Lynnette Shaw/Listen Up
We have problems in Fairfax. One of them is state mandated housing.
As a Problem Solver, here is my thinking: Because of a silly, extremely juvenile Town Councilmember’s personal feud with Mr. Michael Macintosh, owner of the Marin Town and Country Club, his large property is being excluded from consideration to build the housing we are required to build by the state. It is all about egotism and jealousy.
I would very much prefer the Town challenge the state mandates for housing on the grounds of public danger. Other small towns have have done so. Instead, this Council has tentatively approved tearing down School Street Plaza. The plan is to replace it with a 7 story-plus apartment building with no parking. It’s a bad plan that would clog up our streets, ruin the parking for all businesses, and potentially trap everyone in a natural disaster.
Our civic-minded former Mayor Frank Egger sponsored an initiative 50 years ago to stop a 4,000 house development at the MTCC. He heroically saved that property for the future of Fairfax. The infrastructure there had already been constructed. There are big pipes for water and sewage long installed, enough for almost any project.
I advocate this solution: Since an initiative can only be changed by another initiative, I suggest that we file an initiative to modify Frank’s initiative to allow 5 acres of the 25 acre parcel to be used to construct apartments and small affordable homes. We can collect the 600 signatures needed, and rather than go to the ballot, the Town Council can adopt the initiative immediately to modify the property zoning.
At the MTCC, there would be plenty of parking available, it is walking distance to downtown, and the taxpayers of Fairfax won’t have to pay for new infrastructure. That will save us all about $500 million or more in Town debt to construct that universally unwanted highrise’ share of sewers and water pipes and electric at School Street Plaza.
Bury the hatchet with Mr. Macintosh and do the right thing for all of Fairfax, ladies and gentlemen of the Town Council. I also call upon Frank Egger to support the modification of his forward thinking initiative from 50 years ago. The future of Fairfax he so wisely protected has arrived.
(Lynnette Shaw is a long time small business owner in Fairfax.)
NO WATER! NO HOUSES!