Rent control law approved amid push for ballot

San Anselmo is forging ahead with a rent-control ordinance, but some residents are seeking to place the issue on the ballot.

The Town Council passed the ordinance in a 3-2 vote on a second reading Tuesday. The ordinance will go into effect in 30 days unless enough signatures are gathered to place it on the November ballot.

The ordinance would cap annual increases at 5%, or 60% of the consumer price index, whichever is lower.

Under the ordinance, rent may be increased one time per year unless allowed by a fair return petition. The rent cap applies to properties with three or more dwellings on the same parcel, or contiguous parcels under common ownership. A property owner cannot charge a tenant for utilities in addition to rent.

Councilmembers Tarrell Kullaway, Alexis Fineman and Steve Burdo voted in favor. Mayor Eileen Burke and Councilmember Brian Colbert were opposed.

Burdo said he objected to a ballot effort because it could incur unnecessary costs to the town. He said the onus was on the signature gatherers to put it on the ballot if they could garner the public support to do so, but cautioned about the influence of outside interests.

“We crafted a thoughtful policy after much discussion, listening sessions, public meetings and community conversations,” Burdo said. “We crafted a policy which reflected the feedback we heard.”

Burke characterized the issue as too contentious to be decided by a slim majority vote by the council.

“I think we will see our residents gather signatures pretty rapidly and it will be on the ballot,” Burke said. “I think this ordinance goes way, way too far.”

Fineman said the issue of affordable housing and housing access needs to be addressed at once.

“I think that this is a response to the landscape, the consequence of many decades of our housing policy locally,” Fineman said.

Colbert said rent control limits housing stock. He said other referendums on rent control in Marin are evidence enough that San Anselmo voters should have their say as well.

“I also approach this issue with humility and the belief that government works best when it listens to the people,” he said.

The signature-gathering effort is already underway, said Michael Sexton, a Fairfax resident whose group, a nonprofit composed of Marin homeowners, housing providers and renters, is aiding in the San Anselmo effort.

“The referendum will ultimately allow the desires of the residents to be heard and their will followed,” he said.

Sexton said San Anselmo