Lehigh County requires no on-site host. Allentown mandates on-site presence only for specific uses: a Bed and Breakfast owner/operator must live on-site, and ADU lots require a record owner to occupy a unit. Ordinary STRs typically need a reachable local contact.
The county sets no host-presence rule. In Allentown, whether someone must be on-site depends on the use. A Bed and Breakfast Inn requires the primary owner/operator to live on-site, and any lot with an accessory dwelling unit must have at least one unit occupied by a record owner as a permanent residence. For ordinary short-term rentals, the zoning ordinance does not require the host to sleep on-site, but the city's rental licensing program expects a responsible local contact who can respond to problems, and good practice is to provide guests a 24/7 phone number. Requirements differ across Lehigh County's boroughs and townships, so verify locally before assuming remote, un-hosted operation is allowed.
Operating a Bed and Breakfast or ADU without the required resident owner is a zoning violation; unreachable hosts risk nuisance enforcement and license issues.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Bethlehem, PA
Bethlehem Zoning § 1322(yy)(4) expressly refers pool fencing to the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code, which adopts the 2018 International Swimming Pool...
Bethlehem, PA
Bethlehem Zoning Code Article 1318 does not impose a separate list of prohibited fence materials, leaving fence-material regulation to general property-maint...
Bethlehem, PA
Bethlehem's zoning code does not require neighbor consent for a boundary fence under Article 1318, but Pennsylvania common-law partition-fence principles and...
Bethlehem, PA
Bethlehem requires a zoning permit from the Bureau of Code Enforcement for any fence installation as part of general zoning compliance under Article 1318 (he...
Bethlehem, PA
Bethlehem caps household animals at six without a permit: Section 1159.04 of Article 1159 (Animals) requires application for a permit for any household keepi...
Bethlehem, PA
Bethlehem's local wildlife-feeding enforcement runs through Article 1159 nuisance provisions (Section 1159.06) of the Codified Ordinances and property-mainte...
See how Bethlehem's host presence rule rules stack up against other locations.
Help us keep this page accurate. If you notice an error or outdated information, let us know.