Santa Rosa caps short-term rentals

Complaints from residents living near vacation rentals in her central Santa Rosa district are “nearly uniform and nonstop,” she said.

Communities across the country are confronting the impact of short-term rentals, generally defined as rentals leased for fewer than 30 days at a time. The problem is severe across California where housing is scarce and expensive.

In Marin County, officials recently estimated that only about 43% of all residential parcels in West Marin are primary homes. In Stinson Beach, as many as 22% of all properties are short-term vacation rentals.

In May, Marin County supervisors temporarily banned any new vacation rentals in coastal areas while they study a longer-term plan to balance the needs of tourists and local residents. Fairfax was the most recent town within the county to impose its own restrictions. It voted in June to tax vacation rental hosts and require they acquire business licenses, among other new rules

In the Lake Tahoe area, where the housing shortage has gotten so acute that some ski resorts have erected campgrounds and tiny home villages to house their workers, the issue has been a flashpoint. This year, Placer County officials capped short-term rentals on the western rim of the lake at 3,900, representing about 25% of all housing. And South Lake Tahoe reduced its vacation rentals from 1,400 to 400, concentrated in the downtown.

Sonoma County supervisors have stopped allowing new vacation rentals in unincorporated areas while officials develop a strategy to balance the needs of tourists and local residents.

In Santa Rosa, about 75% of complaints about vacation rentals that

require city resources, from code inspectors to police response, involve those without hosts on site, according to city data. The city currently has 98 approved nonhosted vacation rentals and another 24 with hosts.

Santa Rosa resident Maureen Linde and her husband, Erik, have felt under siege by the steady stream of partying visitors at a nearby house, which features a backyard pool, that they say has been used for rentals since last year.

“These people aren’t showing up and baking cookies or taking dogs for a walk or going to farmers’ markets,” Linde said. “The minute they show up, they’re ready to party.”

People “feel like they’re in a living hell. Nobody should have to live next door to a perpetual party zone.”

Victoria Fleming, Santa Rosa City Council member

Photos by Brontë Wittpenn / The Chronicle Santa Rosa resident Maureen Linde said the house next door became increasingly noisy after an investor bought it and started using it as a vacation rental. But the City Council then passed a limit on such rentals.

At the house with the pool, Linde said, “These people aren’t showing up and baking cookies or taking dogs for a walk or going to farmers’ markets.”