Half Moon Bay could revisit rent control 

It was seen as an important step toward managing rent control in the city, which passed by a 4-1 vote in May 2024 and requires a maximum annual rent adjustment to the lesser of 3% or an 80% cap in changes to the Consumer Price Index, which continually adjusts and is linked to the price of common goods.

Councilmember Debbie Ruddock, who was the sole dissenting vote on the rent control ordinance, broached the idea of revisiting the topic as a whole. 

“Frankly, I’m on the side of revisiting the whole conversation around rent stabilization,” she said. “I think there’s some good intentions … but I think having looked very closely at it, I don’t think it’s the right solution for our community.” 

Community Development Director Mike Noche said that staff had been inundated with questions during the implementation period of rental registration, fielding a variety of concerns from landlords and property owners. 

One community member, Nancy Fontana, emphasized that point during public comment. The program as a whole gives tenants too much power, she said, and ignores the difficulties mom-and-pop landlords face. 

“I can’t stand this program. I think it sends the wrong message,” she said. “People that are making homes for people and renting to people, this is insulting to them. It tells citizens they are bad people.” 

The prospect of rent control and the rental registration program may be incentivizing coastside property owners currently renting out homes to sell those properties, Councilmember Patric Bo Jonsson said. 

“I had a lot of people calling me prior to being on council that have rentals basically saying they’re just going to sell their house now, they don’t want to deal with this across the board,” he said. “The data we’re getting is good, but I don’t know if I want to see it continue on, and I’d like to revisit this whole thing.” 

So far, the city has identified 1,300 suspected rentals within city limits, with 1,048 registered. Three-hundred-and-seventy of those units are suspected to fall within rent stabilization policies, Noche said. 

Mayor Robert Brownstone and Councilmember Deborah Penrose — who was not present during the April 1 meeting — are the only members of the current City Council to have voted in favor of rent control. Bo Jonsson and Councilmember Paul Nagengast, who also expressed trepidation about the program, were not on council at the time of the original vote. 

“We’ll talk about why we decided to have rent stabilization,” Brownstone said. “We brought up the issues that a lot of workforce folks can’t afford to live here — so what do you do in between the time they can’t afford to live here and we’re trying to build housing?”