County officials are weighing a temporary ban on new short-term rentals in West Marin, answering calls for stricter regulations amid a shortage of affordable housing. This month, the Board of Supervisors will consider an ordinance freezing new vacation rentals for at least 45 days and up to two years. The moratorium would go into effect immediately and would not affect existing vacation rentals.
“This is just putting a pause on what’s been happening so we can actually develop good policy on the matter,” Supervisor Dennis Rodoni told the Light. “I don’t think the moratorium will actually come to an end until we have a better policy.”
This week’s announcement comes as Marin drafts an update of the Housing Element, the set of policies it will use to encourage the creation of more homes over the next eight years. At meetings meant to drum up community involvement in the policies, West Marin residents repeatedly pointed to the proliferation of short-term rentals. Airbnbs and similar rentals snatched up many places that could house long-term residents, they said, further narrowing an already limited supply.
“You’re talking about a situation where there’s not a lot of housing supply in the first place,” said Sarah Jones, the assistant director of the Community Development Agency. “When homes go out of residential use into this commercial use, even a small number has a big impact on a community.”
Ms. Jones, who will present the ordinance to supervisors on May 24, said the moratorium would help “stabilize the situation” and buy the county time to consider a permanent policy.
This isn’t Marin’s first initiative to harness tourism to encourage more affordable housing. In 2018, voters approved Measure W, adding 4 percent to the transient occupancy tax on West Marin hotels and vacation rentals. The move funneled money into housing and fire protection, arguably the top priorities for coastal communities. Though the pandemic put a damper on its revenue, Measure W has provided indispensable project funding. The proposed moratorium would cover the same area.
To operate a legal short-term rental in Marin, property owners must obtain a business license and a certificate to pay the transient occupancy tax. Since 2018, operators have also been required to notify neighbors of the rental, provide a local contact person to respond to complaints and post house rules about noise, garbage and parking restrictions.
The county lacks comprehensive data on the number of vacation rentals but is combining Measure W taxpayer and business license information to come up with a count. In some areas, upward of 20 percent of housing units are used as short-term rentals, Ms. Jones said, but added: “There was never a limit on how many there could be, so it wasn’t monitored for that reason.” Business license records show around 550 active short-term rentals in West Marin.
In 2020, Sonoma County capped vacation rentals in a few areas and is considering requiring licenses in unincorporated areas. Last year, South Lake Tahoe barred vacation rentals from residential neighborhoods. Marin officials said they’re looking to places like Sonoma and Tahoe as models but want to cater permanent policy to West Marin’s specific needs. Keeping some number of the rentals is important, county planner Kathleen Kilgariff said. “The county has always been a place where people come for vacation, and we have a long history of people operating short-term rentals in some capacity,” she said.
Even if the supervisors reject the ordinance, Ms. Jones said her staff will continue to work on ways to better regulate vacation rentals. “Everything’s on the table,” she said.