Truckee HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

Any home rented for 30 nights or less needs a Town short-term rental (STR) Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate under Municipal Code chapter 5.02. Renting or advertising without one is a citable offense. Registrations are capped at 1,255 town-wide, and the Town says the cap has been reached. New applicants join a waitlist with a $100 non-refundable deposit, and the Town works through it in the order applications arrive.

The Town’s program rules, as its STR pages describe them:

Three points matter for boards. First, a Town certificate does not override your documents. Civil Code section 4741 limits how far an association can restrict rentals, but it does not stop an association from prohibiting rentals of 30 days or less. We found nothing on the Town’s STR pages that asks for an HOA’s approval, so do not count on the Town to check your CC&Rs.

Second, the Town’s 2025 report says 71% of complaints to its STR helpline were about parking, noise and trash. Those are the same problems associations hear about, so your own rules on parking and trash are worth having. Anyone can report a problem rental to the 24/7 helpline at 530-450-2430.

Third, rental rules are a sensitive subject when registrations are capped. Talk with your association’s attorney before your board changes them.

Truckee’s winter parking ban runs November 1 through April 30 (Municipal Code section 10.17.030). The Truckee Police Department enforces it, and a vehicle in the Town right-of-way can be towed, cited or both. The Town says parking behind the snow poles is not enough: the vehicle must be out of the public right-of-way.

For a board, this adds up to a snow plan: a contract for any private streets and lots, a place on your own land to put the snow, a rule for where guests park from November through April and a reminder to owners who rent. The plan is good practice, not a legal requirement. For roof snow, ask a structural engineer about your buildings.

The Truckee Fire Protection District is a separate special district, not a Town department. It has its own Defensible Space Ordinance 02-2012, and state law (Public Resources Code section 4291) calls for 100 feet of defensible space around structures, out to the property line. The district describes three zones:

The state law puts the duty on whoever owns, leases, controls or maintains a building, so for common-area buildings it falls on the association. Each owner handles their own lot unless your documents say otherwise.

One caution: Zone 0 can conflict with older landscape standards that call for bark mulch or shrubs against buildings. Review your architectural guidelines and common-area landscaping against the district’s zones.

For a board, the line that matters is where the district’s pipe ends and yours begins. Ask each district where its responsibility stops for the water service and sewer lines serving your buildings, and keep the answer with your reserve study.

One state deadline applies to every association with lawn. From January 1, 2029, state law (AB 1572) bars using drinking water on nonfunctional turf in HOA common areas. That means grass that is only decorative. Price any conversion into your budget early.

The Town’s trash guide says never to put trash outside before 5:00 a.m. on collection day unless it is in an approved bear shed, and that bear sheds must be kept securely shut. Trash must be in a can or a tightly secured bag. Food scraps are not collected at the curb because of wildlife.

The Town’s enclosure design guide (January 2020) sets these standards for bear sheds:

• Outside the Town right-of-way and within 28 feet of the roadway edge. Sheds farther away cost extra to service.
• Built of metal, stone, brick, concrete or a similar sturdy material.
• A front-facing door, room for two 32-gallon cans and a roof that sheds snow to the side or back.
• Plunging pins on the top and bottom latches.

The guide points to Municipal Code chapter 6 for waste rules and Development Code section 18.30.150 for design. Every registered short-term rental must also have a bear bin. If your association has shared enclosures, put the latch rule and the set-out time in your own rules so you can enforce them yourself.

Several charges on a Truckee property tax bill can look like association dues. They are not.

Several local districts place charges on Truckee tax bills, so read your own bill and call the agency named next to each charge. When the board budgets for roads, trails or wildfire work, check first whether a public charge already pays for it.

Civil Code section 4751 voids CC&R provisions that prohibit or unreasonably restrict an ADU or junior ADU on a lot zoned for single-family use. An association can still apply reasonable rules through architectural review. Tahoe Donner’s rules, for example, bar ADUs from being used as short-term rentals.

The Town offers ADU Creation Forgivable Loans of up to $50,000. In return, the owner rents the ADU on a lease of at least 12 months to an income-qualified local employee, at a rent the program sets. Ask the Planning Division at 530-582-7700 for the Town’s current ADU standards before your committee relies on a number.