The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will hold a public meeting on December 5th in regards to the proposed ordinances recommended by the planning commission. The public hearing for the ordinances will be at 1:30 pm at the Santa Cruz County government center on the fifth floor. Please let the board of supervisors know how detrimental the proposed ordinances would be to the community of Santa Cruz County!

Meeting place: Governmental Center Building
701 Ocean Street Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Room 525

There are proposed ordinances floating around between the planning commission and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. These ordinances entail putting limitations on short term rentals. If passed, hosts of short term rentals can be severely impacted in regards to loss of income and unnecessary oversight. The local economy will also be effected in regards to losing potential revenue that stems from guest staying in Santa Cruz County. 

These proposed ordinances include:

1. Categorizing hosting rentals that have more than one bedroom available to qualify as bed and breakfasts inn, in which case the host would have to obtain a conditional permit under existing county code provisions.

2. Making sure property owners obtain permits to host

3. Limiting guest to one parking space

4. Limiting guest occupancy to 3 people excluding those under 8 years old

5. Limiting the number of nights a host can operate to no more than 55 nights per year in the three designated areas of Live Oak,  Seacliffs/Aptos, and Davenport-Swanton area and no more than 110 nights in the rest of the county

6. Require annual reporting by hosts and annual renewal of permits

7. The prohibition of ADUs, affordable housing, RVs, units occupied by long term rentals  as a hosted rental

8. Only permitting one guest per for each housing rental per parcel

9. Allowing only a single stay of up to 7 days per year without the requirement for a permit

10. Require operators to obtain a TOT number from the County tax collector and to ensure TOT is paid

According to the data collected from the planning department of Santa Cruz County, there has been no serious impacts or complaints from neighbors where short term rentals are being hosted. Therefore, there is not a strong foundation for placing ordinances on short term rentals.  

We therefore are seeking involvement from members of the community and leaders to help fight against unnecessary oversight and bureaucracy to ensure citizens of Santa Cruz County can continue to host and the local economy can continue to grow.