Sonoma's vacation-rental ordinance does not impose an annual rental-night cap, but the City has prohibited issuance of new vacation-rental permits since December 4, 2017, effectively freezing the supply.
SMC §19.50.140 (the 2017 vacation-rental ordinance) does not include a per-year cap on rental nights, the way Pacific Grove's 90-night cap or some coastal cities' hosted-vs-unhosted distinctions do. The City's chosen lever instead is a hard moratorium on *new* vacation-rental permits adopted on December 4, 2017: vacation rentals are no longer a conditionally-permitted use in any zone (they had already been prohibited in residential zones), and the only exception is the adaptive re-use of a historic structure. Existing licensed vacation rentals are allowed to continue if they meet the updated operating standards, but a permit lost through revocation or surrender cannot be re-established. The result is a city-wide cap on STR *units* rather than on rental nights per unit. Permitted operators may rent year-round subject to the 13% TOT + 2% TID, the 2-per-bedroom-plus-2 occupancy cap, the outdoor-amplified-sound ban, and the property-manager-on-call requirement.
Operating any vacation rental without a valid pre-2017 City permit (or qualifying historic-structure permit) is an unpermitted land use enforceable through the City's administrative-citation process: Notice & Order, mandatory production of rental records, administrative hearing within 45 days, and escalating fines under the City's penalty schedule. The City may also seek disgorgement of rental income earned during the violation period.
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