Marin supervisors approve new short-term rental rules

Marin County supervisors used an urgency ordinance to adopt new short-term rental regulations before a moratorium on such rentals sunsets on May 23.

Supervisor Dennis Rodoni said that he realized there are residents who are not “totally happy” about the new rules.

“Maybe some will be very unhappy,” Rodoni said, “but I think we did find a middle ground.”

The issue has divided western Marin residents between those who believe short-term rentals, or STRs, are worsening the county’s housing shortage and those who rely on operating STRs to pay their bills.

A survey over the summer that garnered 2,467 responses found a fairly even split on the issue. Forty-one percent said there should be a limit on the number of short-term rentals allowed in the unincorporated areas of the county, and 45% said there shouldn’t.

The county first started regulating short-term rentals, offered through services such as Airbnb and VRBO, in 2018. A moratorium on new short-term rentals in western Marin has been in place since May 2022.

The Marin County Community Development Agency, which now must implement the new regulations, will take some time to work out the details, said Sarah Jones, the director.

“There’s going to be a gap of about a month to a month and a half where people would need to wait to get a license to start running a short-term rental,” Jones said, “if they’re not running one already.”

The new ordinance has a number of provisions. It limits people to operating a single short-term rental. It imposes an overall cap of 1,200 STRs for unincorporated Marin County, which has about 938 now.

It also sets specific caps for 18 coastal communities, including Bolinas, Inverness, Point Reyes Station, Marshall, Dillon Beach, Stinson Beach and Muir Woods Park. With the exception of Dillon Beach, all of these communities have the maximum number of STRs allowed under the cap, or more. The total number of STRs allowed in the capped communities is 621.

The ordinance requires operators to get a new 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. Currently, STR operators are required to have only a business license.

Under the ordinance, most people currently operating a short-term rental will be allowed to continue in perpetuity, but they will have to apply for a new license and meet new agency requirements. Licenses must be renewed every two years.

“Existing STRs don’t have to meet some of the property requirements, such as parking,” Jones wrote in an email Friday. “They do need to meet requirements that are for health and safety or environmental reasons, so they’re not exempt from the septic reporting.”

Licenses will not be issued to people operating STRs out of “category 1” accessory dwelling units created or legalized after Jan. 1, 2020, and other types of ADUs created or legalized after Feb. 24, 2021. A “category 1” accessory dwelling unit is contained within a single-family residence, outbuilding or new building no larger than 800 square feet.

People operating an STR from a multifamily dwelling or condominium will be allowed to apply for a license to continue operating for two more years but no longer. After two years, their license will be automatically revoked. The new ordinance allows only one transfer of a STR license to a new owner.

The Board of Supervisors adopted the new regulations at its meeting on Tuesday. Public comments at the meeting, and dozens of emails sent in advance, showed a continued split in opinion on whether the new regulations are a good idea.

“We’re disappointed that this process has sown division in the communities and that shouldn’t be taken as a sign that you reached some sort of happy medium,” Sean Callagy, a member of the West Marin Access Coalition, told supervisors.

“Our belief,” Callagy said, “is that this ordinance will harm the communities of west Marin, will make people less secure in their homes, and won’t improve workforce housing.”

Cecilia McGraw, in an email, wrote: “I am a senior citizen who lives in a home in the unincorporated area of San Rafael. I occasionally rent out as a short term rental in order to supplement my income. I do not add to the shortage of housing! I object strongly to the ongoing and unfair restrictions being imposed on landlords.”

Noelle Hiam of Bolinas wrote in an email, “I am writing as a West Marin resident to ask you to uphold and accelerate the Planning Commission’s recommendation to reduce the number of STRs in unincorporated Marin to 2018 levels. The draft STR ordinance needs to go farther to effectively support long-term housing.”

Harriet Moss of Stinson Beach faulted the supervisors for their last-minute decision to have Stinson Beach’s cap include Seadrift, a gated subdivision consisting of about 300 pricey homes. The previous plan was to limit the number of STRs in Seadrift to 148 and allow the remainder of Stinson Beach another 94. Instead, supervisors chose to have one inclusive cap of 192 units for Stinson Beach.

“The unexpected last minute removal at the Coastal Commission meeting of Stinson Beach from the county’s proposed plan makes Stinson the only coastal community, other than Dillon Beach, not to receive a reduction in its short-term rentals,” Moss said.

Moss said the change will also “free up more licenses for the part of Stinson where people do live, thereby further reducing the number of full-time residents in town.”

Supervisors also received an email from the board of the Estero Mutual Water Co., which supplies water to parts of Dillon Beach, expressing concern that the ordinance could cause water shortages in the community. The board fears that if some STR operators are unable to comply with the new regulations, new STRs will proliferate in the areas the water company serves.

“It’s important that we don’t lose sight of infrastructure in west Marin being limited,” Rodoni said. “Certainly when we revisit this in the future, we want to take a look at that.”

Jones said her agency will likely want to operate the program for two years before re-evaluating for possible changes in the regulations.