Regulations vary across California

Supervisors could approve those rules this summer.

The pandemic has accelerated the already-hot vacation rental market, stirring concerns in some popular spots. This month, Marin County supervisors will consider a moratorium lasting at least 45 days for new permits for the western part of the county, according to the Marin Independent Journal.

Regulations vary from place to place, but some areas have already settled on the kind of permitting system and rental limits under consideration in unincorporated Sonoma County.

Healdsburg, for example, has passed several restrictions on short-term rentals in part “to ensure that the residential character of our neighborhoods is protected,” according to the city’s website.

Napa County also has a permit process for approving new short-term rentals but is not accepting new permit applications and has a full wait list.

In Sonoma County, at the

height of the pandemic in summer 2020, supervisors approved an emergency ordinance to cap the number of vacation rental permits in the unincorporated county. Later, officials rolled it back to encompass only specific parts of Sonoma Valley and the Russian River, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The idea was to then follow up with a “comprehensive” system of rules for managing vacation rentals throughout the county.

Supervisors are also considering whether to extend a temporary cap on vacation rentals in West Sonoma destinations like Guerneville and the Russian River that is set to expire in August. The Sonoma coast, however, follows different rules as it falls under

the jurisdiction of the California Coastal Commission, according to the county.

“While vacation rentals play an important role in Sonoma County’s tourism economy, they also have the potential to cause detrimental impacts and pose a risk to the public safety, health and welfare of the county and its residents,” according to a Wednesday news release from the county administrator’s office.

Tourist destinations across California have been grappling with a decade-long growth in short-term rentals — that is, properties rented for less than 30 days at a time — following the explosion in popularity of online marketplaces like Airbnb and Vrbo, which make managing renters and finding rentals relatively quick and easy.

Under pressure from residents, lawmakers across the state — including those in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe— have attempted to rein in the proliferation and operations of these properties, which some locals believe tilt their neighborhoods toward transient tourism zones where homes function more like hotels.

California’s workforce housing shortage and affordability issues also factor into the argument to regulate short-term rentals.