Dear Editor -

Recently the Board of Supervisors discussed changes to the Vacation Rental by Owner (VRBO) guidelines; it will be coming up again at Tuesday's meeting. Based on what I've heard, I think one area could use just a little more clarification, and that's around the 10 person occupancy limit.

My understanding is this  limit is not just a random limit picked by the planning dept; this limit is to match up with state law. State code says if units have more than 10 person occupancy, they need to be treated as commercial units, not as boarding houses; those commercial regulations are more strict. (Please review the BOS packet for that week, Feb 9, 2016 - page 202 - for a discussion on this. I believe the state code is section 310.5 - Residential Group R-3 of the California Building Code.) Having our laws be out of sync with state laws causes problems; we need to line up with them.

This change is bringing county law into alignment with state law. If owners want to have more than 10 people, then they can - they just need to meet the commercial requirements. Or, of course, they can lobby the state to raise the limit.

I don't own a vacation rental unit, so I have no stake in the issue aside from wanting our county to be compliant with state law. But I thought this clarification would help people as they consider this issue.

Anne Brock
Mariposa, CA