York County does not require short-term rentals to be your primary residence. Any owner-occupancy or primary-residence restriction comes from your borough or township zoning ordinance, not the county.
Some Pennsylvania municipalities limit short-term rentals to owner-occupied or primary-residence homes, or permit non-owner-occupied STRs only in certain zoning districts. That choice belongs to each borough, city, and township under the PA Municipalities Planning Code. York County has no such requirement and cannot impose one, because it does not zone individual properties. So whether a York County STR must be your primary home depends entirely on the municipality where the property sits. Read your local zoning ordinance's definition of short-term rental and its permitted districts, or ask the zoning officer, before buying a property purely as a non-owner-occupied rental.
A primary-residence restriction is enforced by the municipality through zoning citations, cease-use orders, and zoning-hearing-board proceedings.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
York County, PA
The York County Solid Waste Authority actively encourages backyard composting and mulch-mowing and runs a county yard-waste drop-off at the Resource Recovery...
York County, PA
York County has no rule on artificial turf. Whether synthetic grass is allowed, and any permit or stormwater requirement, is decided by your borough, city, o...
York County, PA
York County does not require or ban native-plant landscaping. Native meadows and pollinator gardens are legal and encouraged, but any 'natural landscaping' e...
York County, PA
Pennsylvania places no restriction on collecting rainwater, and York County does not ban it. Rain barrels and cisterns for garden use are legal statewide; la...
York County, PA
York County imposes no countywide lawn-watering restriction. Limits, if any, are set by your water supplier (such as the York Water Company) or your municipa...
York County, PA
York County has no countywide weed ordinance. Noxious weeds and overgrown vegetation are declared a nuisance and abated by your borough, the City of York, or...
See how York County's primary-residence-only rule rules stack up against other locations.
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