues.
Ananian pondered whether it actually was an Air BnB problem that cause student levels to be low. He said homeschool groups have exploded in recent years, which he noticed when he took homeschool groups rock climbing. He also reminded the chamber that there were people living in Kern Valley that are not full time residents because they live other places as well.
Sanders told the Kern Valley Sun regarding the attorney, “He was just a resident who wrote a letter. Not hired by anybody to do anything. So He submitted that letter to the chamber as well. There’s conversation going on with the county about different things that they may or may not be able to do to try to limit the number of Air BnBs in our community. They have not gotten back to me with any kind of answer at all.”
Sanders conveyed that he is unclear about whether the entire board is in agreement with the letter. He said, “It’s not something that the chamber is doing. The chamber is just concerned about it because we’re losing businesses in our community. And that’s one of the things that our county is looking into, is trying to bring back the full time living housing.”
Sanders said, “It directly affects our businesses because they rely on full time residents and not just the tourists. And so when there’s a high percentage of Air BnBs there’s nobody living there on a regular basis to patronize the businesses.”
According to Sanders, during slow tourism seasons, businesses rely on residents
“He (the attorney) was just voicing his opinion. He sent it to the chamber to just express his concerns and in hope that we would be able to do something about it and voice our opinion to the county, which we have already done.”
