South Lake Tahoe meeting on vacation rental ordinance for El Dorado County

Vacation rentals in El Dorado County in the Tahoe basin outside the South Lake Tahoe city limits will see new regulations in the future, many of which will be conceptually approved during the Board of Supervisors meeting in South Lake Tahoe February 1.

The official meeting will start at 6:00 p.m. in the SLT City Council Chambers at the airport but there will be an activity with attendees at the airport starting at 5:30 p.m. Staff from the Chief Administrator Office are organizing the activity which will be sheets of butcher paper with various benefits and concerns about VHR. Participants will be given dots to place on the category(s) they care most about and can write comments.

"It’s a visual representation of what we expect some of the public comment to include," said Carla Haas of El Dorado County.

The County already has an ad hoc committee assigned to work on vacation rentals, a hot topic throughout California. The committee will work on what is conceptually approved Thursday and return to the Board of Supervisors with their results on March 30.

Areas that will be voted on conceptually Thursday:

Violations and Penalties
• No warning for first violation
• Increase penalties to $500, $1,000, $1,500 for first, second, third violation
• Possible revocation upon 3rd incident resulting in a violation within 18-month period

Permitting Process
• Analysis of permitting process to determine appropriate County department to house the function.
• Pre-permit inspections for safety and compliance with permit requirements.

Occupancy
• Cap on occupants at total allowed by permit between hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Signage
• Require exterior signage that includes 24-hour local contact information, VHR permit number, County contact information

Enforcement
•Review of enforcement function with recommendations on processes, staffing,
and placement within County structure to come

Trash
•Refer to County Health and Safety ordinance for all requirements

Noise
•Limitation between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.

The ad hoc committee with then study the following topics related to an ordinance:
- Notification of neighbors within certain radius of proposed VHR
- Cost recovery for permitting process
- Permit fee structure and amounts
- Permanent permit revocation after specified number of violations/incidents
- Assessment of penalties against owner and occupant
- Penalty structure and amounts Neighbor approval for permit reinstatement after suspension or revocation
- Cap on occupants at any time of day
- Change method for determining maximum occupancy
- Additional information to be required on signage: occupancy, number of cars
allowed, etc.
- Provide owners with downloadable templates for signage
- Further limit parking on street and total number of vehicles allowed
- Require installation of noise monitoring devices
- Further limit occupancy at other times of day
- Extend “quiet hours”
- Establish limits on VHR’s by distance, neighborhood, etc.
- Allow only in certain areas
- Establish cap on total permits issued
- Consider how to address permit applications in process at time of suspension
- Contract with third party to help find nonpermitted VHR’s
- Contract with third party for collection of TOT
- Use of software to automate permitting process