2023 Mar 1 Amendments requested Floating Homes AB 252

March 1, 2023 

The Honorable Mia Bonta
1021 O Street, Suite
5620 Sacramento, CA 95814 

RE: AB 252 (Bonta, 2022): Requested Changes in 2023 Follow-Up Legislation 

Dear Assemblywoman Bonta, 

We thank you for your efforts to ensure protections for renters in the context of challenging market dynamics in recent years. Marin County took a support position on AB 252 last year with the understanding that it would extend renter protections in law to floating homes that already applied to mobile homeowners and other land-based renters statewide; in furtherance of Board policy objectives to mitigate pandemic-related evictions; and also to protect culturally, artistically, and historically important floating home communities in the Sausalito area. 

Over the past few months, we have identified some impacts of AB 252 that will affect existing and needed additional investments to address sea level rise for the mutual protection of local floating home marinas and the floating home residents who lease berths at their marinas. This includes raised parking lots, walkways to the homes, and other critical utility infrastructure. 

In the enclosed memorandum, we respectfully share some detailed information regarding circumstances unique to Marin’s floating home marina owner business practices and management. For example, these marina owners in Marin offer 10-, 20- and 30-year leases with average annual rent increase capped at approximately 7.5% (as opposed to other Bay Area floating home marinas where tenants are on month-to-month leases). The circumstance that AB 252 was intended to address (e.g., sudden, steep, and routine rent increases) does not appear to exist between these floating home marina owners and their tenants. (It is important to note that the above-referenced lease terms are those that exist between local floating home marina owners and floating home owners; leases between a floating homeowner and a rental tenant may have different lease terms.) 

We understand there may be willingness to consider amendments to improve AB 252 going forward. For the purposes of this letter, and to succinctly articulate changes we would like to work with you on as you move your 2023 legislation forward, we are respectfully requesting three changes to AB 252 we would like to be included in your follow-up legislation:

For any floating homes with long-term leases (e.g., 10 years or longer), eliminate the in-place transfer provisions of AB 252, and re-establish vacancy decontrol for berths with long-term leases.

Exempt from the rent control protections included in AB 252 those tenants who are in, or will enter into, long-term leases with the marina owners, or maintain rent control consistent with caps already applicable per those long-term contracts (e.g., CPI capped at 7.5%).

Authorize direct assessments for shared costs associated with mitigation for sea level rise adaptation assessments, infrastructure improvements, and maintenance and resiliency fees. Without adequate financing tools, including direct assessments to benefitting tenants, marina owners will not be able to fund expensive projects that will protect both the marina and the homeowner from inevitable sea level rise. 

Absent these narrow exemptions, AB 252 will have the unintended effect of creating stranded assets that the marina owner cannot preserve financially. Should a marina be irreparably damaged due to sea level rise, the homes attached to that marina will also be compromised in use and value, and floating home owners will not be able to obtain financing for their homes (for which lenders require both long-term leases and a concrete hull). The changes Marin County supports to AB 252 are intended to protect both the floating homeowners and the marina owners and acknowledge their shared interest in protecting and improving marina infrastructure, which in turn protects the homes attached to the marina. We believe the effects of AB 252 as currently structured will inadvertently create more harm than protection for these floating home owners. 

Please see the enclosed memorandum for more in-depth information regarding the specific qualities of the Marin floating homes, their financing requirements, the marina infrastructure, and standard leasing practices that are long-standing conditions in the Marin floating home marinas which differentiate these floating homeowners from those AB 252 was appropriately intended to benefit. 

We look forward to a collaborative and productive partnership in 2023 as we work to meet our shared goals of stable rental stock with well-maintained shared infrastructure. 

Sincerely, 

Stephanie Moulton-Peters, President
Marin County Board of Supervisors 

CC: Assemblymember Damon Connolly
Senator Mike McGuire
Marin County Board of Supervisors