Larkspur voters to consider challenge to rent control ordinance
Larkspur residents will decide on a rent stabilization ordinance on the March 5 ballot.
Measure D requires a simple majority to pass. It will determine whether the city moves forward with a rent stabilization ordinance passed by the Town Council last year. The city was the second municipality in Marin to adopt a rent-control ordinance, following Fairfax.
The ordinance caps rent increases at 5% plus inflation or 7%, whichever is lower. The rent-control ordinance was intended to take effect on Oct. 6, but was postponed during the referendum process. The ordinance would have been retroactive to the base rent as of May 8.
The referendum is the result of a campaign led by resident Lauren Baxter, who delivered a petition to the county on Sept. 28. She could not be reached for comment.
In addition to the rental cap, the ordinance establishes a petition process for landlords seeking an increase above the ceiling. Landlords cannot exceed the state rent increase cap, however.
The state’s rent control bill, Assembly Bill 1482, or the Tenant Protection Act, sets rent increases at 5% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is lower. The state law expires on Jan. 1, 2030.
The town’s program allows the city to charge a fee to administer the program. This will create a rental registry program, requiring landlords to make annual filings that would be maintained in a database.
Gloria Aquilino, a landlord of a small building in Larkspur, said she supported the referendum on rent control because she has kept her rents at below-market rate for years.
“The cost of doing business today is expensive. This is my income,” she said. “I personally feel that most landlords are getting a bad rap. People seem to have the opinion that we are making tons of money and we can afford all these costs. With the rent control they are limiting our rents to make a living, to pay our bills, to put food on the table and live our life.”
Phil Hallquist, a senior resident of the Skylark Apartments in Larkspur, said he has had two rent increases in the last few years at the maximum allowable rate.
“That is just not sustainable for me,” he said. “Rent control is needed because many people are going to be put out of their homes. Where are they going to go?”
Notably, California’s Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act prohibits local rent control regulations on properties constructed after 1995. Detached homes and condominiums are also exempt from rent control.
An argument in support of the measure in the voter guide credited to councilmembers Gabe Paulson and Kevin Carroll asserts that skyrocketing housing costs are displacing residents and impacting fixed income seniors, young families and essential workers. It calls for a rental registry to guide policy. It also notes that it was written after multiple community workshops.
The argument submitted against the measure credited to Aquilino and former mayor Bill Howard notes that rent control will create an expensive unfunded bureaucracy at City Hall and limit the development of new housing.
City Manager Dan Schwarz said that a separate citizens’ initiative on rent control was submitted to the city on Dec. 12, too late to qualify for the March ballot.
The initiative would cap annual rent increases at 60% of the consumer price index or 3%, whichever is lower, said organizer Curt Ries of the Marin Democratic Socialists of America. It also would ban arbitrary evictions, prohibit harassment and codify the right of tenants to organize.
The initiative is in the signature-gathering phase.