Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to weigh getaway rentals, timeshare rules

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors is set to take into consideration a slew of policy changes regulating vacation rentals and timeshares.

On Monday, the board will look at coverage revisions that set requirements for trip rental operations, which includes property administration prerequisites, noise and light-weight restrictions, defensible room expectations and define fines for violations of county procedures.

The regulations apply to rentals inside the county’s unincorporated locations, the place there ended up about 1,500 rental properties recorded in 2021.

Sonoma County all round has an average of involving 2,300 and 2,400 this kind of qualities — a number that “is continually different,” in accordance to a staff members report geared up by Allow Sonoma, the county’s setting up and allowing office.

Also on Monday, the board will take into consideration a alter to the county’s zoning code, which sets specifications for timeshares, or fractional-use possession homes.

Trip rentals and timeshares have long been a level of contention.

Citizens and neighbors of rental attributes have continuously called for much more limitations on brief-expression rentals, citing issues about sounds, basic safety and arguing that they exacerbate the county’s housing crisis.

These in the marketplace, nonetheless, have opposed restrictive measures, arguing they would pressure property house owners and their companies.

Here’s a nearer glimpse at what is on the table:

Additional restrictions on holiday rentals

The board approved a sweeping established of alterations in August 2022 that widened parts wherever rentals are prohibited, proven caps on rentals in other locations and released a new family vacation rental license system to standardize specifications for all getaway rental permit holders exterior metropolitan areas.

At that time, the board also requested further modifications for workers to assess, top to Monday’s dialogue.

The proposed updates returning right before the board contain:

• The capability to block a house operator from obtaining a rental license for up to 5 a long time — an increase above two a long time — just after it’s been revoked.

• The addition of escalating fines for violations that get started at $1,500 for the to start with violation and raise to $5,000 for a third violation inside of 1 yr.

• No for a longer period like a requirement that home supervisors are living within just a sure distance of a rental assets.

• Requiring getaway rentals keep defensible space.

• Blocking licenses for solitary-dwelling households with a junior accessory dwelling unit, which are located inside an present solitary-family house, according to Allow Sonoma.

“This definitely provides those people regulations of the street and resources for Permit Sonoma to enforce to make sure that we never have negative apples that are ruining conditions,” mentioned Bradley Dunn, a coverage manager with Allow Sonoma.

The alterations would also utilize to holiday vacation rentals in the coastal zone, pending acceptance from the California Coastal Fee, Dunn mentioned.

The board will also be requested Monday to approve zoning amendments that either limit or block holiday vacation rentals in certain neighborhoods inside of the county’s 1st, 4th and 5th districts.

Regulating timeshares

On April 6, the county’s Scheduling Commission voted to advocate updates to the zoning code regulating quick-expression house utilizes, like agricultural farm stays, bed and breakfasts, resorts, hosted rentals, vacation rentals and timeshares.

The update will outline brief-term use of fractionally owned household residence as a timeshare use, and will prohibit exactly where those homes can be found within county-governed places.

It is now coming ahead of the board.

For the duration of the commission’s April conference, many people spoke in assistance of the changes.

“I believe your vote would have a precedential result for our problems in Healdsburg,” Janice Watkins, a Healdsburg resident, instructed the fee April 6. “We like tourism but it has to be a balance and it’s achieving a tipping point.”

Numerous residents who spoke in help of the update referenced a company known as Pacaso — a “fractional homeownership” startup that has riled some area neighborhoods — as an case in point of why the rules are necessary.

Their problems echoed people elevated by neighbors of family vacation rentals, as they described noise and safety challenges, as effectively as problems about the effects on offered housing stock for those seeking for a complete-time home.

Established in October 2020, Pacaso buys one-family members properties beneath limited legal responsibility firms and will allow up to 8 consumers to acquire partial ownership in the homes to use as shared trip residences.

Quite a few Pacaso staff also attended the meeting to voice their activities and share letters from consumers. They reported the corporation does not provide timeshares but will make second-residence ownership far more obtainable. The consumer letters also stressed that Pacaso makes it possible for them to add to the financial system by supporting local businesses when they are in town.

“Owning a Pacaso house permits us to support the neighborhood in means we could not do (in any other case),” claimed Nicholas Finest, a Pacaso household manager, when reading through a letter from a consumer.

You can access Employees Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or [email protected]. On Twitter @MurphReports.