Assemblymember Damon Connolly has now introduced a new bill (AB 754) amending the rent control legislation as agreed to by the Sausalito marina operators and the Floating Homes Association. Expressions of support for the bill are vital as it makes its way through the legislature.
On June 17 Mary Sackett, President of the Marin County Board of Supervisors wrote to Connolly expressing “…our strong support as the Sponsor of Assembly Bill 754, which refines the Floating Home Residency Law solely for the County of Marin. This legislation is the result of more than two years of sustained collaboration among the Floating Homes Association (FHA), floating home marina owners, County officials, and of course, your office. AB 754 offers a thoughtful, consensus-driven solution that maintains robust protections for Marin’s floating home residents while supporting the long-term financial sustainability and infrastructure needs of Marin’s floating home marinas.”
The FHA has also submitted a letter of support, as follows:
June 23, 2025
Assemblymember Damon Connolly
1021 O Street, Suite 5240
Sacramento, CA 958814
RE: Support letter for AB 754 (Connolly) – Floating home marinas: rent caps: County
of Marin
Dear Assemblymember Connolly,
We are writing to offer the strong support of the Floating Homes Association (FHA) of
Sausalito for AB 754 (Connolly). The Floating Homes Association is a voluntary association
of homeowners and renters living in floating homes, houseboats, and arks in Sausalito.
Passage of AB 252 (Bonta 2022) established rent and vacancy control for our homes, but
created divisions within our community, primarily because of the lack of consultation and
input by the marina owners. The FHA recognized that the long-term prosperity of our
community was linked to a respectful and stable relationship with the marinas. So we
iniiated an effort to discuss potential amendments to the provisions of AB252 that would
account for the needs of both residents and marina owners. The ensuing two-year process
was at times contentious and difficult, but ultimately it led to a proposal that we believed
met this ambitious goal.
In order to gauge support among our diverse community, we engaged in a large outreach
effort. We developed a set of informational materials and conducted a series of in-person
meetings on each of the eleven docks in our community. We followed these meetings with a
targeted poll, directed at all of the residents of our community, including both homeowners
and renters. With the encouragement and follow-up of our dock representatives we were
ultimately able to get responses from 67% of our community members, with 93% of
respondents voting in support of the proposed agreement.
The agreement, now formalized in AB 754, will make a number of changes to the AB 252
framework that will be of benefit to our residents including a shift to annual rent increases
based on CPI, with a floor and a ceiling, and elimination of additional fees not clearly linked
to actual expenses. It will also allow marina owners to raise rents upon sale, although there
are constraints on the potential increase linked both to the sales price and the current rent.
Importantly, this agreement will extend the framework to 2038, providing stability and
economic security for many years to come.
This process and the resulting agreement have demonstrated to us that a diverse set of
community stakeholders can come together in recognition of common interests. This effort
has already significantly improved the relationship between residents and marina owners
and established a stronger foundation for moving together to address common issues and
concerns like sea level rise.
We deeply appreciate the participation and support of the County of Marin and our elected
representatives and urge members to support this legislation.
Sincerely yours,
Peter Miller
President, FHA
Sasha Cole
Chair, Legislative Action Committee
You can submit your own letter of support which will be posted in the Position Letter portal where members of the Legislature and relevant committees will see it.
As a convenience, Talia Smith of the Office of the County Executive has offered to post these letters to the Portal, so they should be emailed to her at Talia.Smith@marincounty.gov as PDF attachments. Feel free to use language from the FHA letter, and to add your own viewpoints.