Tuesday, July 13, 2010

“County reaffirms ban on renting vacation homes” plus 1 more

“County reaffirms ban on renting vacation homes” plus 1 more

County reaffirms ban on renting vacation homes

Posted: 13 Jul 2010 12:16 AM PDT

The Board of Supervisors reaffirmed Napa County's ban on vacation rentals last week, citing a local law designed to limit growth in Napa County.

A Measure J vote would be required in order to allow private property owners in unincorporated Napa County to offer short-term rentals to vacationers, Supervisors announced June 29.

Measure J — passed in 1990 and extended by Measure P two years ago — calls for any proposed change in zoning in the county's agricultural preserve to go before the voters.

Previous Measure J votes include the approved expansion of Bistro Don Giovanni north of Napa and the Stanly Lane pumpkin patch in Carneros. Napa County voters also have rejected the expansion of a restaurant site on Oakville Grade, a market in Pope Valley and the creation of cabins near the Napa River in Carneros.

Throngs of people spoke both for and against the county's ban on vacation rentals at the supervisors meeting June 29, after a months-long effort by some to overturn the prohibition.

Technically, vacation rentals — rentals for 30 days or less — have been illegal in unincorporated Napa County since at least the late 1980s, but property owners routinely advertise and rent properties to visitors nonetheless.

An estimated 300 vacation rentals are operating illegally in the unincorporated county, generating $45 million to $57 million in spending throughout the county annually.

Supervisors voted in December to make the prohibition explicit, but a large group of property owners fought back, arguing that vacation rentals bolster the local economy and provide a practical alternative for some visitors.

The board agreed to hold off on implementing the new ordinance, and critics of the ban unveiled a proposal to allow up to 300 vacation rentals to operate in the county for up to 20 weeks a year.

The group predicted that these vacation rentals could boost the county's hotel tax revenue by up to $1.45 million annually.

An attorney for the group assured supervisors that existing law gives the board the discretion to allow the proposal to move forward by deeming vacation rentals an "accessory use" — not the primary use of the residence.

County officials promised to study the proposal, and last week they came back to the board with concerns.

In order to define vacation rentals as an accessory residential use, the county likely would not be able to limit the number of vacation rentals to only 300, Napa County Planning Director Hillary Gitelman said. It also could be difficult to collect hotel taxes from the vacation rentals, since they'd be considered residential and not commercial uses.

In addition, lawyers for the county argue that because vacation rentals might be inconsistent with portions of the county's general plan, which can be changed only by a vote of the people, "submitting the vacation rental proposal … to the voters for approval would seem to be the most appropriate approach."

Supervisors — even those who have expressed an interest in allowing vacation rentals in the past — agreed.

Acknowledging the arguments both for and against vacation rentals in the county, Supervisor Mark Luce said, "I think I'll leave that up to the voters."

Liza Graves, one vocal proponent of vacation rentals, remained noncommittal about sending the idea to voters.

"I don't know what the next steps will be," Graves said.


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WPC: Microsoft talks consumer at business conference

Posted: 13 Jul 2010 08:45 AM PDT

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Microsoft talked mostly about consumers at today's keynote session at the Worldwide Partner Conference at the Verizon Center. It was a first for the annual conference, a gathering of companies that resell, build on and sell services based on Microsoft products, mostly to corporate customers.

Corporations buy in bulk based on how it will help the bottom line, whereas consumer shoppers buy items one at a time based on the market appeal of the technology.

"We all know we're consumers first and business people second," said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president for the Microsoft Partners network, and said "the consumerization of IT" and business priorities are driving technology innovation. He said many partners had been asking for a consumer-focused keynote at the annual conference.

This morning, Microsoft highlighted Windows 7, the planned Windows Phone 7 and the new Xbox Kinect sensor, which makes the video game system controller-free.

Windows 7:

Microsoft gave another peek at a Windows-based slate device, one of several forthcoming iPad competitors that Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer referred to in his keynote on Monday. Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows consumer marketing, demonstrated a Windows slate like a giant remote device to play video on four screens -- televisions and computers. "It's going to be Windows 7 plus your personal cloud," Brooks said.

He added that 370 million Windows PCs are expected to ship in the next 12 months. Microsoft has sold 150 million copies of Windows 7 since the launch in October.

Brooks also showed the PhotoFuse feature now available in a beta test version Windows Live photo software. He used it to splice together four photos of Microsoft workers in Seattle Sounders jerseys so that everyone is looking at the camera. In the future, no one will need cardboard cutouts to add celebrities into photos.

Windows Phone 7:

On Monday, Ballmer said Microsoft had missed a generation in the mobile phone market. Today, Andy Lees, senior vice president for Microsoft's mobile business, talked about opportunities still ahead for the smartphone market. "Over the next three years, the number of smartphones sold is going to double fro 200 to 400 million smartphones sold every year."

He said the problem with smartphones today is the lack of integration between apps, referring to the iPhone without naming it directly. "The problem is today phones are just at-larges, just a grid of icons," Lees said. "We think there's got to be a better way than going app by app by app."

Microsoft is putting all its effort into Windows Phone 7, a smartphone operating system scheduled to come out during the holidays. The company recently launched a social-networking phone called Kin, which it pulled the plug on a little more than a month after sales started.

The WPC audience gave a lukewarm reception to the Windows Phone 7 demo, which showed the various hubs for contacts, e-mail, calendar, photos that integrate Outlook, Windows Live and Facebook. The one feature the audience perked up over was the ability to edit PowerPoint presentations on the device.

Lees said the developer tool kit for Windows Phone is now available in beta test version.

Xbox Kinect:

The Kinect motion sensor accessory, which will also go on sale for the holidays, was the crowd pleaser of the morning with demos showing how it would make the Xbox video game system controller-free.

The demo showed how Xbox users can fast forward through Netflix movies with a hand wave, and pause play with the voice command "Xbox pause." The company then showed a young girl playing with a virtual tiger cub in the game "Kinectimals" and navigating a river-rafting course in a game called "Kinect Adventures." This was the demo that finally elicited the "I want that" response from the people in the audience.

Microsoft plans to have 15 titles available when Kinect hits the market.

For the blow-by-blow of this morning's keynote, check out my tweets from the morning in the top-right corner of Pri0 or at www.twitter.com/sharonpianchan/

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