Gardena, CA Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Permits (2026)

Section 5.76.040 sets the structural rules for Gardena's home sharing permit (HSP). Only owners or qualifying tenants of the proposed home sharing rental qualify, and subsection A caps each host to a single permit citywide. Subsection C fixes every permit to a five-year term running April 15 through April 14, five years later, with the current cycle running April 15, 2024 through April 14, 2029. Subsection D caps citywide issuance at one hundred permits per five-year period, with applications accepted only January 1 through February 15 of the cycle's first year; if more than one hundred qualified applications arrive in that window, the city allocates permits by lottery, and a qualified applicant not selected gets the permit fee refunded.

If fewer than one hundred qualified applications come in, remaining permits go out first-come, first-served for the rest of the cycle. Subsection E permanently bars anyone whose permit was previously revoked from getting a new one, and subsection F blocks issuance for any dwelling with a pending code enforcement action unless the permit itself would resolve it. Section 5.76.050 then governs the application: it must be notarized, accompanied by a council-set fee, and, once conditionally approved, the applicant has forty-five days to submit a business license, TOT registration and proof of insurance before the permit is actually issued.