El Dorado County may revamp VHR ordinance

As with meetings concerning vacation rentals (VHRs) in the City of South Lake Tahoe, many residents from the county turned out to voice concerns with the El Dorado County's Tax Collector C.L. Cherie Raffety Wednesday.

What was different than the City's meetings, Raffety limited how the public could speak about noise, parking, occupancy, hot tubs, zoning and other issues they have in their neighborhoods. She broke up the issues and heard concerns, one subject at a time.

Those that did speak told of stories that appeared to surprise Raffety. One local said their neighbor has three hot tubs on their property for renters to use, causing noise issues to those homes surrounding it. Others talked of renters who park blocks away so not to appear that the home has more cars than allowed, noise all hours of the night and the disrespect of some renters.

The Tax Collector's office operates the VHR program Monday through Friday for the County, and the Sheriff's Office is the enforcement arm, 24/7. No representatives from other involved departments were at the meeting.

El Dorado County Supervisor for District 5 Sue Novasel was at the meeting to make sure accurate information was being provided and to hear concerns, but she made it clear that the meeting was Raffety's.

Novasel and fellow Supervisor Michael Ranalli are heading up the County's Ad-Hoc committee that is looking into vacation rentals. They are currently holding staff meetings and gathering information from the County Counsel, Sheriff, Planning, Tax Collector, Chief Administrative Office. They are also getting comparatives from a number of other jurisdictions dealing with vacation rentals.

They will then take that information and start the public meeting process, according to Novasel.

"I'm hoping it doesn't take too long, but we want it done right," said Novasel.

The VHR ordinance in the County was created in 2004, and it was tweaked earlier in 2017. It is currently an ordinance for the Lake Tahoe portion of the County (South Lake Tahoe, Meyers, Tahoma) but will be updated to include the West Slope communities as well.

What is a possibility is having a VHR office on the South Shore, and that is something the Ad-Hoc committee is evaluating.

Residents now call into a hot line or the Sheriff's Office if they have a complaint with renters that are too noisy, illegally parking or other issues of concern.

"We want to figure out how to make the enforcement issue work, make it smooth and seamless," said Novasel.

56 percent of the approximate $3 million in Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) collected annually in the County comes from the vacation rentals in the non-City areas of the East Slope and traditional lodging properties Camp Richardson, Meek's Bay Resort and a few spots in Tahoma.

The County's approach has been one VHR owners being a "good neighbor." Hot tubs must be off between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m., parking is limited to driveways and garages, and occupancy is determined by permits. Raffety said they will look to see if the clustering of VHRs (many in a small area) needs to be restricted.

At this time her department gathers the information from the Sheriff's Office on complaints and citations, researches the situation and then sends fines to the home owners if it is determined to be a violation. Four violations will result in a home owner losing the ability to rent their home as a VHR.