No new vacation Rentals will be allowed in West Marin for up to two years under emergency rules adopted Tuesday by the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

The moratorium, adopted in a unanimous vote by the board, aims to address the shortage of housing in the area. The rules took effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The rules prohibit the county from licensing any new short-term rentals — properties rented out for fewer than 30 days — near the coast. The move does not affect 551 rentals and applications submitted before the deadline Tuesday.

While county officials say vacation rentals are not the sole cause of the housing shortages and rising housing prices through the years, some communities are seeing more than 20% of their available housing being rented out to vacationers rather than to the residents who work there.

County staff and supervisors plan to use the pause to draft new regulations for vacation rentals. The regulations could include a cap on the number of homes that can be rented out or a limit on the number of rental days per household.

“Shortage of long-term housing, particularly on the coast, has reached a critical point,” said Supervisor Dennis Rodoni, who represents most of West Marin. “More and more working families are being displaced. Service workers, health care workers, teachers, caregivers, firemen and other emergency responders can’t find housing.”

“This, over time, has caused the hollowing out of our coastal villages, risking the ideal balance of visitor-serving and local communities that make us the attraction that we are,” he said.

About 10% of the 5,250 residential properties in the affected West Marin communities are registered with the county as short-term rentals. In Stinson Beach and Marshall, about 20% and 22% of residential properties, respectively, are short-term rentals.

The moratorium applies to the bulk of the county, including popular destinations such as Stinson Beach, Bolinas, Marshall, Dillon Beach, Point Reyes Station and Inverness.

Regulations and caps on short-term rentals have been adopted across the California coast from San Diego to Trinidad in Humboldt County as communities have tried to grapple with the increasing number of vacation rentals and local housing shortages.

After the county announced the proposal on May 5, it saw a flood of new short-term rental applications. While the county typically receives about four applications each month, 63 were submitted in that two-week period and most have been approved, according to county staff.

The moratorium received mixed reactions. Some residents and property owners said it infringes on private property rights, while others supported more regulation of vacation rentals.

San Francisco resident Jacqueline Hilger-Rolfe told the board she is building a house on a Dillon Beach property she purchased with the intent to use it as a coastal escape for her family and rent it out to keep up with maintenance. She said she bought the property in good faith with the understanding that she could rent it out to other people to help cover some of the building costs and upkeep.

“I won’t be able to retire because I won’t have the money to be able to support this family on top of my main home, which is in San Francisco where I work full time,” she told the board. “My plea is for a committee to consider all sides and think about some of the futures of some of the homeowners as far as the retirement and the ability to keep up with the properties so that it would be safe for people to come and enjoy.”

Albert Straus, owner of Straus Family Creamery in Petaluma and a dairy ranch in Marshall, said West Marin communities are out of balance. A large portion of West Marin homes were reported as being vacant in the 2020 census and the population of school-aged children has declined.

“This is a crisis and I’ve actually had to move our business out of Marin County and out of West Marin because of this crisis and this imbalance,” Straus told the board. “This is the first step of getting it back into balance by creating a moratorium, but we need to do more because the status quo is not acceptable and not sustainable.”

The Board of Supervisors adopted short-term rental rules in 2018 that required rental owners to apply for a license, notify neighbors of their application, and establish house rules for guests and a hotline for complaints. The rules had a two-year sunset and were extended again in 2020.

Voters also passed Measure W in 2018 to increase lodging taxes, known as transient occupancy taxes, for West Marin short-term rentals to pay for long-term housing development and emergency services in the region.

Supervisors and staff said the regulations that will be developed in the coming years could be catered to different communities and would not seek to eliminate short-term rentals altogether.

Supervisor Katie Rice said her experience as a member of the California Coastal Commission has allowed her to see various models of short-term rental rules across the coast that Marin can learn from.

“The hollowing out of our communities is not just a factor of short-term rentals,” Rice said on Tuesday. “This is one of the variables we have some control over so I’m glad we’re taking a look at it.”