County planners have proposed new limits on the number of Airbnbs and other short-term rentals in West Marin—but the caps are far higher than affordable housing advocates had sought.

The county’s draft regulations allow unlimited short-term rentals with a host onsite, but cap those that are unhosted, meaning the property is not the owner’s primary residence. The caps are based on recent numbers of all existing S.T.R.s—hosted and unhosted. Affordable housing advocates say the proposal effectively allows for an expansion of the short-term rental market.

“Against our community’s will, this draft ordinance prioritizes commercial interests, second-home owners and vacation renters ahead of the housing needs of local residents,” said Eoin McMillan, a Bolinas resident and member of the advocacy group West Marin Residents for Housing. 

Under the draft rules, property owners would be limited to one short-term rental regardless of whether it is hosted or unhosted. If their property has a second unit that is registered as an accessory dwelling unit, it could not be used as an S.T.R., but the primary residence could. Accessory dwelling units are a key part of California’s strategy to ease a statewide housing shortage.

The proposed caps on unhosted short-term rentals would vary by community, and they would not be immediately enforced. Instead, they would be reached over time as existing Airbnb and other S.T.R. operators leave the rental market or sell their homes. Until then, those owners would be able to renew their two-year licenses.

Currently registered operators would have to purchase a new license when the rules are approved, and they would first have to submit a certified septic system inspection. County planners believe the new septic requirement will discourage some homeowners from seeking a license, as many homes have outdated septic systems and bringing them up to code is expensive. 

S.T.R. operators could lose their license if they repeatedly violate any terms of the new rules, which lay out requirements for parking, trash disposal and noise.

The county hopes to finalize new rules by Jan. 31, before the current two-year moratorium on new S.T.R.s expires next spring. Officials adopted the moratorium and began drafting new regulations because they feared vacation rentals were reducing the supply of affordable housing available in West Marin and driving out ordinary workers, many of them long-term residents. 

Sarah Jones, director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, said the regulations are intended to allow homeowners some flexibility to rent while preventing corporations and absentee investors from buying up West Marin’s housing stock.

“We wanted to support short-term rentals as an activity in West Marin but find a way to minimize their impacts on the housing supply and housing affordability,” she said.

Those who have advocated for tighter restrictions were disappointed by the proposal. David Kimball, a Bolinas resident and member of West Marin Residents for Housing, said his group has been pushing for a 50 percent reduction in S.T.R.s.

“There are just so many people who have grown up here but don’t live here anymore because they can’t afford it,” he said. “People have left town and moved to Novato or Petaluma, but they’re still driving over here to work. The sum total of this is that short-term rentals are diminishing community.”

Some cities and towns elsewhere in the state have adopted much more stringent rules. San Diego limits S.T.R. permits to just 1 percent of its housing stock. In San Francisco, S.T.R. operators must live on the property and can only rent for 30 days a year. In the city of Ojai, short-term rentals are banned in residential areas.

Before implementing the moratorium, the county gave homeowners several months to obtain business licenses if they hadn’t already done so. About 70 West Marin property owners took advantage of that window, bringing the overall number of registered S.T.R.s from 551 to 621. That number represents 12 percent of the housing stock. 

County planners say they do not have reliable data on how many of those rentals have a host onsite. They established the proposed caps, which vary by community, using the total number of S.T.R.s before the moratorium. 

In Bolinas, the current number of short-term rentals is 63. If the regulations are approved, the number would eventually drop to 54. In Dillon Beach, S.T.R.s would eventually drop from 125 to 110. In Marshall, the number would barely change at all, falling from 28 to 27.

Housing advocates say those changes are misleading because the county included both hosted and unhosted rentals in its baseline for caps on unhosted rentals. As a result, the rules allow for an increase in unhosted short-term rentals, they say.

Leila Monroe, a Bolinas resident who is also a member of West Marin Residents for Housing, said the proposed rules were “dismaying.” 

“The ordinance actually contemplates a 122 percent increase in the number of unhosted S.T.R.s in West Marin,” she said.

Ms. Monroe said the county has previously shared figures for its hosted and unhosted rentals. But Kathleen Kilgariff, a county planner, said that data was unreliable. 

Ms. Kilgareff, who helped draft the proposed rules, stressed that they must be approved by the Marin County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, which will hold public hearings before adopting them.

“This process is not over,” she said. “We’re just putting forward recommendations. People will be able to provide feedback, and if the planning commissioners or supervisors want to change the numbers, they have the authority to do so.”

Even after the county approves the regulations, the California Coastal Commission, whose dual mission is to protect the environment and allow public access to the coast, must sign off. 

In public hearings before the rules were drafted, county planners faced intense debates. Some homeowners said S.T.R.s were a crucial source of income and argued that they were being unfairly targeted as the cause of Marin’s affordable housing shortage. Most S.T.R. operators would not put their houses on the long-term rental market, they maintained, and the county had failed to provide data demonstrating that they would.

Sean Callagy, an attorney who owns a home in Inverness that he rents out for part of the year, said S.T.R.s contribute to the local economy, providing jobs for house cleaners and maintenance workers and customers for local businesses. The county offered no reliable data to justify its new restrictions, he added.

“The regulations are onerous and will be expensive to implement and enforce,” Mr. Callagy said.  “The result will be to reduce visitor access to the coast and take away local jobs, with no realistic prospect that they will improve long-term housing opportunities.”

For more information about the proposed regulations, which do not apply to hotels, motels, bed-and-breakfast inns or campgrounds, go to https://tinyurl.com/3hsvxsxc