WILLITS, CA., 4/18/25 – Mendocino County Planning and Building Services this week held its third of five stakeholder meetings in Willits to gather public input on short-term rental policies.
The meeting Wednesday had a small turnout with only a handful of attendees, including Supervisor John Haschak. In contrast to the first two meetings in Fort Bragg and Anderson Valley — which each drew dozens, according to organizers — the Willits meeting took on a more intimate, conversational tone.
Mark Cliser and Shelby Miller, both from Planning and Building Services, hosted the meeting and gave a brief history of short-term rentals in the county, along with a recap of the previous meetings and results from an online survey the county is conducting on the topic.
According to Miller and Cliser, about 40 people attended a meeting on Monday in Anderson Valley, and they said many voiced concerns around housing availability in the region. Miller and Cliser shared that they had brought up the idea that rentals be limited in areas close to work centers, such as Fort Bragg, Ukiah, and Willits. However, they said Anderson Valley residents asserted that they have work centers too, and they also need housing for crucial workers such as teachers and medical professionals.
Like the Fort Bragg meeting earlier this month, clarification was needed during discussion on zones in Mendocino County.
The California Coastal Zone, which runs the length of the state, was a point of confusion for both coastal and inland attendees. The zone is designated by the state, and short-term rentals are generally allowed by right in this zone, except within city limits like Fort Bragg, where local policies prevail.
Miller and Cliser noted that the confusion arises because the coastal zone’s inland boundary varies, with some parcels near the coast falling into the inland zone. A map of this boundary is available on the county’s website.
Haschak, supported by Miller and Cliser, suggested that the county could create a buffer zone around coastal areas just inside the inland zone to maintain a more consistent boundary. Cliser emphasized that if this were to happen, it would only affect short-term rental policies and not alter the official California Coastal Zone.
Now that the April stakeholder meetings are well underway and people have responded to the county’s online survey, Cliser was able to show the results of the survey so far.
Over half of survey respondents said that discretionary review, which means rentals would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, was either important or extremely important. A majority also agreed that public hearings for all short-term rentals was important.
When asked what a discretionary review might look like, Cliser said that it’s largely to get input from responsible agencies such as Cal Fire, Mendocino County Environmental Health and the Northern Region of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, but the main reason for such a review would be to hear from neighbors of a proposed rental.
“If it goes straight to a business license, that discretionary review is done,” Cliser said. “It’ll come to Planning, and we’ll look at it, it’ll go to Building and Environmental Health, and as long as it checks those boxes, then they’re good,” he said.
“But a discretionary review does reach out to the neighbors and says ‘this is being proposed on your road, do you have anything to say?’”
After that, Cliser said it would then go back to Planning and Building Services for review.
When asked what would happen if all but one neighbor agreed to a short-term rental in their area, Cliser said, “then the Planning Commission would have its work cut out.”
Cliser and Miller brought up the idea of a Good Neighbor Guide, something that Humboldt County uses. Miller said a Good Neighbor Guide is essentially a contract between the rental host and neighbors that is an agreement on details such as how many days per year the property will be rented to guests, what the guest rules will be and contact information for hosts.
A concern brought up by Willits attendees was fire risk when hosting out-of-town guests. One couple who said they have a rural rental at their home expressed the importance of having onsite hosts, and said that the only fire response available for their property would be by air.
They said they take their responsibility as hosts seriously, they educate guests around fire danger and prevention, and they would support county policy that holds other hosts to similar standards.
The couple said they find being onsite to be very important, and stated that their presence stops problems before they occur. They said bad actors who plan to break rules, such as policies against parties or large gatherings, won’t book rentals with onsite hosts.
Other topics of interest at the Willits meeting included tax collection on short-term rentals, safety, impacts on private roads, code enforcement and noise.
There will be two more meetings, in Covelo and Ukiah, later this month for stakeholders to share their concerns. Information on those meetings can be found on the county’s website.
On short term rentals, this applies. They will be bad neighbors, they don’t care about you. This is a money making operation and if you are next door just suck up the trash that overflows from the trash cans after they leave, the mess around the cans that draws animals. That’s just a start. They will not respect the neighbors. They are there to have a vacation. They are going to go home. So what if they were noisy or rude? The crew that comes to clean up the mess, or if you have a concern, that number the host gave you to call, it isn’t going to draw anyone when you need them. Sometimes the cleaning crew doesn’t come for days.
It is a really awful situation for people who need a full time rental. It pushes prices up, it makes for instability on the street. You can either say to yourself if you live next to one “let’s see what kind of people show up this week, or isn’t it fun to see how strangers act in our space?” or why are they parking there with their friend’s cars all over the place? This will happen. Hot tub? Expect drunken loud voices disturbing your sleep at midnight. You have to go to work in the morning? Too bad for you. If you care you’d better go to these meetings. I can tell you from my experience it has totally altered and not for the better, where I used to live on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. You think you are smaller and that’s apples to oranges, but this practice of short term rental housing is a business and do you want it next door to you or not? It will definitely change your life. Just some thoughts. Privacy and peace are pretty important. You pay your taxes, you have your rights. A landlord that is just in it for the money and lives not close enough to actually intervene in any issues will ignore you. Expect to suck it up. That’s how it’s turned out in Newport. The city gets more revenue for their approval of this practice, it doesn’t serve the residents. You’ve been warned.