Sausalito police plan to begin enforcing a 35-year-old law that prohibits vessels from anchoring in city waters for more than 10 hours — a move that could result in removing people who live on their boats.

The action comes as several municipalities in Southern Marin, and a regional agency that oversees Richardson Bay, grapple with a community of “anchor outs” who live on their vessels and who have a long history on the bay. There are also derelict and garbage-filled boats that can present navigation and environmental hazards.

In 2008, there were an estimated 98 vessels anchored in Richardson Bay. By 2015, the number grew to approximately 210 to 240 vessels. Of those, 65 to 80 were in Sausalito waters at locations such as the Turney Street basin. While many are in good condition, more than half are in fair to poor shape, or worse.

Sausalito officials say about 40 percent of the boats are occupied in Sausalito waters, generally described as the area west of a navigational channel off the city’s shore.

In 1981 the City Council approved a law requiring a boat staying in those waters for more than 10 hours to get a permit from the police chief, but rarely has it been enforced.

But complaints to city officials about derelict boats in recent years are prompting police to enforce the law. The City Council gave its blessing in January.

“What people are tired of is looking at unoccupied vessels stacked full of garbage,” Police Chief John Rohrbacher said at a meeting Wednesday night that was largely attended by the anchor-out community. “No one is living on them and how they got here we don’t know. That will be our first target once we get going.”

After that, “vessels that are inhabited will be contacted as part of this program,” according to a city staff report on the issue.

Peter Romanowsky, who said he has lived on a boat since 1983, worries the anchor-outs will be targeted.

“You will push everyone across the channel and we will be in Belvedere,” he said. “Then Belvedere will pass a ordinance and they will come out and start harassing us too.”

Rohrbacher stressed there is no timeline to begin enforcement and more meetings will be held before the program begins. There will be education and warnings before citations are issued. The 1981 law has a $100 fine associated with the law.

While the law allows Rohrbacher to issue a permit to allow boats to stay, he doesn’t see that happening.

“I don’t intend to, because where would I stop?” he said. “It would be self-defeating. At the moment I don’t envision doing it at all.”

Officials say the derelict boats cause a myriad of problems. They break loose during storms and cause damage to other boats or property along the shorelines or end up releasing hazardous chemicals, such as oil, if they break on rocks. Anchors dragging can also harm eelgrass beds.

“Some of these boats are hazards and not particularly seaworthy,” said Jill Hoffman, Sausalito’s mayor. “It’s become an increasing problem over the years.”

As for those living on boats, police say crime is becoming an issue and that conditions are often unhealthy.

People have been living on Richardson Bay since the 1840s, when settlers looking for gold descended upon the waters off of Sausalito, according to the city. The anchor-out community remained small until the 1960s, when a larger number of people moved in, part of a bohemian lifestyle embraced by artists and musicians, among others.

That helped spawn the 1970s’ infamous houseboat wars, when sheriff’s deputies forcibly removed most of the rebel houseboaters on the northern Sausalito waterfront to clear the way for developers to build a marina at Waldo Point.

Meanwhile, a permanent anchoring area in Richardson Bay is being discussed by the Richardson’s Bay Regional Agency. The agency, formed in 1985 by the county and Sausalito, Mill Valley, Belvedere and Tiburon, is responsible for maintaining and improving the waterways, open waters and shoreline of Richardson Bay.

A field is a set of anchored moorings and would allow people to tie off their vessels without them hitting each other. Having an established field would more easily allow the agency to regulate the bay.

Away from Sausalito waters, anchoring in the bay is legal if the boat does not linger for more than 72 hours and has a permit from the agency. But many of the boats are not registered.

Sausalito has not bought in to the mooring plan and has not yet committed to help fund a study, instead focusing on enforcement.

“We are the municipality most affected right now and we have a different perspective,” Hoffman said, adding that Sausalito is working with the agency. “It’s a dangerous situation in our waters.”