The Marin County Board of Supervisors has approved a new ordinance on short-term rentals with revisions to improve transparency.
The ordinance keeps the same restrictions from the 2018 pilot that was set to expire on Aug. 7, but it requires that the name and email of a local contact supervising the short-term rental be accessible to the public.
Before, this information was listed in the business license certification, which was not available to the public. The ordinance now requires the property owner to list the information in the transient occupancy tax certification instead.
“We realized that the finance department business license ordinance has confidentiality language where some of the information provided on the business licenses couldn’t be shared with the public,” said Kathleen Kilgariff, a county planner. “We are making that change so that we no longer have that confidentially requirement.”
The ordinance also sets up a short-term rental complaint hotline, requires written notification be provided to all properties within 300 feet of the property and mandates that the owners display signage indicating the property is used for short-term rentals, according to the ordinance.
“It’s really a neighbor notification ordinance to make sure neighbors have contact information if any concerns arise,” Kilgariff said.
She said the short-term rental subcommittee has received letters asking for tighter regulations on 30-day-or-less rental operations in residential areas.
“We have received recommendations such as limiting the number of nights one can rent their property per year, requiring that the property owner is on site while a property is rented, specific regulations associated with coastal and inland areas,” she said, adding that some would like a full ban in residential areas.
Jeff Polick, a resident on Loring Avenue in Mill Valley, said he and about 100 residents in the neighborhood are asking that the county amend the ordinance with stricter operating restrictions.
Polick said the revision is a good start, but banning or limiting short-term rentals in residential areas would prevent noise, trash, fire and parking violations that have raised concerns among neighbors.
“What Airbnb has done without any public hearing or legislation being looked at is they just moved into residential neighborhoods in what we are calling hotel-like operations and are totally destroying the character of neighborhoods,” he said. “The flip side of this is wanting to protect the little old lady that rents out a bedroom in her house to pay off her property taxes, who lives on the property and doesn’t have a 8,000-square-foot party house.”
Matthew McClure, a resident on Ventura Way in Mill Valley, partially agrees. He said there should not be an outright ban, but strict penalties for not adhering to city or county safety ordinances should be implemented.
“Similarly, if enforcement mechanisms are weak, they, too, should be beefed up,” McClure said. “For example, we suspect, steep financial penalties for owners would go a long way in ensuring compliance by rendering their business unprofitable if multiple infractions are cited.”
Reports of short-term rental violations were not separated from other calls by the county sheriff’s department, Sgt. Brenton Schneider said.
“We have received reports of short-term rental violations during the course of the pandemic,” Schneider said. “We have not issued any citations.”
The first violation is a $100 fine, a second violation within a year is $200 and then it’s $500 for each additional violation within the same year. A fourth violation results in a penalty up to $2,500 per violation, per day.
District 4 Supervisor Dennis Rodoni clarified that the ordinance is not related to the “shelter in place” restrictions implemented on May 29. They limit short-term rentals, hotels or motels to provide lodging only to homeless people; people who have been displaced due to the pandemic; county residents who need to self-isolate; workers in health care, essential businesses and government; and residents who have been displaced due to safety, sanitary and habitation issues.
Kilgariff said the county passed an emergency ordinance that allows the Marin County Community Development Agency to enforce “shelter in place” violations for short-term rentals, which applies to any business that provides lodging for 30 days or less.
So far, she said, there have been 73 complaints about short-term rental owners violating the county order, Kilgariff said. Rodoni said they are mainly from West Marin.
While the county will continue to explore potential amendments to the ordinance, the pandemic has impacted the public process, said Kate Sears, District 3 supervisor.
“This really isn’t a situation where it is one and done and this is going on the shelf,” Sears said. “But we truly will look for opportunities in the future once we are able to more easily have community stakeholder engagement to consider some of the substantive issues — it’s just not feasible to do in an effective way given our COVID-19 circumstances.”
Polick said that municipalities and agencies in Marin have hosted Zoom meetings and workshops to gauge public concerns. He said the county board is delaying the process.
“It’s just an excuse,” he said.
The county supervisors approved the new ordinance on Tuesday.
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Marin increases transparency on short-term rentals - Marin Independent Journal
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