CARLSBAD — Short-term vacation rentals would be limited to Carlsbad’s coastal zone — rather than spread throughout the city — under a hard-fought ordinance the City Council tentatively approved this week.

The council unanimously voted late Tuesday night in favor of the limited ordinance, bucking a staff recommendation that such rentals should be allowed everywhere in Carlsbad. Under the new law, owners renting their properties would be required to get a business license and an operating permit, and follow other policies and procedures.

Nearly 100 residents who attended Tuesday’s meeting applauded the decision, which they said would prevent the rentals in quiet residential neighborhoods not suited to large numbers of transient visitors.

“I was pleased that common sense prevailed,” said Carlsbad resident Janice Daulton.

The proposed ordinance will return to the council for final approval in two weeks and would be effective 30 days later, Assistant City Manager Gary Barberio told the council.

The rapid growth of short-term vacation rentals, which people book over the Internet using applications such as Airbnb, has caused problems in many San Diego County coastal communities. Long-time homeowners are often upset to learn a nearby residence is being rented to a string of vacationers just in town to party. They guests at the rentals sometimes engage in inappropriate behavior, and show little concern for the quiet and privacy of their neighbors.

Last month more than 100 people attended a Pacific Beach Planning Group meeting to ask that San Diego ban rentals of less than 30 days in single-family residential zones.

Cities like San Diego have been reluctant to impose such regulations, largely because the California Coastal Commission generally support them as affordable destinations in coastal communities dominated by more costly hotels.

The Carlsbad ordinance largely relies on neighbors to report problems with the rentals. Daulton and other residents said that’s OK for the coastal zone — where hotels and motels are prevalent — but wouldn’t have worked in quieter family neighborhoods.

“I was incensed that they would even consider passing a law that they would expect me to enforce,” Daulton said. “It would pit neighbors against neighbors.”

Barberio said Carlsbad studied the rentals in more than 20 other cities to create its ordinance. The investigation showed that if the rentals are outlawed in some parts of the city, they often continue “underground” and violations are difficult to find and enforce.

Yet most of the dozen speakers at Tuesday’s meeting said the city should be able to make it work.

Tracy and Greg Teregis told the council a neighbor in La Costa recently converted his house into two short-term rentals, and since then there have been constant problems.

“I no longer feel safe at home,” Tracy Teregis said. “If it can happen to us, it can happen to you.”

Mark Bua, a Carlsbad resident who is a San Diego police officer, said renting out residences means there’s no front desk clerk to solve problems like there is at a hotel or motel.

“I have seen first-hand the deterioration of coastal neighborhoods in San Diego due to short-term vacation rentals,” Bua said.

“People don’t know who they are renting to or who they are living next to,” he said. “It’s virtually impossible to enforce occupancy limits.”

An initial draft of the ordinance was presented to the City Council at its March 17 meeting, where the council asked for revisions including a specification that it not supersede any homeowners association regulations; that a contact person be specified for complaints; that number of occupants per dwelling be restricted; and that violations of the city police be deemed a misdemeanor.

The revised ordinance city staffers presented to the council Tuesday had four options.

The staffers recommended the first option, which was to allow short-term vacation rentals citywide.

A second option was to allow the rentals only in the coastal zone, in the area west of El Camino Real, and in the La Costa Resort and Spa Master Plan area, which together cover 50 percent of the city geographically.

The third option was to allow the rentals only in the coastal zone, the area west of Interstate 5 and the La Costa Resort and Spa Master Plan area, or 39 percent of the city. And the fourth, which was approved, was to allow the rentals only in the coastal zone, which is 37 percent of the city.