West Marin needs more housing for local workers

As founding members of

West Marin Residents for Housing group, we are writing to refute some of the assertions in Rachel Dinno Taylor's recently published Marin Voice commentary (“West Marin vacation rentals are tied to funds promoting affordable housing,” Nov. 24).

The Marin County Board of Supervisors will be revising Marin's short-term rental (STR) ordinance in early 2024. This primarily affects coastal West Marin, where STRs have gobbled up 16% of the limited housing stock, decimating the availability of long-term rental housing. This artificially raised the price of real estate. It makes it difficult for businesses to stay open for lack of staff. In comparison, STRs in East Marin are 1% of the housing stock.

The new draft ordinance heading to the supervisors “grandfathers” in all 586 STRs currently existing in coastal West Marin. These will add to other types of lodging available for more than 4,600 overnight visitors in West Marin.

Dinno Taylor's first statement, that the county will be making it “nearly impossible for you to visit the splendid nature of West Marin,” is blatant fearmongering. The second contention that the Measure W transient occupancy tax is “the one permanent subsidy in all of Marin to create affordable housing” is a false assertion and runs counter to the fact that all four housing nonprofits in West Marin wrote letters, singly and jointly, asking the supervisors for an ordinance reducing the number of STRs in West Marin.

Any potential reduction in the dollars the tax may generate for housing is far outweighed by the damage to local housing options caused by the lucrative conversion of homes to STRs. Without housing for local workers, our communities simply cannot function effectively and that impacts West Marin's ability to serve coastal visitors far more than regulating STRs ever will.

— Maureen Cornelia, Inverness,

and Don Smith, Bolinas