Marin short-term rental ordinance heads to California Coastal Commission

Stricter regulations governing short-term rentals in western Marin and other unincorporated areas of the county will go into effect if approved by the California Coastal Commission in March.

Marin County supervisors approved the tougher rules, which include limits on how many short-term rentals would be allowed, during a special meeting on Thursday. However, amendments to the county’s local coastal program must be approved by the state commission before they can be implemented.

The issue has divided western Marin residents between those who believe short-term rentals, or STRs, are worsening the housing shortage and those who rely on operating STRs to pay their bills. The Board of Supervisors chambers was packed Thursday with opponents waving “access for all” signs and proponents holding “community first” signs.

“I have watched my community be gutted while STRs flourish,” said Maggie Levinger, one of dozens of people who commented during the meeting.

Linda Howe, who began operating a short-term rental in San Geronimo to pay her bills after retiring, said,”STRs saved us.”

The ordinance would limit people to operating a single short-term rental. It would also cap the number of STRs allowed countywide and include separate limits for a number of coastal communities.

The ordinance also would require operators to get a license issued by the Marin County Community Development Agency and meet a number of other county requirements, such as having a county-approved septic system and adequate parking.

With the need for California Coastal Commission approval and the county’s moratorium on new STRs due to sunset on May 23, the supervisors agreed that adopting an ordinance was an urgent priority. The thorniest issue was the level of the caps.

Community Development Agency staff presented the supervisors with two main options. One was to take the agency’s recommendation and adopt a countywide cap of 1,083, which would be 160 more than operating in unincorporated areas now. The other was to follow the Planning Commission’s recommendation to set the limit at 217, reflecting the number in operation when the county began regulating short-term rentals in August 2018.

The Planning Commission also recommended exempting Dillon Beach and the Seadrift area of Stinson Beach from the caps on specific communities. The planning staff recommended capping the number of STRs in Dillon Beach and Seadrift, but allowing an additional 204 in Dillon Beach and 148 in Seadrift. That would allow up to half the dwellings in those communities to be offered as short-term rentals.

Many of the dozens of people who spoke at Thursday’s hearing supported the Planning Commission’s recommendation.

“In the last five years there has been a doubling of STRs in Bolinas. I’ve seen many friends have to leave town,” said Don Smith, a longtime Bolinas resident. “So please stick to the 2018 numbers.”

Bruce Mitchell of Inverness said, “We’ve had a front row seat to the exodus of families who’ve had their dreams of community turned upside down in a heartbeat by landlords who’ve decided to cash in on STRs. I strongly urge your support for the 2018 caps.”

Mark Switzer, secretary of the Point Reyes Station Village Association, said, “The recommendation to revert to the number of STR licenses in 2018 as the ultimate cap is a positive approach, which will enable communities to re-establish a more balanced housing stock over time.”

Supervisor Dennis Rodoni said that he favored the lower cap, but doubted that the California Coastal Commission would approve it.

Stephanie Rexing, a district manager for the commission, sent an email to the county this week advising that the higher cap number would be “most supportable from a standpoint of preserving the STR market and assuring Coastal Act consistency.”

Rexing also expressed concern about the Planning Commission’s suggested exemptions for Dillon Beach and Seadrift. Rexing said they could create “adverse impacts to coastal resources from the unequal distribution of visitor-serving facilities, especially considering those two townships both have limited access to emergency services and other infrastructure constraints such as water and sewer capacity.”

Rodoni asked Sarah Jones, director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, about the Planning Commission’s lower recommended cap. Jones said that given the large number of vacation homes in western Marin, it was very difficult to predict how successful the ordinance would be in converting STRs into long-term rentals.

Jonathan Kaplan, who owns a cabin in Inverness and would like to operate an STR, said, “I use my Inverness house almost every weekend. So there’s no way I would consider converting it to a long-term rental.”

Jones also noted that short-term rentals provide jobs for many of the lower-paid workers who can’t find housing in western Marin.

“It’s a very delicate balance,” she said.

Ultimately, at the suggestion of Supervisor Eric Lucan, the supervisors decided to increase the cap to 1,200 short-term rentals while keeping Dillon Beach and Seadrift capped as well. Lucan said that would provide room for the growth of short-term rentals in communities outside of western Marin.

Eleven percent of the residential properties in western Marin are being used as short-term rentals, compared to less than 1% in the remainder of the unincorporated areas.

If the ordinance is ultimately adopted, most people operating a short-term rental now will be allowed to continue doing so in perpetuity. However, people operating a short-term rental from a multifamily dwelling with three more residences, or condominiums, would be allowed to apply for a license to continue operating for two more years but no longer.

The supervisors also followed a staff recommendation to allow a one-time STR license transfer to a spouse or child.

At one point during the meeting, it appeared that the supervisors might require that new licenses be issued only to people operating hosted STRs. Supervisor Katie Rice suggested the idea as a way of retaining as many western Marin residents as possible.

Lucan said making such a dramatic change in the ordinance at the last minute without getting more public comments would be unwise. Planning staff resisted making a regulatory distinction in the ordinance between hosted and unhosted STRs because of the difficulty of enforcement.