Things got so contentious at last week’s meeting on West Marin’s short-term rental moratorium that one of the hosts threatened to end the session if people didn’t maintain their decorum.
Comments in the Zoom chat box had become heated, with people accusing one another of bad faith. Opponents of the two-year moratorium dominated the session, arguing that it deprived homeowners of income and harmed the local economy without increasing Marin’s supply of affordable housing.
“Please end this crazy ordinance!” one post read.
The Marin County Community Development Agency hosted the meeting to gather public input while it drafts long-term regulations on vacation rentals. Over 160 people participated, most of them owners of West Marin’s 621 registered short-term rentals.
Those who favored the ban said the increasing number of short-term rentals in West Marin was making it harder to find long-term rentals, especially affordable ones. The dearth of housing, they said, was forcing many longtime residents to leave and preventing people who work in West Marin from finding a home. Moreover, some said, vacationers scattered their trash and made too much noise.
The Board of Supervisors imposed the moratorium last May after residents raised concerns about the lack of affordable housing in West Marin. The move came amid a statewide discussion of California’s critical housing shortage and as Marin was devising a long-term plan to increase its overall housing stock through an update to its Housing Element.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of homeowners had been posting their homes for rent on sites such as Airbnb and VRBO.
Sarah Jones, the acting agency director, reassured meeting participants who feared the moratorium would lead to a permanent ban. “Our board has made it clear that they want to see short-term rentals continue in Marin,” she said. “We are intending to consider what future regulations should be with a very open mind.”
Several participants argued that the county needs to gather data about the impact of the moratorium on Marin’s supply of long-term rentals. They were especially skeptical that the pause would increase the availability of low-income housing.
“My concern is that we’re basing this on opinions and not facts,” one caller said. “Short-term rentals are a boogeyman that is really easy to blame.”
Several Dillon Beach homeowners argued that they should be exempt from the moratorium because theirs is strictly a vacation community. A few Stinson Beach property owners made similar arguments.
“Dillon Beach has always been a vacation destination from its conception over 100 years ago,” said a resident who owns a vacation rental and manages several others. “Dillon Beach should not be included in this moratorium.”
Several property owners said the ban would deprive them of retirement income they had been counting on and reduce the resale value of their homes.
Yet Eoin McMillan, a homeowner in Bolinas, said it was absurd to suggest that short-term rentals don’t limit the supply of year-round housing. “I feel like I’m being gaslit,” he said. “This is Econ 101. We live in a supply-constrained market, and any housing stock that is taken away must create pressure on the cost of living.”
Ana Gonzalez, who has worked as a housecleaner in Stinson Beach for 18 years, said new restrictions would hit the pocketbooks of many Hispanic families. She has come to know many of them through her community outreach as a volunteer promotora. Many Hispanic women earn money cleaning vacation homes to supplement the low wages their husbands earn working on West Marin’s ranches, she said.
“The county has to think about how all those families will be affected if they close all the vacation rentals,” she said.
Several speakers said the county must distinguish between local owners and absentee landlords with no stake in the
community.
“I’m very glad the moratorium has been put in place,” Marshall resident Carolina Dutton said. “It’s been getting out of hand, the lack of housing for local people who work here. People who don’t live here—who are only making a profit—shouldn’t be allowed to do short-term rentals.”
She encouraged the county to consider a policy like the one in San Francisco, where homeowners can only host short-term rentals in their primary residence. Rentals that take place when the owner is away are limited to 90 days a year.
Cynthia Skovlin, who rents a home in Point Reyes Station and has a mushroom farm, lamented the “us-versus-them” tone of the discussion. “We take this lesson from mushrooms, from mycelium. We are all interconnected. There’s no such thing as one person just in it for themselves,” she said.
Early in the meeting, Ms. Jones urged people on the call to maintain a civil tone.
“If we can’t stay respectful, we’re going to need to end the meeting,” she said. “We don’t want to create a space where people are targeting each other.”
According to county records, the 621 registered short-term rentals in West Marin account for about 11 percent of the coast’s single-family homes. Of West Marin’s 5,263 houses, just 42 percent are claimed by their owners as a primary residence.
The county first modified its short-term rental policies in 2018, when it required rental operators to obtain a business license and register with the tax office. It also adopted a “good neighbor” policy intended to alleviate any negative impacts of short-term rentals on the community.
When the moratorium on new registrations began last May, the county received few complaints at first, Ms. Jones said. But a series of hearings to discuss the shape of new regulations drew large numbers of opponents who dominated the sessions, objecting to the very idea of a moratorium and shutting down people who supported new rules.
“The community’s involvement will help shape the direction of these policies,” said Kathleen Kilgariff, who moderated last week’s Zoom session. “Everyone should know that they can still participate and help craft these regulations.”