Council to Vote Tuesday on Extending the Rent Freeze While the Referendum Is Reviewed
The temporary moratorium on rent increases for older apartments is set to expire on Dec. 31. City staff are asking the council to keep it in place while the county checks the signatures on the petition against the permanent program.
The Santa Barbara City Council is scheduled to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 10, on whether to extend the city's temporary moratorium on rent increases while a referendum against the permanent rent stabilization program works through the review process. The recommendation comes from the City Administrator's Office in the council agenda report for the meeting, which asks the council to introduce and adopt an ordinance extending the moratorium under Ordinance No. 2026-6206.
The timeline explains why the item is on the agenda now. The council adopted the temporary moratorium on Jan. 27 by a 4-3 vote, and it took effect 30 days later. It covers residential rental units in buildings with certificates of occupancy issued on or before Feb. 1, 1995, subject to exemptions and state law, and by its own terms it expires on Dec. 31, 2026, or when a permanent program takes effect, whichever comes first, the report says.
On Oct. 6, the council adopted the permanent program, Ordinance No. 2026-6239, also by a 4-3 vote. That ordinance creates the Residential Rent Stabilization and Rental Registry Programs, bars rent increases on or after Jan. 1, 2027 except as the ordinance allows, and sets the annual allowable increase at the lesser of 60 percent of the Consumer Price Index increase or 3 percent. It also creates a rental registry and a Rent Stabilization Board, includes a fair return petition process, and exempts deed-restricted affordable units and Housing Authority Section 8 units. The city appropriated $500,000 to implement it, including a fee study, according to the report.
Opponents then filed a referendum petition against the October ordinance. A filing that meets the minimum signature requirement on a preliminary count suspends the ordinance, so a measure that would have taken effect on Nov. 6 and started its program on Jan. 1 is now on hold. The threshold is 10 percent of the city's registered voters, about 5,500 signatures. The City Clerk reviews the petition on its face, and the county elections official then validates the signatures, a process the Elections Code allows 30 to 90 days to complete, not counting weekends and holidays, the report says.
If the petition qualifies and the council does not repeal the ordinance outright, the permanent program stays suspended and must go to the voters, taking effect only if a majority approves it. Staff say they will recommend a special election in the first half of 2027 if the referendum qualifies. The proposed extension is built around those branches: depending on the outcome, the freeze would end when the permanent ordinance takes effect after voter approval, the day after election results are certified if voters reject it, when the ordinance takes effect if the petition is withdrawn, when a finding of too few valid signatures reaches the council, or the day after a council repeal takes effect.
The extension would change only the expiration language. It would not change which units the moratorium covers, its restrictions or its exceptions, and it would not make the suspended permanent ordinance effective, the report says. Timing is tight: adoption by Dec. 1 would let an extension take effect by Dec. 31 under the normal 30-day rule, or the council could adopt it as an emergency measure, effective immediately, with five affirmative votes. The report also notes that the existing moratorium is the subject of pending federal litigation, with a first amended complaint under submission and no ruling yet, and it flags both sides of the policy question for the council: continued protection for covered tenants against the costs and legal exposure of prolonging a freeze for housing providers.
None to date. The Tribune corrects errors promptly and transparently. Read our corrections policy.
