City distributes surveys on rental-facility effects

Newport Beach officials are gathering opinions to help them draft new rules governing group homes and short-term rentals. A detailed questionnaire asks about the effects the facilities have on neighborhoods.

The city distributed the questionnaire Tuesday and Wednesday to a few areas, but after residents said the sampling wasn’t broad enough, officials offered more forms, said Catherine Wolcott, a contract attorney for the city.

Completed forms are due back to the city by Monday.

Wolcott and other city staffers are up against a Wednesday deadline to get an item on the agenda for the May 22 City Council meeting. They want to get any new rules ready for discussion before June 8, the end of a 45-day moratorium on new group homes and short-term rental permits.

The questionnaire can be found at www.city.newport-beach.ca.us. Click on “and more” under “General Info,” and then click on “Intense Residential Occupancy Committee.”

— Alicia Robinson