Marin supervisors unanimously passed an urgency ordinance on May 24 that put a moratorium on new short-term rentals in West Marin, a move that public commenters to the board overwhelmingly supported.
The ordinance will last for at least 45 days but is likely to last much longer and could remain in place for up to two years. The temporary moratorium is meant to give the county’s Community Development Agency time to develop comprehensive rules on short-term rentals for the entire county, and to stanch the loss of housing in West Marin.
The coast has long lured tourists, and the state’s Coastal Act requires visitor-serving uses. The moratorium isn’t a prelude to a permanent ban on short-term rentals, which also bring in revenue; in addition to the business that tourism generates, the transient occupancy tax brings in $7 million annually to county coffers. But the rise of platforms like Airbnb is “really changing the nature of this activity and the effects of it in communities,” said Sarah Jones, the assistant director of the C.D.A.
Currently, 550 of 5,250 parcels in West Marin—over 10 percent—are short-term rentals, although that data doesn’t precisely represent the entire picture because some properties might have multiple rentals. “We’re seeing a real predominance of this commercial use in our residential supply in West Marin,” Ms. Jones said. Though registered legal short-term rentals will be unaffected, the moratorium can “try to defray further conversion of housing stock to this commercial use,” she added.
Concerns have been growing about the rise of vacation rentals on multiple fronts, especially in relation to the lack of housing for local workers like teachers and emergency responders.
Stacey Laumann, the deputy director of the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin, said the cause of worker displacement was “escalating rental costs and the conversion of housing units from permanent dwellings to visitor-serving rentals…from what we hear anecdotally.”
Ashley Eagle-Gibbs, the legal and policy director of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, agreed that West Marin’s communities were being “hollowed out.” Speaking in support of the moratorium, she noted that when people live locally, they don’t have long commutes with the accompanying greenhouse gas emissions.
In a two-page brief on the housing crisis in Bolinas sent to the county, the Bolinas Community Land Trust said that 200 people were on its waitlist for housing; about 100 are existing residents of Bolinas and Stinson Beach, and 30 to 40 had to leave due to sold properties and high rents. Additionally, 45 families are in units too small and “paying market rates for places that are in disrepair.” To the nonprofit, that points to the ripple effects of vacation rentals: Even when places are rented long-term, the rents are high due to the “inflated market” and how much money people can make through Airbnb.
Of the 43 homes listed for rent on Airbnb in Bolinas, the trust said at least 10 could be verified as previously rented as long-term units, and the number may be higher. The B.C.L.T.’s analysis found that only 13 are “operated by full-time residents.” Through the company AirDNA, which the land trust enlisted for the industry research it provides on short-term rentals, the median monthly revenue from short-term rentals in Bolinas was $7,383. Astonishingly, there is one three-bedroom in Bolinas that rakes in over $300,000 a year.
In 2018, the county passed its first new short-term rental regulations in response to concerns, including a requirement that operators notify neighboring properties and the establishment of a complaint hot-
line. The ordinance was renewed indefinitely in 2020, with a pledge to look at new regulations when the height of the pandemic had passed.
Creating regulations will be a lengthy process, requiring resources to fully understand the impacts, both good and bad, of short-term rentals; the causes of the shortage of housing, which could vary in different areas; the various types of housing that exist; and public input on what should be done, including evaluating the regulations other tourist meccas in California have put in place. There’s “a lot of data collection to do,” Ms. Jones said.
Eventual regulations will require approval from the California Coastal Commission. The moratorium didn’t require a hearing, but C.D.A. staff said they had been in contact with the commission over the urgency ordinance.
The pause on new vacation rentals ensures that the county has a “clear baseline” from which to work. Ms. Jones noted that Sonoma County worked for years on regulations, and when the county announced that new rules would be forthcoming, there was a “flood of new registrations.”
For the moratorium, the county provided more than the legally required 10 days of notice, which also resulted in a spurt of new registrations. Ms. Jones said in the past year, there were an average of four new short-term rental registrations—which require a business license and a transient occupancy tax certificate—each month. But between May 5 and May 19, the county got 63 applications, most of which were approved and a portion of which were short-term rentals already operating without authorization.
The vast majority of public commenters—in person, over Zoom and by email—supported the ordinance.
Of those against the moratorium or new regulations, some worried about how it would impact a revenue stream that allows them to live in West Marin. One woman who operates a vacation rental in her Stinson home, where she lives part-time, worried the restriction would decrease the value of her home, and if she sold it, a new buyer couldn’t depend on rental revenue, meaning that only someone particularly wealthy could buy it. Another woman building a home in Dillon Beach had plans for an accessory dwelling unit to be rented out as an “affordable escape” that would support her family financially. (Ms. Jones later noted that A.D.U.s cannot legally be rented as short-term rentals.)
Ultimately, rules on vacation rentals may vary in different regions of Marin. Katie Rice, the president of the Board of Supervisors, said that in her experience on the coastal commission, there have been “a variety of flavors and colors of short-term rental regulations up and down the coast.” Some communities limit the number of short-term rental units, while others cap the number of nights a rental can be available annually.