In my battle to limit vacation rentals, those that are either for them or not opposed to them keep claiming “property rights” such that the owner of a piece of property can do whatever he or she wants with the property. This is a very naïve view of the world and factually untrue in our modern society. We live in a society of laws and regulations which dictate what a person can and cannot do with property he or she owns.
For instance, while I own my house and property under it (OK, the bank owns part of it right now), I can’t build a farm on it, I can’t park cars in my front yard, I can’t build a gas station on it, I can’t build onto it without a permit, I can’t tear down my house and build condos (it is zoned as single family residential), etc.
So for anyone to claim that vacation rentals are a property right is mistaken. While the interpretation of the current regulations (I saw interpretation because the city attorney of San Diego has a different view on what constitutes a business than others do) doesn’t prohibit them, property rights doesn’t guarantee that they are allowed.