Stonecrest, GA Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

Stonecrest's short-term rental framework lives in two places: Chapter 27 (Zoning Ordinance) Article 4 Division 2 Section 4.2.58 lists Short-Term Vacation Rental as a use requiring a Special Permit (SP) in single-family residential districts and certain mixed-use districts, and Chapter 15 (Licenses, Permits, Miscellaneous Business Regulations) Article XVIII regulates the rental as a business. Neither the zoning section nor the licensing article publishes a numerical occupancy cap such as two persons per bedroom or a 12-guest maximum. Instead, the operative ceiling on number of occupants comes from three layered sources. First, Chapter 27 defines a single-family residence as occupied by one family, and Stonecrest carried over the DeKalb County definition of family used at the city's 2017 incorporation, which limits a single-family dwelling to persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption together with a small number of unrelated adults functioning as a single housekeeping unit; an entire-house STR in an R-100, R-85, R-75, or R-60 district cannot lawfully exceed that family-equivalent occupancy. Second, the Georgia State Minimum Standard International Property Maintenance Code, adopted by Stonecrest under Chapter 7 (Buildings and Construction), sets sleeping-room minimums of 70 square feet for the first occupant and 50 square feet for each additional occupant in the same room. Third, life-safety occupant load for any dwelling rented to transients is determined by the State Minimum Standard Building Code and NFPA 101 as enforced by DeKalb County Fire Rescue Services, which provides fire-marshal coverage to Stonecrest. The 2022 Stonecrest residential rental housing ordinance (October 24, 2022) regulated where for-rent multifamily developments may be built but the city's Director of Planning and Zoning publicly stated that the ordinance does not address short-term rentals. DeKalb County's 2025 Short-Term Rental Ordinance (TA-24-1246762, adopted July 24, 2025; implementation extended through May 20, 2026) applies to unincorporated DeKalb County only and therefore does not impose a county occupancy cap inside Stonecrest. Georgia's 2025 House Bill 555 (Georgians First Residential Property Protection Act) addressed institutional ownership and did not preempt local STR occupancy. Operators must also obtain a Stonecrest Occupational Tax Certificate through the CitizenServe portal and remit Georgia's $5 per-night state hotel-motel fee and the local hotel-motel excise tax under O.C.G.A. 48-13-50 et seq.