Corte Madera staff recommends banning short‑term rentals after low participation and high administration costs; council asks for more options

Town staff recommended that the Corte Madera Town Council rescind the short‑term rental (STR) ordinance adopted in November 2023 and prohibit new short‑term rentals, after reporting low participation, program costs that exceeded revenues, and persistent enforcement challenges.

Staff framed the item as an update and a request for direction. Planning and code enforcement staff presented program results from 2024, described enforcement difficulties using third‑party monitoring software, and outlined two primary policy options: amend the ordinance to be more permissive to encourage licensing, or rescind the ordinance and adopt a prohibition. Staff’s written recommendation favored rescission.

Planning staff Tracy Haggerty described the program trajectory: the ordinance went into effect Jan. 1, 2024; staff mailed an outreach packet to roughly 75 previously listed properties and issued six short‑term rental licenses in total (five in 2024 and one in 2025). “Fewer than 20% of the individuals that received that letter, reached out to inquire about how they could get a short term rental license,” Haggerty said. She reported that only four licenses remain active at the time of the March 4 meeting.

The town used a third‑party monitoring service (Deckard Technologies / Rentalscape) to identify listings and collect TOT. Staff said the platform has been of limited help: it produced listing data but had verification gaps and integration issues for tax collection; Rentalscape’s annual contract was reduced from $11,000 to about $8,000 for 2025 because of performance limitations.

Staff presented a conservative estimate of 2024 program costs at about $29,000 (third‑party monitoring, a town‑wide mailer, staff time), versus total STR‑related revenue of roughly $14,000 (including license fees, collected TOT and some fines). Tracy Haggerty said the town’s retained TOT revenue from the program amounted to just over $9,400 (the town’s 10% portion of collected TOTs), short of program expenses.

Code Enforcement Manager Mike Moriarty described enforcement challenges: the town located about 45 active platform listings in January 2024 but struggled to verify transactions and to obtain transactional data from hosts. Moriarty said tracking bookings and collecting delinquent TOT proved difficult and time‑consuming; he described attempts to contact owners, repeated letters and reluctance from many listing hosts to provide information.

Staff’s recommended path was to rescind the ordinance and prohibit short‑term rentals. Staff said if council chose that course, existing licenses would remain valid through the end of the calendar year and the town would implement proactive enforcement in 2026; staff estimated an ongoing monitoring cost of roughly $3,000 per year to track listings and said enforcement would still require staff time.

Council members split on the recommendation. Several members, including Council member Eli Beckman and Council member Jim Andrews, urged a lighter‑touch approach to make the program simpler for residents and staff (for example, allowing driveway parking to satisfy parking requirements and loosening certain application requirements). Beckman said he was “not in favor of banning short term rentals in Corte Madera at this time” and urged streamlining and complaint‑driven enforcement.

Other council members said the program is not financially sustainable and favored rescinding the ordinance. Council member Fred Casiza said the town could track staff hours and expected program costs before committing to further expansions and said he could support a prohibition based on the current cost/benefit picture.

Public comment represented both sides. Some hosts asked the council to allow more time and to streamline licensing; one host noted the ordinance and application process felt onerous and cited other cities with simpler, lower‑cost applications. A resident urged stronger enforcement, observing many unlicensed listings remain active.

Council did not take a formal vote at the March 4 meeting. Council discussion produced several clear directions to staff: return with options that would (a) explore modest ordinance amendments to increase participation (e.g., allowing driveway parking to count toward required spaces; permitting owner‑occupied multifamily units with an on‑site host), (b) draft an ordinance to rescind and prohibit STRs if council decides to do so, and (c) provide a more detailed accounting of staff time and program costs. Staff also noted Airbnb had offered post‑meeting assistance for tax remittance, and that the town would evaluate that option.

Staff will return with draft ordinances and cost/time estimates for the various approaches; if council directs a rescission, staff said existing licenses would remain valid through Dec. 31, 2025, followed by proactive enforcement in 2026.