New vacation rental restrictions approved in Santa Cruz County

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Santa Cruz County approved new restrictions on short-term rentals to alleviate the county's housing crisis

The proposed changes were unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

These restrictions will also help mitigate the number of vacation homes. The total number of non-hosted rentals would be limited to 270 homes.

Those are locations where the property owner does not live on-site.

Hosted rentals with the owner living on-site would be capped at 250 homes. 

A county report shows that 665 of the 841 vacation rentals available within Santa Cruz County were unhosted.

The new rules would require rental platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo to remove illegal listings or face penalties.

Another rule would see landlords by former evicted tenants six-month rent if the property becomes a vacation home after living there.