Short-Term Rentals in Knox County: Rockland's Cap and Camden's New Ordinance

Rockland's 45-unit cap: in place since 2018, and still standing after a 2024 attempt to phase it out

Rockland's City Council voted 3-2 in February 2018 to cap the number of non-owner-occupied short-term rentals at 45, with the cap taking effect March 15, 2018 -- a limit that works out to just over 1% of the city's total housing stock. The cap applies specifically to properties where the owner doesn't live on site; short-term rentals in an owner's own home are not subject to the 45-unit ceiling. As of recent reporting, roughly 21 properties sit on a waitlist hoping for one of the 45 slots to open up.

The cap has faced real political pressure in both directions. In 2022, the council considered ending non-owner-occupied short-term rentals in residential zones entirely; that measure did not move forward. Then in July 2024, the council considered the opposite kind of change in the other direction -- a proposal to stop issuing any new non-owner-occupied permits by 2026, effectively phasing the category out over time -- and voted it down 2-3, preserving the existing 45-permit cap-and-waitlist system rather than winding it toward zero. For a buyer, the practical read is that Rockland's short-term-rental cap has now survived attempts to loosen it, tighten it, and eliminate it since 2018 -- a genuinely stable, if contested, local rule rather than one likely to change abruptly.

Camden's newer approach: full registration, licensing, and inspection, effective 2025

Camden took a different path. Voters approved a comprehensive short-term rental ordinance in June 2024, codified as Chapter 215 (Rentals, Short-Term) and Chapter 290 of the town's code, which became law effective January 1, 2025. Rather than a numeric cap on total units, Camden's system requires every residential, seasonal, or commercial short-term rental to register annually through an online portal, pass a life-safety inspection, and receive a registration license card bearing a unique licensing number -- with fees set from time to time by the town's Select Board. Unlike Rockland's non-transferable-but-uncapped-for-owner-occupants model, Camden's ordinance applies its registration and inspection requirements across the board rather than distinguishing owner-occupied from non-owner-occupied units by a hard number.

Because Camden's system is newer and still bedding in (effective barely a year as of this page's last review), expect ongoing procedural refinement -- fee amounts, inspection scheduling, and enforcement practice are all more likely to shift here than in Rockland's more than seven-year-old cap. Confirm current registration requirements and fees directly with Camden's Planning & Code Enforcement office rather than relying on an earlier summary of the ordinance.

What to actually check before buying for short-term rental use in Knox County

1. First confirm which town the parcel is actually in -- Rockland's numeric cap and Camden's registration/inspection system are genuinely different regimes, and neither one's rules should be assumed to apply in the other town or elsewhere in the county.
2. For a Rockland property intended as a non-owner-occupied rental, confirm directly with the city whether the specific address already holds one of the 45 capped permits -- a listing's rental history doesn't guarantee a transferable permit, and a property without one means joining a waitlist roughly 21 names deep.
3. For a Camden property, confirm current Chapter 215/290 registration status, fees, and inspection scheduling directly with the town, since procedures adopted for a January 2025 effective date are still likely to be refined.
4. For any other Knox County town -- including the county's unbridged island communities -- don't assume either Rockland's or Camden's approach applies; confirm that town's own rules directly, since short-term rental regulation in Maine is set town-by-town with no countywide standard.