A three-bedroom home on Sunset Lane in Pebble Beach is booked out most weekends this fall, listed on VRBO at more than $1,300 a night. Monterey County has not issued the property a permit to operate as a commercial vacation rental. Pebble Beach Company, which owns the private road the guests drive in on, has not given its consent either. The home is renting anyway, and as of late August 2026 nobody with actual authority over Del Monte Forest has forced it to stop.
That standoff is not a loophole. It is the current, unresolved state of short-term rental regulation in Pebble Beach, and it changes what a county permit is actually worth to anyone weighing a purchase here with rental income in mind. If your due diligence checklist stops at "does the county allow it," you are one step short of the real answer.
Two Owners, Two Approvals, No Requirement That They Agree
Del Monte Forest sits in unincorporated Monterey County, so county planning staff handle zoning and permits the way they would anywhere else in the unincorporated coastal zone. But Pebble Beach Company owns and operates the major private assets inside the Forest, including 17-Mile Drive and the network of private roads that reach most homes off it. Where a county-approved use meets a privately owned road, the county's permit and the road owner's consent are two separate approvals, and nothing in the county ordinance requires them to line up.
The county has been direct about this on its own vacation rental FAQ page: in Del Monte Forest, deed language and private access restrictions "may be enforced by the Pebble Beach Company," and the county says plainly that it cannot give legal advice or speak on the company's behalf. Its recommendation to applicants is to contact PBC's Architectural Review Office directly before filing anything with the county at all.
What the County Ordinance Actually Regulates
Monterey County's vacation rental rules sort every short-term rental into one of three categories:
- Homestay – the owner is present during the guest's stay. Allowed in all unincorporated areas, no cap.
- Limited Vacation Rental – the whole home, unhosted, rented up to three times a year. Also allowed everywhere, no cap.
- Commercial Vacation Rental – the whole home, unhosted, rented more than three times a year. This is the category that requires a discretionary permit, and it is capped at 4 percent of the housing stock in each planning area.
Here is the detail that matters for Pebble Beach specifically: the ordinance itself does not mention homeowners associations or CC&Rs at all. A county permit can be granted even if a private association or a company like Pebble Beach Company objects. The county's own guidance acknowledges this directly, framing any Del Monte Forest permit it issues as "conditional," with the condition being that the owner separately secure Pebble Beach Company's consent to use the private roads.
Pebble Beach Company has already answered that question for the entire Forest. Shortly after the county adopted its ordinance, the company issued a blanket objection to short-term rental operations across Del Monte Forest, arguing the CC&Rs already prohibit commercial use of homes.
The Timeline That Got Us Here
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| October 14, 2024 | County's inland vacation rental ordinance takes effect |
| 2024 | Pebble Beach Company issues a blanket objection to all vacation rentals in Del Monte Forest |
| August 13, 2025 | California Coastal Commission approves the coastal vacation rental ordinance |
| September 23, 2025 | Monterey County Board of Supervisors formally adopts the coastal ordinance |
| October 24, 2025 | Coastal ordinance takes effect |
| August 13, 2026 | County Zoning Administrator hears four Pebble Beach vacation rental applications, approves all four |
| August 25, 2026 | Hearing on the private-road objection is continued at Supervisor Kate Daniels's request |
The company's position has not softened since 2024. Its general counsel, Diane Goldman, put it to the county in writing:
"The plain meaning of the CC&R language bans short-term vacation rentals in the Del Monte Forest."
What the August Hearing Actually Decided
On August 13, 2026, the county's Zoning Administrator heard four vacation rental applications for Pebble Beach properties, including a second home on Sunset Lane, and approved all four. That approval covers the land use side of the equation only. It says nothing about whether guests can legally use the private road to reach the house.
Supervisor Kate Daniels, whose District 5 seat covers Pebble Beach, asked for the matter to be continued to give the board time to work through the CC&R and private road questions properly rather than relitigating the same appeal every time a new applicant comes forward. That continuance was set for August 25, 2026. The property manager for the Sunset Lane rental, Joseph Sennish of Carmel Coast Estates, has taken the opposite legal position from Pebble Beach Company, arguing the CC&Rs actually do give owners and their guests permission to use the roads. Neither side has backed down, and more appeals on other Pebble Beach applications are expected to follow the same pattern.
The practical upshot is that a Zoning Administrator's stamp of approval in Pebble Beach right now tells you the county thinks your rental clears its own rules. It tells you nothing about whether the company that owns your street agrees.
What This Means Before You Write an Offer
If a Pebble Beach property's income projection includes short-term rental revenue, the county permit is the easier half of the question. Before you count on that income:
- Pull the recorded CC&Rs for the specific parcel, not a general summary. Pebble Beach Company's objection rests on its reading of that language, and the exact wording varies by tract.
- Call Pebble Beach Company's Architectural Review Office directly and ask, in writing, whether the company will consent to guest use of the private road serving that address. Get the answer before assuming the income.
- Confirm which of the three county categories the property would need. A Homestay or a three-times-a-year Limited Vacation Rental faces a different fight than a Commercial Vacation Rental, since the company's objection has focused on commercial, unhosted use.
- Ask whether the seller has an existing county permit, and if so, whether Pebble Beach Company has sent that specific address an objection letter, separate from its 2024 blanket statement.
- Understand that a Zoning Administrator approval, like the four issued on August 13, 2026, resolves the land use question and nothing else.
None of this shows up on a listing sheet, and a county permit number in a rent roll can look like a settled fact when it is really one half of an argument still being fought address by address.
A Different Read for Current Owners
If you already own in Del Monte Forest and are weighing whether to formalize an existing rental, the same split applies in reverse. Getting county approval does not resolve your exposure to the company's objection, and operating without either approval, as the Sunset Lane property is currently doing, leaves you outside both systems at once. The Del Monte Forest Property Owners association tracks road and land use issues on behalf of Forest residents through its Roads & Land Use Committee, and its meetings are one of the more direct ways to hear how this dispute is developing before it reaches a listing you're trying to sell.
FAQ
Does a Zoning Administrator approval mean I can start renting immediately? It means the county has approved the land use. It does not mean Pebble Beach Company has consented to guests using the private road, and the company's 2024 blanket objection to Del Monte Forest rentals has not been withdrawn.
Does this affect Homestay rentals, where the owner is present? Pebble Beach Company's public objection and its dispute with the county have centered on unhosted, commercial rentals. A Homestay still requires county registration, and any owner considering one should confirm the company's position on that specific use rather than assume it falls outside the objection.
What if the seller already has a county permit on the home I'm buying? Ask whether Pebble Beach Company has sent an objection letter for that address specifically, not just relied on its general 2024 statement. A permit that transfers with the sale does not carry any separate consent from the company, since the two approvals are unrelated.
Pebble Beach real estate rewards buyers who ask the second question, not just the first one. If you are weighing a Del Monte Forest purchase and want a clear-eyed read on what a rental permit is actually worth on a specific street, Cheryl Heyermann has spent decades untangling exactly this kind of Monterey Peninsula complexity for buyers and sellers. Let's Connect.
