Teller County commissioners voted unanimously to adopt Ordinance 23, establishing a regulatory structure for short-term rentals operating on unincorporated county land. Teller had been the sole remaining Colorado county without any rules governing STRs, and the push for oversight came in response to more than 850 such properties, a large share of which had generated reported violations.
Under the new rules, owners must register their property, secure a license, and demonstrate that they have held title for at least a full year — though an exemption applies to operators who can document that they already owned the property when the ordinance took effect. A $750 annual licensing fee is required, and owners must also enroll in Everbridge, the county's emergency alert network. Properties will additionally be open to inspection whenever violations are reported.
The Everbridge enrollment requirement reflects a hard lesson from recent local history. During a severe March 2023 snowstorm, guests stranded inside short-term rentals faced serious hardship in part because those properties were not connected to the county's alert system. Commissioners cited that event as evidence of the risks created by an unregulated sector.
Underlying the entire debate was the commissioners' position that STRs had never been a permitted use in Teller County to begin with. Before the vote on Sept. 10, the board heard from 40 residents, 38 of whom objected to at least some portion of the new requirements. Most speakers ran past their allotted three minutes, and the public hearing consumed four hours before commissioners moved to vote.
Requests from existing operators to be exempted from the new requirements drew a firm response. One commissioner told those seeking such an exemption, "You can't grandfather something that was never permitted but we can create an opportunity for existing STRs to be able to operate." Before casting his vote, another commissioner underscored that these owners had functioned without permits, citing the land use code's plain language: "Anything not defined in our land use regulations is prohibited."
On the matter of the annual fee, one commissioner said his own research showed that STR operators typically charge around $200 per night, framing the $750 charge as a modest cost relative to potential earnings. Commissioners also pointed to housing supply as a driving concern, with one stating, "We are concerned about the availability of residential housing within the county for our residents."
The board was careful to draw a distinction between regulation and prohibition, with one commissioner emphasizing that the county has no intention of banning STRs outright, a path some other jurisdictions have chosen. Commissioners also noted that the process leading to the vote had included public meetings held at locations throughout the county, a community-wide survey, and two years of public comment at regular commissioner meetings.
What specific compliance deadlines existing unregistered operators will face, and how county staff plan to pursue enforcement across the hundreds of affected properties, remains to be detailed publicly.