by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

The Claremont City Council passed important updates to its short-term rental ordinance and Dial-A-Ride services at its Tuesday meeting.

Short-term rental ordinance

The Council heard a progress report on its short-term rental pilot program, enacted in June 2025, under which property owners operating short-term rentals in the city were required to apply for permits to host visitors.

According to city municipal code at ecode360.com, short-term rentals are “a privately-owned residential dwelling, or portion thereof … that is offered or provided to a guest by an owner for less than 30 consecutive days.” Full and limited vacation rentals and home sharing rentals are allowed. The ordinance does not apply to hotels, motels, inns, or bed and breakfasts.

Per city ordinance 2025-04, property owners must obtain permits to list their rentals on sites such as Airbnb and Vrbo. Up to 100 permits could be issued, 20 in each City Council district. The city issued 16 permits over the past year: six in district three; five in district five; two in both districts one and four; and one in district two.

According to a staff report, the program brought in $44,570 in revenue: $15,215 from permits and $29,355 from transient occupancy tax. Expenses, including staff oversight and services offered via the city’s contracted short-term rental compliance portal, Rentalscape, were $26,600, resulting in a net gain of $17,970. Some $18,000 in additional revenue from administrative citations was not included.

Senior Management Analyst Alex Cousins reported that 48 non-permitted listings have been taken down from short-term rental sites since June of last year, with 51 notices of violation and 30 administrative citations issued. Cousins said a “handful” of enforcement calls turned into permitted applicants.

Part of Tuesday’s discussion revolved around future policy direction. The council agreed to extend home sharing eligibility to qualifying tenants with landlord consent; codify permitting for multi-room home sharing and eligible accessory structures on the same parcel, which the current ordinance does not; and to include language from California Senate Bill 346, which “authorizes local agencies to require short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo to report property data to the city, display permit numbers on listings and face administrative fines of up to $10,000 per day for noncompliance,” Cousins said. They did not agree to allow unhosted stays in primary residences.

“My concern with an unhosted program … is that oversight isn’t there,” said Vice Mayor Ed Reece.

The council voted unanimously to task city staff with updating the short-term rental ordinance with an eye on bringing it back before the body for a vote after its August recess.

The permitting program will continue in the meantime. Cousins wrote in an email that the city is “accepting permit applications on a continuous basis.”

“If one of the five [short-term rental] zones reached the maximum of 20 permits, then we would no longer issue permits for that zone,” he added. “Permits are valid for one year and must be renewed annually.”

Dial-a-ride fees going up

The council also voted unanimously to approve new fares and hours of operation for the city’s dial-a-ride program, which is overseen by the Pomona Valley Transportation Authority.

Basic one-way trips within Claremont will cost $4.50, an increase of $2. One-way trips beyond city limits will cost $7, up $3. Senior and disabled fares were unchanged. The vote also means the program will no longer operate 24 hours, but from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

The last fare increase for Claremont Dial-A-Ride was in 2013.

The changes come as the service — with an annual budget of $650,000 made up of federal, state, and local transportation funds — faces increased operating costs, projected at just over $1 million for fiscal year 2025-26, which ends June 30.

Community Services Manager Kristen Mikula said the service had zero basic riders between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. from July to November 2025 and 18 senior or disabled riders. The service did see significant usage between 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. from all demographics during that time period.

Providing overnight service requires two dispatchers/drivers at an annual cost of $140,000, Mikula said, though a portion of that is paid by the City of San Dimas to support its dial-a-cab service.

“Given lower overnight demand and high fixed costs to ensure staffing availability, overnight rides come at a disproportionately high cost per trip to serve a limited number of riders,” Mikula wrote in an email. “Given limited financial resources, the recommendation to eliminate overnight service is intended to preserve transit access during periods of highest demand, when the greatest number of riders benefit from the service. Redirecting these resources toward daytime and evening service allows the program to maximize the number of trips provided and better align service levels with community demand.”