A 45-day moratorium on new short-term rentals in West Marin has been extended another 22 months and 15 days.
The moratorium had to be implemented in a two-step process to conform with the state law that authorizes the county’s imposition of the freeze. The moratorium was initially approved by Marin County supervisors on May 24 and announced publicly May 5 to allow property owners to act before the moratorium took effect, county officials said.
Sarah Jones, Community Development Agency assistant director, told supervisors on Tuesday that 120 new short-term rentals were approved in West Marin leading up to the adoption of the initial moratorium. Typically, the county receives about four new applications per month.
“Letting people know seemed like the fair thing to do — this is a big change in the county’s approach on short-term rentals and a moratorium is a much faster action than usually taken,” Jones said in an email.
County supervisors adopted new regulations in 2018 governing short-term rentals in the unincorporated area, requiring operators to obtain a business license and a transient occupancy tax certificate.
Following the influx of new registrations that preceded the implementation of the moratorium, 683 of the approximately 5,250 residentially developed parcels in West Marin were licensed to offer short-term rentals.
Only 2,252 of those 5,250 developed lots receive a primary home tax exemption indicating that 2,999 of the properties may not be in use as full-time homes. A pre-existing shortage of affordable housing in West Marin has been made worse by the growth of the short-term rental industry.
“A high proportion of small villages occupied by transient visitors means smaller ongoing communities and a lack of people to serve in key community roles,” Jones said in a statement. “That translates to smaller volunteer fire departments and smaller school enrollments, meaning less funding to keep those vital community services alive.”
Stinson Beach fire Chief Jesse Peri said, “Over the last five years and definitely the last year we’ve seen a significant decline in the number of volunteer firefighters in our workforce. The majority have had to leave town because they couldn’t find affordable housing to rent. We attribute that to the increased short-term rental presence.”
Peri said his department has lost 10 of its 20 to 25 volunteers over the last four years, including some of its most experienced firefighters.
“I’ve grown up in town and been here a majority of my life,” Peri said. “It’s difficult to see friends have to move out of town because they can’t find a place to live.”
Nevertheless, Peri said he has mixed feelings about the moratorium, “because there are definitely members of the community who are supported by the short-term rental business and the property management companies.”
“But I’m happy the discussion is taking place, and we’re trying to find better solutions,” Peri said.
Frank Borodic, owner of the Inn at Roundstone Farm and former president of the West Marin Chamber of Commerce, said, “They do need time to get input and look at this critically. Just look out here in West Marin; we don’t have a barber anymore.”
To enforce the moratorium, the county will use an ordinance approved by supervisors in March that provides for fines of $500 for code violations related to real property. Marin County pays Seattle-based Host Compliance to identify all of the short-term vacation rentals in the unincorporated area.
In 2018, Marin voters approved Measure W which increased the transient occupancy tax from 10% to 14% for guests at hotels and short-term rentals. A portion of the revenue will be used to pay for long-term housing development and emergency services in the region.
In August of that year, supervisors approved an ordinance to punish short-term rental operators who refuse to pay the TOT. The supervisors gave the finance director the authority to record a tax lien against the owner and manager of any short-term rental property who fails to collect and remit the tax. Since then, 12 liens have been filed, including two this year.
So far this year, the county has collected $8.4 million in TOT revenue, up from $4.9 million during fiscal 2021. All but 270 of the 953 short-term rental operators in unincorporated Marin are located in West Marin. Only 745 of the operators are considered active, meaning they are reporting short-term rental activity and remitting TOT collections to the county.
The county and local municipalities are in the process of updating the housing elements of their general plans to comply with a state mandate to create 14,405 new residences between 2023 and 2031. Approval of more accessory dwelling units (ADU) is viewed as one strategy for generating some of the housing, but local officials have expressed concern that the new ADUs might be used for short-term rentals instead of long-term housing.
Jones told supervisors on Tuesday that county planners have begun informal consultations with their staff counterparts in the cities and towns regarding their regulation of short-term rentals.
“This is certainly not an issue that is isolated to unincorporated Marin County,” Jones said. “We want to consider coordinating with them very actively around this work as we go forward.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com