Calaveras cracks down on rowdy lake parties

By Dana M. Nichols

Record Staff Writer

January 23, 2013 12:00 AM

SAN ANDREAS – The famous around-the-clock parties at rented shorefront mansions on Lake Tulloch may be a little tamer this summer.

For the first time this year, owners of vacation rental homes at Tulloch could be required to get county permits for the businesses and will risk losing those permits if customers violate rules on noise, or the number of guests and cars allowed at each house.

The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0, with Board Chairwoman Merita Callaway absent, to introduce the ordinance. The board is expected to formally adopt the ordinance at its next meeting Feb. 12, and the measure will take effect 30 days after that.

“This was a long time coming,” said Jack Cox of the Lake Tulloch Alliance, a group that has advocated for restrictions on vacation rentals. “We finally get standards.”

The rented mansions can be big money makers. Online advertisements for the houses indicate that the most expensive, an 8-bedroom house with a water slide, can rent for up to $3,000 a night. More typical waterfront homes rent for anywhere from $300 to $800 a night.

For years, neighbors of the vacation rentals have complained about being kept awake by loud parties, vacationers’ cars blocking access to the area’s narrow streets, and swarms of ski boats and personal watercraft that overwhelm and overflow the small docks at the rental homes.

“They use my own dock without permission,” said Michel Cohen-Hadria, who said his family has lived at the lake since 1988 but has had problems with noisy vacation rentals next door only for the past two years.

“I’ve counted over 35 people in this house,” Cohen-Hadria said.

The capacity of the home advertised online is up to 20 occupants. Under the formula in the ordinance supervisors voted to introduce Tuesday, the 5-bedroom home could have up to 12 occupants – two for each of the five bedrooms plus two additional people. Children ages 3 and younger won’t count against the number of guests allowed.

Elected leaders were reluctant to impose regulation on an industry that brings revenue to county property owners.

And they didn’t want to allow the problems at Tulloch to prompt regulation of homes in Murphys and Arnold, which don’t have the same problems as Tulloch.

The solution, proposed by county staff, is to insert the ordinance in a section of the county code that addresses only Tulloch.

No representatives of the vacation rental industry spoke at Tuesday’s public hearing. But Bernadette Cattaneo, who has clashed with county officials over their attempts to crack down on the waterfront “bump” parties at the resort she manages on Tulloch, said she opposes the new regulations limiting how owners can use their houses.

“It’s a property rights issue,” Cattaneo said.

Contact reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 607-1361 or dnichols@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/calaverasblog.