p-3cwPeRbeWWgGk
Last night Ms. Hall went in and altered her website to reflect that she is only month to month. But we screen saved her pages. See below links.
I applauded the Twentynine Palms City Council when they voted 5-0 not to allow vacation rentals in the City of Twentynine Palms. Vacation rentals do not belong in neighborhoods.
Vacation rentals are businesses that bring a constant stream of strangers in that disrupt the family neighborhood dynamics. Its easy to keep an eye on full time neighbors when your trying to keep your children safe but with a constant stream of 
vacation strangers coming and going you almost don’t want to let your kids out of the house. After having vacation renters throw up in the middle of the street, or pass out on a front yard I was tickled pink at the City decision.
vacation strangers coming and going you almost don’t want to let your kids out of the house. After having vacation renters throw up in the middle of the street, or pass out on a front yard I was tickled pink at the City decision.I expected the Vacation Rentals to cease to exist in Twentynine Palms but what I found with Sherry Hall’s vacation rental was they removed the location map from their website and continued to advertise for business. Their map showed the location close to the Roughley Manor Bed & Breakfast Inn and off of Sherman Hoyt Ave cross street Joe Davis Drive.
The Tax Collector parcel number is 0623-231-07-0000 and records show an illegal $7000 homeowner exemption which can only be taken on your primary residence (not a rental property) The www.hungrybunnyranch.com web site is registered to Alex Hall PO Box 1089 Twentynine Palms Ca. 92277 (Screen Save )
The cattle feed trough used as a bath tub that drains outside onto the ground is questionable as well. If only water was used it might be OK but dumping chlorine, Epsom salts, bath oils and other things onto the ground is just not good inside the City.The hungry bunny web site asks you to please view our calendar for availability, or contact us to make a reservation sherry@hungrybunnyranch.com (831) 236-8359
The times have changed and thanks to the City we don’t have to worry about vacation rentals popping up in town without warning notification, and no opportunity for neighborhood comment or opportunity for objection.
This and other illegal vacation homes need to be monitored by code enforcement to make sure there is 100% compliance. A fine should be levied on those that are operating illegally
Protecting rural desert neighborhoods from the dynamic changes that can happen when Phil Klasky/Community ORV Watch adopt a neighborhood to protect from the very people that live there.
Related posts:
I have a question for all concern.
Have any of you ever stayed in a vacation home rental?
I have.
I am married, have 5 kids, and like to travel. Now when I go I try to find the nearest base to stop and stay the night if I can. If my stay is longer than a night or two, then I start looking for a VHR. Ever try cramming 7 people in a motel room? Not a pretty site!!!
When I have stayed at a VHR, they required ID or passport, $700 refundable security deposit, $150 exit cleaning fee required, reservations had made within a week of booking I had to use PayPal or cashiers checks & over-nighted for agreement/payment.
It is not as easy or cheap as everyone makes it out to be.
What my family likes is the sense of home without it being home. Everyone that I have been in has had pots, pans, linens, and towels. some even come with TVs, VCR’s, DVD’s. Hell one had a pool and another had a swing and slide in the backyard.
They are not all about the gizmo and gadget. A few didn’t have those kinds of things at all. It was about nature, life, the scenic views, just straight nothing but mother nature.
So before you go off the deep end and start screaming down with VHR’s, know what the hell you are talking about.
Nobody said it was cheap and sex offenders have ID. Do they do a background check?
Sorry, my mistake, I failed to mention that yes all the ones I have stayed at did do a back-ground check.
A criminal background check? Or as I suspect a credit check?
Let me bounce this off you and tell me what you think.
I’ll be willing to bet that almost all of the vacation rentals in this area were started on a whim and were never plan checked.
The problems I find in this is they fail to pony up the bed tax to local government let alone have a business license.
I’ll put money on it that the fire Marshall has never given them a green tag, nor do they have a commercial grade fire suppression system.
I bet they have never applied for or received a health department certificate of occupancy nor have they ever been inspected by them.
The idea that one can just open up the mother in law cabin in the back yard as a B&B is great on paper but fails to be a simple task.
I have a very good friend that started a B&B and it took her years and 10s of thousands of dollars to be in compliance with the city of Twentynine Palms.
Most of these places are outlaw businesses. You’d be going nuts if it was a restaurant or a strip mall started in your neighborhood with out planning approval.
Can’t argue with most of that.
But as far as background check, 4 places used e-renter.com and 2 others used advantagetenant.com do not recall what the rest used.
I have stayed at a vacation home, along the coast in a “vacation” community. It was a week long and the only thing I had to do was pay my $1000 and sign that I wouldn’t thrash the house. My husband and I travel with 3 kids, we get ajoining rooms and usually an extra cot when the kids don’t want to be anywhere near each other after the car travels. So I do know what the hell Im talking about.
Vacation rentals are not for this town. This is the City of 29 palms, not the unincorporated area of Joshua Tree, they are not a city so if that is what they want to promote then so be it. We have a city council and have voting rights in the City of 29 Palms. Let San Bernardino county deal with Joshua Tree vacation rental and keep them out of the City of 29 Palms.
I have voting rights too!!!!
Have you not noticed that VHR’s are here. I can think you 4 or 5 easy. And we are talking about Twentynine Palms. The City has no control over anything outside the city limits. We have influence but that is about it.
Did you enjoy your 1 time stay on the coast?
HDent is right. VHR’s are here. I believe they should be regulated pursuant to existing laws. When they violate the law and fail to be up to health and safety standards and code, they should be shut down, fined and pay back taxes and fees. I think Councilman Spears is once again doing the right thing working to identify violators and taking appropriate action.
If there are far too many VHR’s in 29 Palms, and that is a problem for residents, that too can be regulated with appropriate new codes. Dan is obviously right that many VHR’s are not up to code and may have never been inspected. That problem needs to be addressed too.
Property rights should work both ways.
Can I get a new quad instead of a teddy bear??? I promise to be good to it and follow all rules!
Well OK, but you have to promise not to race by any vacation rentals, you might interrupt the nude sunbathing (optional of course).
There is (so I’ve heard) a brothel in Nevada called the Bunny Ranch. I wonder why Sherry chose that name?
C’mon Mike, fess up….
It was called the Kit Kat Bunny ranch back in the 90′s. It is located in Mound House, Nevada about 15 minutes to the east of Carson City.
(I graduated high School from Carson City and the girl who did my nails was employed buy the ranch to do all their nails once a week, boy howdy have I heard some stories! They also had a HBO series on them for a while, I don’t know if it is still on. And the owner has a ranch up by my parents house where the “girls” can go and “relax” lol. The briefly employed John Bobbitt as a chauffeur but he got to cocky (excuse the pun) and they fired him.
Funny stuff DRW. Your hubby must race D37
He sure does
Do you race?
Not in about 9 years, getting ready to start again in the Mag class, the old guys. Expert division.
Well come one out, we will be out in JV next weekend, just look for the yellow and blue HBMC flags.
The Bunny Ranch I heard about was at Lathrup wells, like 90 mi. No. of Vegas but that was in the 60s when I was a teen.
Hey, let’s not get side tracked here. My question was not entirely tongue in cheek. Sherry Hall needs to comply with the law just like she expects off-roaders should. It’s starting to look like her and some others in the little COW clique might be getting theirs at the expense of our freedom and if she gets stung, I’ll be the last to feel sorry for her.
Sorry to sidetrack
They all need to comply with all laws. Once their little bubble is popped I will be the first to tell them they can thank her for their troubles. If it wasn’t for her then this issue would have been kept quiet and no one would have even known about it.
Its like a kid blaming their sibling for stealing the cookies when she is the one with the crumbs on her shirt.
Hey Branson, how you doing? Hope you havent given the EMTs any business lately!
You know Mitzelfelt and Derry want to drop the staging permit requirement from the ordinance and the COWs are giving them hell about it.
What say you give us a hand? I know you are in agreement with the decission and I know you are following the issue. These boys could use some support to make this fly with the other Supervisors.
You could talk it up on the OHV websites and other media, get folks paying attention. Your pretty darn good with that stuff and I think we’ll have fun.
I’ll buy the beer!
Howdy Mike,
Lately, no food has poisoned me. Thank goodness I had insurance for that. The doctor that released me as I recall charged $147 for about a one minute quickie discharge meeting.
I didn’t know COW was fighting it so vigorously. They must fear the domino effect. I have been vocal about rescinding the staging section from #3793 for a long while. I just posted something about that a few day ago in here. It has a chilling effect on the Constitution. And I’m with Mitzelfelt and Friends of Giant Rock that the remaining portion of #3793 is reasonable and needs to be enforced.
The County will rescind it. Don’t worry. It will happen. I have inside information on that through the Zero Point Field law of physics. ;^)
My real concern right now is the Sugar Bowl and the Hilly Dunes (directly to the West, across Lear). Those areas need to remain within the protections of the City of 29, or the County under #3793, for a host of social, political, environmental, cultural, geological, flora and fauna and spiritual reasons.
Enough of all this agreement and civility. ;^)
Branson, If I may I would like to give you some info on the Sugar Bowl area. I have been around this area for over 50 years. The Sugar Bowl wash from Mesquite to Lear has been used by offroaders way before I was born. They just didn’t call them off roaders then. The area has trails and the whole shot through it. I would like to see the name of the scientist who came up with this is as a wildlife corridor. Do you think they might have an agenda? Don’t even tell me the GPAC came up with this. LOL.
As far as the Hilly Dunes area. I am totally against access to this area. There are houses and homesteads in this area. Off roaders can use the dunes in the Copper Mountain area of BLM land if they want to do hill climbs. I would only want to make access from Sugar Bowl to the BLM lands. There are numerous trails that exist in this area allready.
Sherry Hall is putting lipstick on the Hungry Bunny. The web site now reads.
“Our rates are $1800 per month (or 30 day period). Pets OK with fee.
We are avilable starting mid-February, 2010. Contact us to make a reservation”
Hungry Bunny went to a monthly rental from their day, weekend rental. The Hungry Bunny even pulled this add below.
Hungry Bunny Ranch in Joshua Tree
Real bed for $140. A beautiful, secluded 2200′ loft next to Joshua Tree National Park -- Quiet and serene setting -- Panoramic park views -- Sleeps 4 …
http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/14040
So I guess she never heard of screen saves.
Here is the PDF of her prior daily rate page. Click here
Here is their available dates calender.
Drove by the hungry bunny ranch this afternoon, and I feel kinda bad for people who actually pay to rent this place. Well I guess there is 4 mismatched chairs outside to sit in and a firepit they can all get loaded around, but other then that its a little desert house that needs some TLC outside for sure.
Also drove by the Maude Adams house rented buy Susan Peplow, address is 7345 Maude Adams. Smack dab in the middle of the neighborhood and only 2 streets away from where we used to live. Right down the road where my daughter used to catch the bus.
Oh but the Japanese Tourists fly into 29 especially to stay there DRW. At least that is what she tried to tell us a couple of years ago. But then Japanese like eating raw whale meat too.
LMAO!
Are you coming to the meeting tomorrow night?
thinking so…… should be a pretty lively show.
That it will. We will see you there.
Under PC 09-32, an amendment to the “Development Code” of the City of Twentynine Palms by the addition of Chapter 19.55 regarding Vacation Home Rentals.
The Planning Commission had a “discussion” to stop everything that had been proposed to have a fair and equitable solution to the issue of VHR’s (see http://www.ci.twentynine-palms.ca.us/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/pca20090902wk_shop.pdf) but things stopped as soon as Chuck Caplinger took over as the chairman. He was completely against it from the start. The commission took a vote early on to continue planning for a code amendment where the vote went 4-1 with Chuck Caplinger dissenting.
Then behold the moment that he took over on Oct 6, 2009….
http://www.ci.twentynine-palms.ca.us/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/pcm20091006.pdf
RECOMMENDATION
Open and conduct the community Study Session, consider public comment
and provide guidance to staff to hold a further Study Session, advertise and bring forth a code amendment addressing Vacation Home Rentals or terminate these proceedings.
Director LaClaire presented a staff report to the Planning Commission
regarding an amendment to the “Development Code” of the City of
Twentynine Palms by the addition of Chapter 9.55 regarding Vacation Home
Rentals.
The Planning Commission’s direction was to send the item to the City
Council.
ACTION: On a motion made by Commissioner Mintz, seconded by Chair Caplinger and carried with a 3-1-1 roll call vote (Alderson no, Rinkes abstain) the Planning Commission directed that staff seek direction from the City Council regarding whether or not the Planning Commission should continue its efforts on this Code Amendment or terminate its proceedings.
So you see how the game is played.
Good people had good ideas. Citizens were given choices that would have allowed VHR’s and still been in the best interests of the city just to see it mucked up by the special interest groups.
There are provisions in the proposed code that would have kept VHR’s 1000′ from each other, ADA requirements were written, minimum lot
size requirements, number of occupants, any proposed VHR required a CUP and notice had to go out to all home owners within 1000′ of the VHR, no signs were allowed, lighting had to conform to city night sky ordnance, contact info for VHR owner had to be displayed outside the residence, Records, Business License, Transient Occupancy Tax and Performance Deposit all had to be maintained and up-to-date, TOT reporting and payments were required, and much more.
This is a workable and manageable issue for the City of Twentynine Palms. There just needs to be a document that allows for VHR’s and protects the ideals of the city.
Who is to say if vacation rentals would work or not. The argument here is that they are not in compliance as we speak. We’re talking about the double standard that has been the hallmark of Twentynine Palms for years. It shows to all of us that city government is business as usual, those that have it get it, those that want it are beat down.
When Joey and his mom Janet Buruer were told that they had to pave Homestead Drive down to Mornings Nursery, build curbs and gutters and pave the parking lot of an existing building to keep them from moving in, then less that a year later allow a base maintenance company to open at the same location with no demands, you know it is a double standard.
Vacation Home Rentals is just the latest injustice. Personally I am miffed that they have cheated the city out of their bed tax.
The only special interests that should hold the order of importance are the people at large and the community as a whole.
To implement this, Twenytnine Palms needs a City Council that that will respect the people and the community over special interests. At the present time but for one, the remaining Council Members have shown they are not of the right stuff to serve this end. Nice chaps, but lacking in common sense and easily influenced by special interests and friends.
MY opinion.
Granted that monies have been lost. But why not start collecting now from those that are already out there by bringing them into compliance?
Start fresh and continue on with rules that work for both sides.
That would be a tough sell to oh, the IRS or the Franchise Tax Board, believe you me.
Look they knew it was not kosher since at least May of 2009. Most just blew the city off and continued to scofflaw.
Hall in particular knows that what she did was wrong and proved it by changing her website to reflect that.
I think that it is only fair that they all pay the piper (from May 2009 to date).
As to if the community even wants Vacation Rentals, that is still in the air.
I wont argue any of that, I’ll let them do their job.
The only thing I am interested in now, is what is the City of Twentynine Palms going to do?
My suggestion is to write a code that works. Plain and simple.
I recommend the City start a public service announcement in the newspapers, radio as well as a mail campaign calling for a cease-and-desist order pertaining to Vacation Home Rentals inside the City’s sphere of influence. Heavy fines should be levied on the non permitted businesses to protect the City from slip and fall lawsuits in the future.
One subject that has not been touched on is are people renting homes in the area and then re renting them as Vacation Home Rentals? Renting a home and re renting it as a Vacation Rental takes this home out of the available low income housing so how will this effect the City with the State?
If the City stands idle and does nothing will this open the City up to lawsuits? If the City does decide to allow vacation rentals the City should require all San Bernardino County regulations be followed before City acceptance.
Here food for thought.
With all the tattoo parlors, massage parlors, and haircut places in Twentynine Palms, where is the sales tax at?
Hi HDent,
I don’t think there is sales tax on tattoo’s, massages, or haircuts. I know that when I get my haircut there is no sales tax. I also know that when I got my one and only tattoo I did not pay sales tax. I have not had a massage yet -- maybe tomorrow on that one.
What we do get is the business license fee, very small, and the building property tax.
We do get sales tax from Staters, the Dollar store, Tires, automotive parts, etc.
None of those add up to the likes of Walmart in Yucca but it is there.
The lion’s share of General Fund revenues comes from the hotel/motel industry in the form of the TOT.
I hope this partially answered your question.