Del Norte County, CA Short-Term Rentals: Night Caps (2026)

Del Norte County imposes no annual-night cap on short-term rentals and no density or saturation limit on how many rentals may exist in a community, because it never adopted a dedicated vacation-rental ordinance. The Board of Supervisors declined to regulate vacation rentals in 2022 even as staff reported the total had grown from 131 to 196 over five years - a growth trend the County chose not to curb with operating caps or concentration limits. The only night-related threshold that matters is the 30-day line in the Transient Occupancy Tax under Chapter 3.08: a stay of 30 days or fewer is a taxable transient occupancy subject to the 10% TOT, while a tenancy longer than 30 days falls outside the tax. That threshold defines when the tax applies, not how many nights per year a property may be rented. There is likewise no minimum-stay requirement and no seasonal blackout imposed by the County. Operators are otherwise limited only by general zoning (Title 20 / Title 21), building and septic capacity, and - for ADUs - the rule that rentals of less than 30 days are not allowed in accessory units. Because the County could revisit STR regulation in the future, and because the Coastal Zone communities draw seasonal redwood-coast tourism, operators should confirm whether any night-cap, minimum-stay, or density rule has since been adopted before relying on the current absence of one.