Palo Alto housing providers got at least a temporary reprieve Monday after the City Council voted unanimously to defer further work on a local rent control proposal and a plan to expand the city’s rental registry program.

The council this week amended a staff recommendation to remove an indefinite deferral and instead send the issue back for review within a year.

The decision puts off discussion on any new local rent regulation that could have added compliance costs and administrative burdens to rental housing providers. The registry expansion under discussion would have applied the program to smaller properties, while a local rent control ordinance would have added another layer of regulation beyond statewide tenant protections.

Before the vote, city staff had recommended shelving both proposals after reviewing rental registry data and raising concerns about cost and staffing. During Monday’s discussion, council members backed stepping away from the proposals for now but stopped short of making that pause indefinite.

The California Apartment Association argued that local rent control and a broader registry would raise costs for housing providers without a clear policy basis and should be scrapped permanently especially since there was no data to support any expansion, and state law already imposes regulations on rent increases through the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019.

The council’s final discussion indicated the matter could return within the next year for further consideration.