"The Borough would enforce the ordinance as written."
That line appears in the Mount Gretna Borough Council's March 2026 meeting minutes, which describe a dispute over the borough's rental cap. A short-term rental owner had asked for a license above the borough's cap of eighteen, pointing to language in the Pennsylvania Chautauqua's own bylaws that seemed to allow exceptions. The Chautauqua's president was consulted. The answer came back anyway: no exception, cap holds.
Most real estate guides to Mount Gretna will tell you about the lake, the art show, the Jigger Shop. All true, all worth knowing if you already live here. But if you're standing in front of a specific cottage with a specific offer in mind, a key point is that the property may also be subject to rules set by the governing body of its historic district.
Three Cottages, Three Owners' Manuals
Mount Gretna has three separate areas with distinct governance structures. The Pennsylvania Chautauqua received its charter in January 1892 and held its first assembly that July. It's a stockholder-governed corporation, not a homeowners association in the usual sense, and it publishes governance communications to registered stockholders through its own channels. The Mount Gretna Campmeeting Association was chartered in March 1892 by the United Brethren as a camp-meeting community, and it's still governed today by a volunteer Board of Managers who post their own meeting minutes and financial reports. Mount Gretna Heights is the newest and least formal of the three: an unincorporated community in West Cornwall Township, run by its own homeowners association, with no historic charter behind it.
Here's what that means at the level of a single cottage:
| District | Governing body | Chartered | What it controls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chautauqua | Pennsylvania Chautauqua (stockholder corporation) | January 1892 | Rental caps, architectural character, stockholder assessments |
| Campmeeting | Mt. Gretna Campmeeting Association (MGCA) | March 1892 | Rental permits, cottage sale documents, building and tree-removal permits |
| Heights | Mount Gretna Heights Association (HOA) | Not historically chartered | Association dues bundling trash, water, and sewer service |
None of these three bodies answers to the other two. A buyer moving from a standard subdivision HOA into any of these districts is used to one set of covenants. Here you're asking which of three.
How the Rental Cap Entered Borough Law
The rental cap is the clearest example of how these private structures reach into public regulation. In July 2023, Pennsylvania Chautauqua stockholders voted among themselves to cap short-term rental licenses at eighteen. That was an internal vote by a private corporation. Two months later, the Mount Gretna Borough Council took up a motion to adopt that same cap into Chapter 137 of the borough's codified ordinances, the chapter that governs rental property borough-wide. Once adopted, the cap stopped being a Chautauqua house rule and became enforceable municipal law, binding on any rental license issued by the borough, not just Chautauqua properties.
As of January 2026, the borough reported all eighteen licenses were spoken for. The ordinance includes a waitlist mechanism: once a license count drops below eighteen, the next name on the list gets notified and has 90 days to comply with the rest of the rental ordinance. If you're buying with rental income in the plan, that waitlist, not the listing description, is the number that actually matters.
How the Borough Applies the Cap
The March exception request illustrates how the borough applies the rental cap, including to a Chautauqua stockholder. The borough solicitor's position was that the Chautauqua's internal bylaws might carve out exceptions for its own members, but the borough's ordinance, once adopted, is a separate legal instrument that the borough enforces on its own terms.
For a buyer, the practical points are that the cap is real and it's currently full.
Assessment Payments and Rental Licenses
The March meeting also addressed rental owners' unpaid assessments. Betsy Goepfert, reporting to the council, noted that five short-term rental owners were past due on their Pennsylvania Chautauqua and Mount Gretna Water Authority assessments, and asked what could be done about licenses that had already been approved for those properties. At that point, enforcement wasn't automatic.
By July 2026, the borough had addressed that enforcement gap. LebTown reported that the council amended the residential rental ordinance so that license holders must pay their normal taxes and assessments by their due dates, and the borough now has explicit authority to revoke a rental license for non-payment. That change ties a private association's dues collection directly to a public license. Fall behind on your Chautauqua assessment or your water authority bill, and you can lose the ability to rent your cottage at all.
If You're Not Planning to Rent It
Skip the rental math and this still shapes your purchase. Campmeeting cottages carry their own paperwork trail at the point of sale. The MGCA maintains a dedicated set of "Cottage Sale Documents" alongside its rules and regulations, separate from anything Lebanon County requires, and buyers of Campmeeting properties should expect to review the association's charter and bylaws as part of due diligence, not as an afterthought. Real estate listings for Campmeeting cottages routinely flag rental permits, a detail worth confirming before making an offer.
Heights properties run differently. The association fee there is typically structured to bundle services, trash pickup, water, and sewer, into a single line item, which changes how you should compare a Heights cottage's carrying costs against a Campmeeting or Chautauqua property where those utilities may be billed separately through the Mount Gretna Authority, the water and sewer authority the borough created in 1974.
These details are worth confirming before making an offer.
Before you write an offer on a Mount Gretna cottage, find out:
- Which of the three districts the property sits in
- Whether that district's association has its own rental permit process separate from any municipal license
- The current status of the borough's 18-license cap and whether a waitlist spot is realistic on your timeline
- Whether the seller is current on association and water authority assessments
- What sale-related documents the district's association requires beyond the standard PA deed
A Few Questions Buyers Ask
If the rental cap is full, can I still buy a cottage and rent it eventually? Only through the borough's waitlist process. Names are notified in order as licenses become available, and once notified you have 90 days to complete the rest of the rental ordinance's requirements. There's no guarantee of timing.
Does the cap apply the same way in all three districts? The cap of 18 is a borough-wide ordinance, so it governs rental licenses issued by the Borough of Mount Gretna. Mount Gretna Heights sits in West Cornwall Township rather than the borough, so its rental rules run through separate township and association channels rather than this specific ordinance.
A Mount Gretna cottage purchase may involve the buyer, the seller, and the governing body for the property's district. Identifying the applicable rules before making an offer can help clarify what buyers should review.
If you're weighing a cottage in the Campmeeting, the Chautauqua, or the Heights, Sarah Lingle can walk you through which association rules apply to a specific address and what that means for your closing timeline. Schedule a Free Consultation to start with the right questions instead of the ones that surface later.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
