Corte Madera HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

Part of Corte Madera is a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, in zones AE and VE, with a base flood elevation of 10 feet. The town’s community rating gives residents a 20% discount on National Flood Insurance Program policies, and work in the flood area needs a floodplain development permit. When improvements cost half or more of a building’s value, FEMA rules can require raising it.

The town says Mariner Cove and Marina Village include more than 500 homes built on filled baylands in the 1950s. Some have settled up to four feet and are still settling, the Marina Village levee settles continuously on bay mud and pump stations can be overwhelmed when storms meet extreme high tides. County Flood Control Zone 9 covers the Ross Valley watershed communities, including Larkspur, Greenbrae and Corte Madera. Its storm drainage fee, approved by owners in 2007, is collected on the property tax bill and ends June 30, 2027. The fee applies to parcels in the watershed, so check your tax bill to see whether your community pays it.

Associations here should review flood coverage with their broker, keep drainage and any levee work in the reserve study and report broken street-drain check valves to Public Works at (415) 927-5057.

Your association’s rules can be stricter.

We did not find a designation of private roads for Vehicle Code enforcement in the parts of Corte Madera’s code we could read. Where no designation exists, enforcing parking and speed rules on association-owned streets usually falls to the association, so ask the police whether any roads in your community are designated.

Stays of 30 days or less need a town short-term rental license (chapter 5.34, effective January 1, 2024). The owner must offer the unit and may hold only one license in town, and ADUs, junior ADUs and SB 9 units are not eligible. A rental is limited to 75 days a year and two occupants per bedroom, and only the listed guests may be there from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Licenses expire December 31 and end when the property is sold. Planning: (415) 927-5064. California Civil Code section 4741 limits how far an association can restrict rentals generally, but it does not stop an association from prohibiting rentals of 30 days or less.

Since November 5, 2021, selling a home in Corte Madera’s wildland-urban interface requires a Central Marin Fire inspection ($211 in 2026), but individual condominiums and townhouses are exempt. Central Marin Fire runs annual defensible-space inspections, including the 0-to-5-foot Zone 0, and owners must keep 10 feet clear to the side and 15 feet overhead along roads and driveways, including the right-of-way in front of their homes. The town also holds free curbside chipper days. Defensible space: (415) 275-1185.

Marin voters approved Measure C in March 2020, a 10-year parcel tax of up to 10 cents per square foot of building or $75 per multifamily unit, to fund the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority. Its inspectors and local fire departments run defensible-space and home-hardening evaluations, but enforcing the rules is up to your local fire agency.

A town permit is generally needed to remove or alter a tree on private property, with exemptions for trees whose single trunk is less than 50 inches around, routine pruning and emergencies. Ask Planning before removing a common-area tree.

Construction is allowed from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays (section 9.36.030), though design review conditions can be stricter. Put working hours in your contracts.

Code Enforcement moves from a warning to a notice of violation and then a pre-citation notice, and no fine is charged if the problem is fixed by the deadline given. After that come administrative citations (chapter 9.05), and repeat violations may bring higher fees. The town keeps complainants’ names confidential. Code Enforcement: (415) 927-5193.

Marin Water’s year-round rules bar irrigation between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. and during or within 48 hours after rain. Overhead sprinklers may run up to two days a week and drip systems up to three. A violation brings a written warning, then a $25 fine and then $250. Its Water Watch page showed no water shortage stage when we checked.

Marin Water’s Cash for Grass rebate pays $2.18 per square foot, or $3.68 when at least half the new planting is California-native and low-water. A limited-time rain garden bonus can raise it to $4.68. Pre-approval and a pre-inspection are required before any lawn comes out, and artificial turf does not qualify. The cap is 1,000 square feet for homeowners and 5,000 for business owners, and the program page does not say which cap applies to an HOA common-area meter, so ask the conservation team at (415) 945-1527. Commercial and multifamily accounts can also apply for a Custom Rebate before starting a project.

A state law passed in 2023 (AB 1572) bars the use of drinking water on nonfunctional turf in HOA common areas starting January 1, 2029. The law stops the watering; it does not require removing the lawn. A board that decides to replace decorative lawn can use a rebate, where one is offered, to pay for part of the conversion.

On owners’ lots, Civil Code section 4735 prevents an association from banning low-water plants or artificial turf as a replacement for lawn.