El Dorado County, CA Short-Term Rentals: Night Caps (2026)

055 sets a hard ceiling: "no more than 900 vacation home rental permits shall be issued" within the unincorporated Tahoe Basin, while hosted home rentals are exempt and don't count toward it. Once the area is at or over that maximum, or a proposed site sits within 500 feet of an already-permitted VHR, the Planning and Building Department places new applicants on a waiting list; applicants must currently own the property, and once notified that a slot has opened they have 90 days to complete an application before losing their place, with the request voided entirely if ownership changes.

An owner caught operating without a permit is barred from applying or joining the waitlist for a full year. Renewal isn't automatic: Subsection B requires a permit holder to prove the property was actually rented for a minimum of ten nights in the prior 12-month period, using bookings, receipts, rental agreements, or transient occupancy tax returns, specifically "to prevent vacation home rental permits from being obtained with no intent to rent the property"; failure to demonstrate that means the permit is not renewed. Renewals of permits granted from applications submitted on or before November 1, 2020 are exempt from the 900-unit cap entirely, and a timely renewal application (filed 90 days before expiration up to the expiration date) keeps the existing permit alive until the county acts on it. 056 separately bars any parcel within 500 feet of another currently licensed VHR from getting a new permit at all.