"No trade, business or profession of any description shall be conducted on said premises." That sentence comes from a grant deed recorded on December 20, 1929, for a parcel on Sunset Lane in Pebble Beach. It sits at the center of the most important short-term rental question in the Del Monte Forest right now.
If you are buying in Pebble Beach and expecting rental income to cover part of the cost of owning, this matters more than the price. Monterey County now issues vacation rental permits inside the gates. But each one comes with a condition that keeps the home from being rented until a private dispute with Pebble Beach Company is settled. The County has approved the use. Whether the home can actually be rented is still undecided.
A permit that arrives with "not yet" attached
The County spent years writing this framework. Its vacation rental operating rules were adopted as Ordinance No. 5424 on September 10, 2024. Because Pebble Beach is in the coastal zone, the County's coastal rules for vacation rentals also needed California Coastal Commission approval. KION reported that the Commission approved the County's amendment in August 2025. Applications followed, and so did appeals from neighbors.
The first appeal to reach the Board of Supervisors involved a home on Sunset Lane. Monterey County NOW reported that the Board heard it July 7. Supervisor Kate Daniels, whose District 5 includes Pebble Beach, asked to continue it so the Board could understand the CC&Rs and the private road issues. Otherwise, she said, "we're going to have this same appeal play out over and over and over again."
The County's legislative record shows the matter as passed, with final action on August 25, 2026. Citizen Portal's account of the meeting says the Board denied the appeal and approved the permit. It also says the approval came with conditions requiring the private road access issues to be resolved before the rental can operate. As of this writing, the official minutes for that meeting are still in draft.
The key condition is No. 6. The staff report to the Board says it requires the applicant to give the County's Housing and Community Development staff documentation of two things. First, that the private road dispute "has been satisfactorily resolved." Second, that renting the home doesn't violate the deed restrictions or the private road agreement. The County accepts three kinds of proof:
- A written agreement from the parties to the private road
- A final settlement
- A final judicial determination
That proof has to come before the vacation rental use begins.
A 1929 deed doing the work of a road agreement
The County has said clearly that it does not enforce CC&Rs. The staff report calls them "private civil issues between property owners and the enforcing entity," and in Pebble Beach that entity is Pebble Beach Company. On its own, that would make the deed restriction a matter between the owner and the company.
The County does regulate private roads, though. Its vacation rental rules send applicants to Title 16, Chapter 16.80, which governs private roads countywide. Pebble Beach Company owns and maintains the roads inside the Forest. For the Sunset Lane parcel, staff found that the original 1929 deed is the private road access agreement. Under Chapter 16.80, that put the parcel in the Tier 4 category, where the deed language serves as both the road agreement and the road maintenance agreement.
That deed has two parts. The fifth restriction covers access. In it, the owner gives up the right of free ingress and egress and agrees to pay the grantor a fee to support upkeep of the roads and the Forest:
"...hereby agrees to pay the Grantor on the first day of March of each and every year hereafter, the sum of Twenty-Five Dollars ($25.00)..."
Staff summed it up plainly. Under the deed, the owner has access to the property "as long as they pay $25 each March 1st." The same document also contains the first restriction, which bars any trade, business, or profession and limits the land to a single private residence.
Because the access right and the use restriction sit in the same deed, the County ends up dealing with the CC&R question after all. It has no power to enforce the no-business clause. But the road access it does regulate comes from a deed that contains that clause. The company points to the first restriction, and the County has to see proof that the road dispute is settled. That is how a 97-year-old sentence became a condition on a 2026 permit.
Three layers, decided by different parties
A rental-ready Pebble Beach home has to clear three separate layers, and they behave differently when the home is sold.
| Layer | Who decides | Term | What happens at a sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coastal Development Permit | County Zoning Administrator, or the Board of Supervisors on appeal | Seven years, with extension requests due at least 30 days before expiration | The conditions of approval run with the land |
| Vacation Rental Operation License | County, issued to a named operator | One year, renewable annually | Does not run with the land and is not transferable |
| Private road dispute resolution | Written agreement of the road parties, a final settlement, or a final judicial determination | Must be documented before renting begins | Pebble Beach Company currently objects to all short-term rentals |
The operating license is the one buyers most often miss. The County code says a license "covers only the operator identified on the license" and "does not run with the land and is not transferable." Renewal is strict. If the County doesn't receive the renewal notice and fees at least 30 calendar days before expiration, the license expires and the operator has to apply again. The full text is in the Monterey County Code, Chapter 7.120.
The permit layer also has a hard cap. The Del Monte Forest Land Use Plan allows no more than 57 Coastal Development Permits for commercial vacation rentals at any one time. The Sunset Lane approval was described as the third. With so few permits issued against the cap, the cap is not what limits rentals in the Forest today. The road condition is.
Where the dispute stands in October 2026
Pebble Beach Company's position has stayed the same since 2024. As Monterey County NOW reported, the company filed a blanket objection to short-term rentals shortly after the Board adopted its ordinances. Its general counsel wrote to the County that "the plain meaning of the CC&R language bans short-term vacation rentals in the Del Monte Forest." The County's staff report agrees on one point. Approving a permit "does not limit the ability of the Pebble Beach Company to enforce CC&Rs as a separate matter."
The other side has an argument too. In the same Monterey County NOW article, a representative of the firm managing one permitted home said the CC&Rs do give owners and guests permission to use the private roads. He also said that under the Coastal Act, short-term rentals advance the goal of public access to the coast. He suggested the company could charge guests resort fees, adding that "an adversarial relationship is not good for anyone."
More applications are moving forward. The Zoning Administrator approved four Pebble Beach applications on August 13. Another Sunset Lane application went to the Zoning Administrator on September 24. The staff report for it said approval would make it the fifth permitted vacation rental in the Del Monte Forest. It recommended the same requirement to document the road dispute within 60 days after the appeal period ends. The County's posted record does not yet show a final result for that hearing. Decisions in the coastal zone can also be appealed to the Coastal Commission, which opens its own 10-working-day appeal window once it receives notice of the final local action.
The public record does not show a written agreement, settlement, or court ruling that resolves the road question. Until one of those exists, each new permit carries the same condition as the last.
What this changes about a rental pro forma
For a buyer, this changes which documents determine a home's rental income. A listing may truthfully say a home has an approved vacation rental permit. The questions that matter are about the rest:
- The deed. Does the parcel's original grant deed contain access language and a no-business restriction like the 1929 Sunset Lane deed? Staff treated that deed as the road agreement, so each parcel's own wording matters.
- The condition. Does the permit include a private road condition like No. 6? Has the owner submitted any of the three accepted forms of proof?
- The license. Who holds the operating license? Because the license is issued to a named operator and does not transfer, a new owner would apply in their own name.
- The calendar. When does the Coastal Development Permit's seven-year term run out, and when is the license renewal due?
The answers decide whether rental income is a current fact or depends on a dispute nobody has resolved yet. This is general information about how the County process works, not legal, tax, or financial advice. A real estate attorney and a title professional can review how the deed and CC&Rs apply to a specific parcel.
Frequently asked questions
Does a County permit mean Pebble Beach Company has agreed to the rental? No. The County says it does not enforce CC&Rs. It also says approving a permit does not limit the company's ability to enforce them separately.
Can rental guests use the private roads under the $25 deed payment? That is the open question. The deed reviewed by County staff grants access to the owner, "his family, servants and employees." The company reads the deed's no-business clause as ruling out short-term rentals. The applicant's side reads the road rights more broadly.
Is the 57-permit cap close to being reached? Not based on the staff reports. The August Sunset Lane approval was described as the third permit, and the September application as what would be the fifth.
If you are weighing a Pebble Beach purchase where rental income is part of the plan, or you own in the Forest and want to understand where your parcel stands, I can help you pull the deed, read the permit conditions, and look at the numbers both with and without rental income. Ryan Sherman offers that review as part of a private consultation. Schedule a private consultation and we will start with your parcel's own paperwork.
