Property Rights

Open Letter to Santa Barbara County Supervisors:

One of the most important basic rights in our democratic country is that of home ownership. With a 45-year career as a Realtor, I have always defended real estate ownership as having a “Bundle of Rights” which includes the right to possess, use, rent, and sell land. One exclusion is the right of government to expropriate the land if it is needed for the best interests of the people such as a highway, railway, etc.

It is totally unreasonable for you as county supervisors to remove or restrict the right we have as property owners to rent our land. There seems to be two specific reasons why you are considering this unnecessary action of restricting vacation rentals in our area: