Santa Rosa, CA Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Parking Rules (2026)

060(C) ties Short-Term Rental occupancy directly to on-site parking capacity: the maximum number of guests a permit can host is capped at whatever the required parking spaces support, regardless of the general two-per-bedroom, ten-person ceiling in subsection (A), except in the CMU, SMU, MMU, and NMU mixed-use zoning districts, where occupancy is instead set by the number of bedrooms offered for Short-Term Rental use. Every Short-Term Rental must provide one off-street parking space for each bedroom put up for rent. The code specifies real dimensions: a garage or carport space must measure at least nine and one-half feet wide by 19 feet long and be clear of obstructions such as laundry or HVAC equipment; a standard uncovered space must be at least nine feet by 19 feet; and a parallel space must be at least eight feet by 22 feet, shrinking to eight by 20 feet only where one end is already boxed in.

Owners cannot pad out the count with the street: where legal on-street parking exists, no more than a single on-street space may be credited toward the minimum. A garage or driveway counted toward the requirement has to actually stay available to the renter for parking, not storage. The same subsection bars locating required parking in a front or street-side setback except on a driveway, and separately forbids blocking a fire apparatus access road, since Fire Department access must reach within 150 feet of the farthest point of the structure. These standards apply in addition to, not instead of, the daytime-guest and total-occupancy limits in subsections (A) and (B).