Short-Term Rentals in Summit County, Colorado: Basin Caps and Waitlists

The caps by basin -- and where license counts actually stand

Unincorporated Summit County's four STR basins carry distinct numeric caps under Ordinance 20-C: the Lower Blue Basin is capped at 550 licenses, the Upper Blue Basin at 590, the Snake River Basin at 130, and the Ten Mile Basin at just 20. As of recent reporting, Upper Blue had roughly 563 active Type II licenses issued -- still under its cap, with some room -- while the Snake River Basin had approximately 137 licenses issued against its 130 cap, and the Ten Mile Basin had about 24 against its cap of 20. Both of the latter two basins are effectively over their nominal cap already, a result of the grandfathering rules that let existing licenses at the time Ordinance 20-C took effect continue rather than being revoked down to the new number.

That distinction matters enormously for a buyer. A basin sitting at or above its cap through grandfathered licenses isn't simply tight -- it is, practically speaking, closed to brand-new licenses until an existing one is given up through natural attrition (a licensed property selling without the license transferring, or an owner voluntarily dropping it). Don't read a basin's cap number alone as an indicator of availability; the cap tells you the ceiling, not whether any room currently exists beneath it.

Waitlists are real, and they filled quickly

Summit County opened a formal STR license waitlist application window for the Lower Blue and Upper Blue basins on July 22, 2025. Within roughly five weeks, by August 29, 2025, the Lower Blue Basin waitlist had 124 applicants and the Upper Blue Basin waitlist had 86 -- a meaningful signal of pent-up demand even in a basin like Lower Blue that isn't yet reported as fully at cap. The county's stated approach is to manage license issuance through this kind of formal process once a basin's count nears roughly 90% of its cap, releasing new licenses as attrition (a sale without license transfer, or a voluntary license surrender) opens capacity, rather than issuing licenses on a simple first-come, first-served basis to anyone applying at any time.

For a buyer evaluating a specific parcel, this means a listing's short-term-rental income projection is only as good as the license actually attached to that property today. A property without an existing, transferable STR license in the Snake River or Ten Mile basin may realistically never obtain one under current rules; even in Lower Blue or Upper Blue, a new purchase could mean joining a waitlist with well over 100 people ahead of you rather than applying and receiving a license outright.

What to verify before counting on STR income from a specific parcel

• Ask Summit County Community Development for the current cap, issued-license count, and waitlist position for the specific basin the parcel sits in -- the figures above are a snapshot and change as licenses turn over.
• Confirm whether the property itself already holds an active, transferable STR license, rather than assuming the basin having "room" under its cap means a new application would succeed quickly.
• Ask specifically whether the parcel sits in the more permissive Resort Zone or the more restrictive Residential/Neighborhood overlay zone, since the two can face different practical rules within the same basin.
• If the parcel is on well water, confirm the additional compliance requirements Ordinance 20-C imposes on well-served short-term rentals before assuming municipal-water rules apply.