If you are a resident of Marin County and you use your home, a room in your home or an ADU on your property for short-term rentals (of 30 days or less), you may want to voice your opinion about planned regulations. The Short Term Rental Ordinance, which applies in the unincorporated areas of Marin, is being updated.
Regulating short term rentals isn’t unique to Marin County
Ever since the expansion of online platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, Homestay and VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner), the pressure to establish commonsense regulations increased. But what one community considers common sense, and another wants to ban entirely, varies widely between localities. Each city and municipality can create their own ordinances. As an example, un-hosted short-term rentals of a residential home remain unlawful in Santa Monica.
These short-term rental ordinances are driven by a number of concerns, including the claim that they contribute to the housing crisis by reducing the affordable housing supply. A room in a house, or an ADU, could be used to provide long-term workforce housing. In a community like Marin, where first responders and teachers can’t afford to live due to our limited housing supply, which keeps rents high, that is a problem.
Advantages of short term rentals
By the same reasoning, some homeowners feel that a short-term rental of their property allows them to maintain a standard of living they could not achieve without that extra rental income.
Along with the extra income, there can be quite a bit of work to ensure that the property is safe and maintained properly and guests get the best from their stay. Ordinances can also outline measures to mitigate potential disturbances.
According to the introduction to their online survey, “a Short Term Rental is defined as a rental of residential property for a lease term of 30 days or less. Short Term Rental operators are currently required to obtain both a Business License and Transient Occupancy Tax Certificate, remit taxes on rental earnings, and comply with good neighbor policies (related to noise, parking, trash, and neighborhood notification).”
The County of Marin has designed their survey to solicit feedback on the creation of additional regulations or operating requirements that residents think the County should consider as part of the Short Term Rental Ordinance update.
The survey will be open until 5pm on Monday, May 1, 2023.
The County is also interested in forming focus groups to promote discussions about potential regulations. Six to ten people will make up a focus group, and they plan to meet at least once before the end of May 2023. To be considered as a participant of a focus group, the County asks that you fill out the survey and when prompted, provide your email. If you prefer, you can also email str@marincounty.org and tell them you would like to participate in a focus group. Residents can’t expect to have a say if they don’t participate.
If you’ve been considering a home addition or ADU to accommodate short term rentals, we’d love to discuss your options, within the regulations in place in your locality.