Sharon Rushton/My Turn
(Editor’s note: Sherman R. Frederick’s column that appears regularly in this space will return next week. This week we invite you to enjoy this My Turn column by Sharon Rushton. Anyone interested in writing a My Turn column for Marinscope Community Newspapers should contact publisher Sherman R. Frederick via email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
On Jan. 24, the Marin County Board of Supervisors adopted the 2023-2031 Marin County Housing Element Update and various Countywide Plan amendments related to the housing plan. Among other consequences, these amendments needlessly eviscerate community plans by rendering them unenforceable, leaving areas open to development with minimal controls. Most importantly, there is no requirement by the state that community plans be weakened in order to achieve a compliant housing element, according to land use attorney Riley Hurd. The supervisors can still reverse their mistake.
Community and environmental organizations located within the jurisdictions of the 24 Marin County community plans are coordinating an effort to maintain the integrity of the plans. The supervisors can still reverse their mistake.
Part of this endeavor involves gathering signatures on the petition entitled; “Reverse the Needless Destruction of Community Plans in Marin County.” The list of signatures is growing rapidly.
Community plans are vital to guide the Marin County Planning Department because each community has different physical aspects, goals and desires. These plans were meticulously studied and drafted by local residents over many years. They are extremely valued documents that state community goals, objectives, policies and implementation programs relative to the current and foreseeable future conservation and development issues facing each community. If you care about preserving the environment, habitat and wildlife; protecting public health and safety; maintaining views; controlling traffic congestion; carefully planning for development; keeping our small-town/semi-rural/rural neighborhood character; and safeguarding a host of other treasured aspects of living in Marin, then you will also care about saving community plans.
For example, the Strawberry community plan is a thoughtful and very detailed guide for the creation and placement of multi-family housing, single-family housing and affordable housing. It also specifies how open space should be preserved, among other beneficial guidelines. If the countywide plan amendments prevail, then this careful, location-specific planning would be replaced with the very general, unspecific county zoning.
Another example: Among other directives, the community plan governing Tamalpais Valley, Almonte, Homestead and Muir Woods Park spells out specific dimension limitations for most of the commercial and mixed-use sites in Tam Valley and Almonte. Accordingly, the commercial and mixed-use properties on the east side of Shoreline Highway are limited to 15-feet high, in order to preserve treasured Bothin Marsh habitat and wildlife, as well as maintain scenic views of the marsh and the bay throughout the community. The community plan is the only place this height limit is found.
This situation repeats itself in the context of all of the community plans. They are the sole planning documents for many critical properties.
As referenced above, legal counsel determined that there is no requirement by the state of California to downgrade community plans. In a letter addressed to the Board of Supervisors dated January 23, Attorney Hurd wrote about the amendments or “edit” to the Marin countywide plan pertaining to community plans: “The real question is: why is this edit proposed at all? We already know that state law supersedes local regulations. It’s also a fact that housing projects may avail themselves of waivers from any local standard that precludes the project from reaching its maximum density. So, what is the point here other than to try and eliminate community plans in a roundabout way?”
The best course of action for the supervisors to take is to immediately reverse the countywide plan text amendments and retain the preferred longstanding language regarding community plans in order to preserve the essential integrity of these vital plans. If this issue resonates with you, then please sign the online petition to save community plans at change.org/SaveCommunityPlans. Send related emails to the Marin County supervisors at bos@marincounty.org and spread the news.
(Sharon Rushton is the president of Sustainable TamAlmonte and can be reached at sharonr@tamalmonte.org.)
The numbers of family dwellings that could be required are actually a substantial percentage of the existing population of West Marin. Who is going to build the roads, the schools, the fire stations, the clinics, and hire all the professionals to run all the necessary services and infrastructure?
And what about our national and state and county parks and protected lands? Will there be an environmental study? What about air and water pollution, and the effects on our wildlife and our farms?
I haven’t heard any proposals for how we would deal with a substantially increased population.