"I can imagine the lawsuit that would follow."
Graham Anderson wasn't describing a boating accident on Lake Tulloch. As president of the Conner Estates Homeowners Association, he was warning Calaveras County planning commissioners what happens when a county rental permit tells a homeowner yes, and that homeowner's own HOA has already said no. His comment came during a 2012 hearing over rental rules for Lake Tulloch's subdivisions, and more than a decade later, the gap he flagged is still the thing most out-of-town buyers miss.
If you're looking at a Copperopolis or Lake Tulloch property with an eye toward renting it out between visits, you've probably already searched some version of "are short-term rentals legal in Calaveras County." The answer you'll find is yes. What most of those answers leave out is that the county's rules are only half the picture, and for a lot of Lake Tulloch subdivisions, they aren't even the more restrictive half.
What the county actually requires right now
Start with the part that's settled. Guests booking a short-term stay anywhere in unincorporated Calaveras County, which includes Copperopolis, currently pay a 12 percent Transient Occupancy Tax, according to Airbnb's own tax collection guidance. That rate isn't new. Calaveras County held its TOT at 6 percent for 44 years before voters approved Measure G in November 2018, doubling it to 12 percent to help fund fire response, sheriff's patrols, and road repair, per the county's ballot measure summary.
The registration side is messier. As of a January 2025 Board of Supervisors meeting reported by the Calaveras Enterprise, short-term rentals were still regulated by name in only four subdivisions in the Lake Tulloch area, through existing county code. Everywhere else in the unincorporated county, more than 700 short-term rentals were already registered with the Tax Collector for TOT purposes, operating without a subdivision-specific rulebook.
The ordinance that keeps not quite arriving
The county has been trying to close that gap with a countywide Short-Term Vacation Rental ordinance since at least 2024. A draft went out for public comment, and written comments on the Initial Study Checklist were due by September 13, 2025, according to a notice from the Community Action Project. At the January 28, 2025 supervisors' meeting, staff indicated the Planning Commission would likely hear the item within a month and return it to the Board within two to three months after that.
That timeline has come and gone. Eighteen months on from that meeting, the most recent reporting we could confirm still describes the ordinance as a draft working its way through review, not a final adopted framework. The direction it's taking has shifted along the way too. Supervisors leaned toward a registration process handled through the Tax Collector's office rather than a lengthy standalone permit system, specifically to avoid overwhelming county staff given how many rentals already exist.
Here's how the current rules and the pending draft compare on the questions that actually matter to a buyer:
| Question | What applies today | What the draft proposes |
|---|---|---|
| Where are rentals regulated by name | Four Lake Tulloch subdivisions, via existing county code | Countywide |
| How you get authorized | Varies by subdivision | Registration through the Tax Collector, not a standalone permit |
| Occupancy limit | Set locally where regulated | Two people per bedroom plus two more per property, excluding children under 3 |
| Transient Occupancy Tax | 12 percent | Unchanged |
| Whether your HOA can still say no | Not addressed | Not addressed |
That last row is the whole point of this post.
The rule that isn't in any version of the county code
Whatever the countywide ordinance ends up saying, it will not answer the one question that decides whether a Lake Tulloch buyer can actually list their property: what does the homeowners association say. Calaveras County Planning Commissioner Michelle Plotnik made this explicit back in 2012, telling fellow commissioners the county was "not enforcing HOA code here" and that bans were up to individual HOAs to decide. That division of authority hasn't changed. A short-term rental data resource covering Copperopolis puts it plainly: county rule functions as a floor, and HOA rules can be, and often are, more restrictive, so buyers need to confirm CC&Rs and bylaws before assuming any rental rights, according to strprofitmap's regulatory summary.
This is exactly the scenario Anderson was warning about. His fear wasn't that the county would refuse to regulate short-term rentals. It was that a homeowner could clear every county hurdle, get registered, start renting, and still be in violation of the deed restrictions their own subdivision already has on the books. Not everyone in that 2012 debate agreed restrictions were the answer. Copperopolis business owner Robin Groves pushed back, telling commissioners her own numbers showed renter traffic dropping every September as second-home owners headed back to the Bay Area, and that a subdivision-specific rule felt premature. Jack Cox, a former president of the Copper Cove at Lake Tulloch Owners Association, countered that argument with an economic impact study from his own advocacy group, the Lake Tulloch Alliance, siding with Anderson's push for tighter rules.
Both of those positions still exist inside Lake Tulloch's HOA structure today. Some associations actively want tighter rental control. Others worry about the local businesses that depend on renter traffic. Neither position is written into the county's TOT rate or its pending ordinance. It's written into each subdivision's own governing documents, and those documents don't show up in a general search for Calaveras County short-term rental law.
What this means before you write an offer
If income potential is part of why you're looking at a Copperopolis or Lake Tulloch property, run this sequence before you get attached to a number:
- Request the CC&Rs and any rental policy amendments for the specific subdivision, before you write an offer, not during your contingency period.
- Call the HOA management company directly and ask whether short-term rentals are currently permitted, restricted, or under any kind of moratorium or pending vote.
- Confirm whether the property sits in one of the subdivisions already named under the county's existing rental code, or in the larger pool waiting on the countywide ordinance.
- Register for a Transient Occupancy Tax certificate with the county Tax Collector before your first booking goes live.
- Watch for the ordinance's next hearing dates, since occupancy formulas and registration steps could still shift once it reaches a final vote.
None of this shows up on a listing sheet. It shows up in a phone call to an HOA office and a read through a document most buyers don't ask for until after they've already fallen for the dock.
A few questions worth asking out loud
Does buying outside the four regulated Lake Tulloch subdivisions mean fewer restrictions? Not necessarily. It means the county's specific rental code doesn't apply yet, but any HOA anywhere in the Copperopolis area can adopt its own rental restrictions independent of what the county eventually decides, and many already have opinions on the subject.
What's the actual occupancy limit I should plan around? It depends on which subdivision you're in today. The draft ordinance's proposed formula, two people per bedroom plus two additional per property, gives a working benchmark, but it hasn't been finalized.
Where do I even register for TOT? Through the Calaveras County Tax Collector's office, which handles Transient Occupancy Tax filing and business license applications for the county.
The county's rules are real, and they matter. But they were never designed to answer whether your specific subdivision allows the thing you're planning to do with the property. That answer lives in a document your title company won't automatically pull for you.
If you're comparing Lake Tulloch or Copperopolis properties with rental income in mind, that's exactly the kind of diligence Baxter Luxury Home Team walks through with buyers before an offer goes in, not after. Reach out for a consultation, and we'll help you read the HOA file the way you'd read an inspection report, before it becomes the reason an escrow falls apart.
