Short-Term Rentals in Monroe County, Pennsylvania

The county wrote a model ordinance -- but it's a template, not a law

Pennsylvania's Municipalities Planning Code makes zoning, and by extension short-term-rental regulation, a purely municipal function -- counties themselves normally have no direct role at all. Monroe County took an unusual step around this: the county drafted and published its own "Short Term Rental Model Ordinance," originally dated July 2019 and most recently republished by the county in a May 2022 PDF, intended as a template for the county's 16 townships and 4 boroughs to adopt as their own local law. The American Planning Association's own knowledgebase cites Monroe County's model ordinance by name as a notable planning resource -- a sign of how distinctive this county-level starting point genuinely is within Pennsylvania.

Critically, though, a model ordinance is exactly that: a template a municipality can adopt wholesale, adopt with modifications, or decline to adopt at all. It has no legal force in a specific township or borough until that municipality's own governing body actually enacts it as a local ordinance -- which means "Monroe County has a short-term-rental model ordinance" is not the same statement as "short-term rentals are regulated the same way everywhere in Monroe County." They are not.

What the model ordinance actually addresses

The Monroe County model ordinance covers the range of provisions a vacation-rental ordinance typically addresses -- registration and permitting requirements, occupancy limits, parking and noise standards, and local contact/response requirements for complaints. One notable structural feature: it distinguishes an individual owner renting out a single property from what it treats as a functionally commercial, portfolio-scale operation, applying its most restrictive "corporate" short-term-rental provisions specifically to any owner (individual or entity) holding 10 or more short-term-rental properties. That tiered approach is a meaningfully different regulatory posture from a flat, one-size-fits-all rule, and it's worth knowing about if you're evaluating a multi-property rental portfolio rather than a single vacation home.

How individual townships actually implemented it: real, documented differences

Coolbaugh Township has built out what appears to be the county's most mature short-term-rental licensing regime under this framework, with close to 1,000 active short-term-rental licenses and a 14-person occupancy cap, allowing short-term rentals broadly within its residential zoning areas subject to permits and inspections. Middle Smithfield, Jackson, Paradise, Barrett, and Tunkhannock townships likewise have their own short-term-rental ordinances in place permitting the use with a permit.

Pocono Township took a meaningfully more restrictive approach: rather than permitting short-term rentals broadly across its residential districts, its ordinance confines new short-term rentals to its Commercial (C) and Recreational District (RD) zones, excluding its R-1 and R-2 residential districts entirely. Polk Township's more recent ordinance revisions similarly disallow short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods. That divergence -- a genuinely broad, license-based regime in one township bordering a district-restrictive regime in the next -- is a direct, documented consequence of the model ordinance being adopted (or not, or with amendments) independently by each municipality's own governing body.

It has already been tested in court: Pocono Township, 2019

This framework is not merely theoretical or unenforced -- Pocono Township's 2019 ordinance addressing "Transient Dwelling Use of Single-Family Dwellings" was the subject of a real legal challenge, confirming both that the county's model-ordinance framework was already being implemented and enforced by that year, and that it has faced genuine legal scrutiny over how a municipality defines and restricts short-term rental use. Anyone evaluating a Monroe County property specifically for short-term-rental income should treat the current local ordinance -- not the county's original model language, and not a general sense that "the Poconos allow this" -- as the operative rule to confirm.

What to check before treating a Monroe County parcel as short-term-rental-ready

1. Identify the exact township or borough and zoning district for the specific parcel -- Coolbaugh's broad residential allowance and Pocono Township's commercial/recreational-only restriction sit within the same county under the same original model ordinance, so location within Monroe County alone tells you very little.
2. Ask the municipality directly for its current, actually-enacted short-term-rental ordinance text -- not the county's original 2019/2022 model-ordinance PDF, which is a template a municipality may have adopted, amended, or declined.
3. If evaluating a multi-property rental portfolio, check whether the municipality applies Monroe County's model "corporate" short-term-rental provisions (typically triggered at 10 or more properties under common ownership) -- these carry materially different, more restrictive requirements than a single-property registration.
4. Confirm any private community, HOA, or lake-association rules separately from the municipality's zoning -- many Monroe County developments carry their own rental restrictions regardless of what the township allows.
5. Do not rely on an existing Airbnb or VRBO listing as proof of legal, permitted operation -- ask the seller for the specific municipal permit or license number and verify it directly with the township or borough.