Tonight at the Marinwood Community Center at 7:30PM, the Marinwood CSD will meet and discuss bringing a farmer’s market to the Marinwood Plaza. This would be a wonderful way to rehabilitate the property and give services to the community that they will use. We can have locally grown food a stroll away.  This is was my wish a long time ago. I would even put up with a little extra traffic and parking for it, but would love to see a shuttle service around it and encourage people to walk or bike to the market. Walking my son to Mary Silviera this morning, parents were abuzz about it.

It is finally refreshing to strongly support a plan regarding Marinwood Plaza for once. I will be there tonight to get more details.

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Dearest Readers, It is with dread that I relate the happenings of the last Marinwood Village community meeting held on October 22 as it has been the only public meeting of late and of note. Unlike previous meetings where the majority of residents were so enamored of the idea of a market that they seemed willing to accept almost anything to get it — this time residents were visibly critical. Even the July meeting, the majority of residents in attendance were willing to accept 70 or 72 residential units in return for a market. This meeting had a noticeably different feel to it.

The plan presented on October 22nd increased the units to 92 units and involved a design that added height of 4 stories. The plan seeks to save money by reusing the shell of the existing market and providing a small amount of retail. Today’s successful markets are either small markets or the large 55k sq ft “lifestyle” stores like the Nave Safeway or the upcoming Whole Foods Market.

Son of The Millworks Monstrosity

Funny story…well, it actually is quite tragic. Residents of Novato were so psyched to be getting their Whole Foods Market that they paid little attention to the residential portion of the mixed use.  It has been my observation that when these types developments are brought up in public they focus on selling the market and gathering place aspects and not so much on the residential portion. They project this siren song of “market, green building, and community space” and mumble under their breath the number of residential units included. They do it because if you focus on the number of units questions about what increased density will do to the community will ensue.

One morning this fall Novatoans woke up and discovered that the Whole Foods Market project was an enormous eyesore and monstrosity.  It is pretty clear that what was actually built is completely out of scale in comparison to the quaint downtown Grant Avenue. Novatoans are stuck with it while local officials simply say they will get used to it. Residents will have to wait for the Whole Foods Market to come online in 2010, while residential units come first in 2009.

It was clear that the Millworks project controversy was fresh in the minds of attendees who were worried that the same thing will happen to the Marinwood community. Their fears were only bolstered by a new number of 92 units with 4 story buildings were revealed by Trammel Crow.  To their credit, there was a 3D  computer walkthrough,but it left attendees wanting a physical representation of the height of the project on the property itself. You do want to get an idea how the height would be walking on the sidewalk, since we would be living with it everyday.

The Urbanization of the Marin 101 Corridor

It seemed to me that this was the first meeting where it started to sink in that our community was being targeted for high density. Many who live in this area have spent $800,000 to over a million dollars (at the height of the real estate boom) to live the low density, single family home lifestyle. People moved from the high-density San Francisco to live in the suburbs where there is plenty of room at good schools and plenty of parking. People move to Marin because it is a well-oiled machine for raising kids with the open space and neighborhoods we remember.

Then there is the county, affordable housing advocates, and some environmental groups that see density along the 101 corridor as a way to get more tax revenue, affordable housing funding, and create more ridership for public transportation such as SMART. Since we cannot and should not develop out in West Marin, the only places left are infill along the 101 corridor. It is in the County-wide plan.

It is not just the NIMBY-ness of the suburbanites, but the fact that Marin was set up to discourage any future density. We only have one way out here and that is 101. The county’s neighborhoods are cut off from each other. I have to go on 101 if I want to go to San Anselmo, or anywhere but Terra Linda. Bus transportation is prohibitively expensive and takes too long to get anywhere to make it something to depend on. Who knows how much a trip on the SMART train will cost or whether it will get us where we want to be when we want to be there? It is a truth that every person we bring into Marin or even Sonoma County will bring a car and will use it, because Marin refuses to be a part of a regional or statewide transportation system.

When we look specifically at the Marinwood Village adding density to the intersection of Miller Creek and Marinwood Avenue would have consequences for traffic and parking. The October meeting introduced a new proposed solution: stacked or robotic parking. It is an innovative idea, but will you get your car out if there is a power outage? It also seemed like a very expensive solution to cover the fact that there is just too many units and too little parking spaces. We live in an area built around having space for 6 cars per household, so people can provide guests and contractors a place to park.

The key to success of any plan would involve clearly explaining how 101 corridor will be transformed to handle additional traffic. HOV lanes are not going to cut it.

Toxic Shock

After decades of having a dry cleaners on the Marinwood Plaza property, toxins have leaked underground and are flowing approximately South-east from the source into Caltrains land. The initial survey showed that further study is needed to discover the extent of the contamination. Before anything can happen, this would need to be cleaned up, which would involve tearing down the structures. This could potentially add cost and time delays to any project.

Looking Into The Abyss…of Local Land Use Politics

It was at this October 22, 2008 meeting that we saw those who had once urged us to just drink the Kool-aid so we can get a market now call for residents to not be afraid to ask questions about this project. It was a remarkable transformation forged by years of working on land use issues — like making sausage.

County Planners Cannot Rule Out Section 8 Rentals

After the meeting, many of us stayed behind to talk to the county officials and other stakeholders. There was a palpitable concern about what the county meant by affordable housing and what kind of renters would be involved with this project. Someone asked a county official whether there will be Section 8 rentals, and the county official could not rule out Section 8 entirely. While the emphasis has and would be housing for families making 40k-95k, whom would qualify for affordable housing, no one was able to completely take Section 8 off the table. The future success of this project would involve a statement emphatically taking Section 8 rentals off the table forever.

National Credit Crisis & Economic Woes 

According to Trammel Crow’s Peter Brandon, the current economic downturn and credit freeze would put the Marinwood Village Plan on hold even if the plan had already gotten approval from the stakeholders. With layoffs, decline in property values and rental occupancy, and retail chains closing is a new mixed use project going to be cost effective? Will the opening up of units at the Millworks absorb all the demand for rental housing?

Lingering Questions

Looking at the lack of rainfall and snowpack, will Marin have enough water to handle additional density?

Will there be enough jobs in Marin County to support additional housing to meet the goal of Marinites living where they work? Will they even want to live in the units that are being built? Will they be appropriate for people with kids if there isn’t any safe places for them to play?

Marinwood used to have a retail/commercial zone that went from the Marinwood Plaza to Las Gallinas. Over the years, residents have yielded more and more of that zone to residential zoning. Are residents willing to forever change what little is left (approx 5 acres) of our commercial/retail for mixed use/residential?

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The Marinwood Village plan is still includes a grocery store, ancillary retail, a plaza or community gathering area, and a redesign of Marinwood Avenue with not more than 100 residential units. The project is being delayed by worse than expected contamination from the dry cleaner. It also looks from the contamination report that more testing might be needed once they realize that the testing areas were outside the groundwater flow.

Trammell Crow is still interested in the project. The next steps will be to finalize a detailed development plan though an engineering study, while also studying pedestrian, bicycle, and transit linkages. The county has received some additional funds for the project’s community planning process and in order to meet the requirements of this grant the county will be putting together what is called  “Marinwood Village Collaborative.”

The “Marinwood Village Collaborative” will include the existing Marinwood Task Force, Trammell Crow Company, County staff, addition representatives from the Lucas Valley Homeowners Association/County Services District #3, Dixie School District, the Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative, the Casa Marinwood residents, and an at-large community respresentative. Their job will be to propose a plan that can be submitted by Trammell Crow as part of their development application and environmental review for the project. Leading this process will be David Early from DC&E (Design, Community, and Environment.

There will be a meeting on Wednesday, September 10, 2008, from 2:00 to 6:00pm to go over the roles of the participants of the collaboration. This will not be open to the public. I have been assured by Susan Adams office that “the residents of the Marinwood will have ample opportunity to make their feelings and ideas known regarding the ultimate design for the Marinwood Village.”

February 2009 is a milestone date  for a detailed development plan and engineering study.

It remains to be seen if the public will have any impact on what the ultimate design will be.  So far, it just seems to me that every time we the public are brought into the process we are being told what will be done rather being a part of the process. They spend their time in  public meetings telling us the public what we have to accept and then claim this is a community inclusive process. Sadly, the majority of residents sit outside looking in. Hopefully, with Trammell Crow and this new collaborative will improve on that lack of interactiveness.

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I was just minding my own business and working on being tan, ready, and rested when all hell breaks loose in my own community over the whole Marinwood Plaza plan. Long-time readers of this blog know that I have special interest in what happens to that eyesore of a plaza just off the Marinwood exit. Living in Marinwood, I need a market that I can walk to and everyone in Marinwood agrees with me on that, but the feeling of unity disintegrates after that.

What got me out of the soaking pool? A couple of weeks ago I received an email announcing what would be last night’s meeting from the Marinwood Village Task Force. Then there is an email from the CSD saying that the task force is not a part of the CSD and a mailer from the county stating their position. Oh.oh. someone or the entire Marinwood Village Task Force has gone rogue. This meeting could be very, very entertaining. 

Last night’s meeting did not disappoint and the six dollars (all the cash I had on me) I pitched in for the venue was well spent. Even getting the space at the Marinwood Community Center apparently sparked controversy last night. Much ado was made by the meeting’s organizers that they were forced to pay $600 for the venue for this community meeting. CSD Boardmembers, Bruce Anderson and Tarey Read explained to me that since the Marinwood Village Task Force no longer was an official task force, they no longer qualified for free rental. Given the reaction of the crowd last night, following the letter of the CSD regulations may have not been the best political move. I talked with folks that stated that meetings that had to do with community business have always been offered free rental and questioned why all of the sudden the CSD Board chose to be a stickler on this occasion. If meetings are about community business and since the community owns the venue, it makes sense that they would get the venue free. That is just me. I think that it would be up to the community to decide what types of meetings should get a fee waiver, since it is in their interest to collect fees or have free space to deal with community issues.

It has since been brought to my attention that the rental was not $600 as was stated last night but $65. To think the task force passed around the jar for contributions based on the $600 figure.  Maybe we should start serving liquor at these things — sort of the American-Irish Bar method of arriving at concensus.  Get drunk and fight.  Then cry, hug, and declare eternal brotherhood while in line for the bathroom. I’m just saying.

About 125 or 150 people showed up last night.

One of the great things about going to these meetings is running into familiar faces from the neighborhood and meeting new ones. Former candidate for District 1 supervisor and veteran local land use activist, Carol Brandt was there last night. She was one of the early advocates to get something done with the Marinwood Plaza and it was interesting to get her take on how this process was or was not progressing.

All the usual players in the Marinwood Plaza/Village universe showed up last night except our supervisor, Susan Adams. Susan was representing Marin at a national conference and sent an aide in her place. From the task force we had Dave Green, Frank Nelson, Cyane Dandridge (also on the Marinwood CSD board), Cameron Case, Geoff Mack, Dave Mitchell (also on the Marinwood CSD board). From the County we had Brian Crawford and Tom Lai. Peter Brandon from Trammell Crow, the developer who is a local resident here was there. As I mentioned before, Bruce Anderson and Tarey Read was there from the Marinwood CSD Board. A lot of people have invested an enormous amounts of their lives to this issue, which explains the contentiousness last night.

The taskforce talked about there being three bubbles of interests in this whole development process: The Owner/Developer, The County, and the Community.

By the end of this meeting it appeared that there were at least 4 bubbles (perhaps more! Maybe I get my own bubble) as there were various opinions within the community bubble. This meeting was supposedly spawned by a presentation on May 7th, 2008 to the task force of three proposed designs at the cost of $55k, but I have been told that they had already planned this meeting prior to that meeting.

One plan Peter Brandon presented featured 50 units of single family housing and 20 units of apartments, which seemed to be viewed favorably in the audience last night. The next plan featured 100 units, that conforms to the Marin County’s Countywide Plan limit for infill housing. The third plan features a podium design where a parking garage is built underground and cars enter and exit at ground-level while residential units and whatever retail lives ground level and up.

The owner and developer are favoring a project with podium parking, but to cover the enormous costs of building it they would have to build anywhere from 130-150 units. Tom Lai from County Planning reminded everyone that in order for 130-150 units to go through, they would have to amend the plan that was passed by the Board of Supervisors.

Podium parking’s stated benefits is that it would offer plenty of parking which would address concerns over parking by those who live closest to the development. The plan with 100 units is favored by Marin County because that is the number that satisfies their need to get affordable housing. It seems from last night there were some residents that would tolerate the 70 unit plan as the best they can hope for in order to get a market and to rid the community of the rampant 5 acre blight that infects us courtesy of Jerry Hoytt. Thanks Jer.

JUST SO YOU KNOW

Yes. It is true. As I reported a while back, Jerry Hoytt still owns Marinwood Plaza. He is just in a “very long escrow” with Trammell Crow, the developers.

On June 8th, Susan Adams and the county asked Dave Early to come up with refined plan. The entire plan will cost $110,000 which includes 25k for the traffic study for the development. According to Bruce Anderson they will release a traffic study within the next week or so.  On August 14th there will be a walk through with the county in regards to the streets around the project.  Sometime in September there should be a full presentation to the community.The traffic study is flawed since it counts people turning right on Blackstone and continuing on Miller Creek after Las Gallinas as members of the community, instead of sophisticated freeway jumpers knowing how to avoid the Miller Creek Middle School traffic.  Yet, it did find that there are over 1700 additional cars in the study area that do not belong there each day.

There was some questions as to what exactly was in the contract between Hoytt and Trammell Crow. Peter Brandon of Trammell Crow was on hand last night to clarify that their contract did not include any mention of 130 units, but is prevented from saying anything else about the contents of the contract because of a non-disclosure agreement.

The current state of the economy is throwing a wrench into the whole mix. Developers fund projects on debt, and the current loan industry are just not making project loans as of three weeks ago.

It appears that the dragging of feet has lost us the chance to get Oliver’s Market in Marinwood. They will be replacing the Safeway store space in Ignacio. How will that effect our ability to attract a market given Ignacio will have Oliver’s and Nave Boulvard will have the uber-Safeway?

On August 1st, a clean up of the toxic spillage from the dry cleaners plan will be presented to the Water Control District. I am hoping that they follow through with the thorough demolishing of the entire existing center in order to do the clean up. That mall building is so very ugly on so many levels and all that we would be left with dead weeds and drug dealers — an improvement.

Claims were made that reading the Countywide Plan (the one that relies on Marinwood to help out with the affordable housing problem along with Marin City) was good if you want to fall asleep. Personally, I found it enthralling reading. Does that make me weird?

CASA MARINWOOD REPRESENT, YO

About 25 or 30 people from Casa Marinwood showed up. A representative from Casa Marinwood spoke to their concerns with a development right next door to their own dense residential community. Casa Marinwood will suffer if what is proposed is poorly designed especially when it comes to parking and traffic. The fact that Marinwood Avenue is actually a cul de sac poses special problems for traffic flow. Casa Marinwood itself with less density than what is planned across the street from them does not have enough parking.

Another problem with the Marinwood Village concept is that the density does not allow for any space for residents’ kids to play or swim.

We have yet to hear anything about the Oakview project and the assisted living facility that will be built and accessible from Marinwood Avenue. We don’t know whether it will be a foot bridge or if the cul de sac will be expanded to the facility. Another Casa Marinwood resident spoke that he would support the 70 unit solution to get a market and was able to elicit a good show of hands.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING HUB-BUB-BALOO

I could tell by being in the audience that there were people who attended because their concerns about affordable housing will be in the plan. They see affordable housing being the same thing as section 8 housing. What eluded them is that affordable housing means you have to earn 45k to 90k a year to afford the $1300 /month rent. That is not section 8. You could also hear mumbling over having renters and occupancy of apartments by people with multiple cars. Other residents had no problem with the affordable housing as long as it was truly workforce housing for our firemen, police, teachers, and other county employees. Is there any way to guarantee that the renters or buyers will actually be part of the local workforce or people who commute to San Francisco?

“That’s what happened to Hamilton” – Overheard last night after it was said that this would be only workforce housing. Apparently,  these folks are concerned about an increase of crime in Hamilton and worry we will be the next Hamilton.

From Susan’s office has this to say on the amount of affordable housing and who would be able to afford it in their July 2008 Newsletter:
“Twenty percent is automatically required in unincorporated Marin for developments, but more can be achieved through partnerships with foundations, tax credits, working with nonprofit
housing organizations and state and local housing funds. The general plan states up to 50% of the units could be affordable…but the percentage will depend in the financial package that is able to be
achieved and the affordability levels can roughly range from very low income (less than 40% – 60% of the median income); low income (60% – 80% of the median income); and moderate income (80% to 120% of the median income). In Marin the median income has ranged between $92,000 to $96,000 per year, so a family earning $95,000 per year could qualify for the moderate income affordable units.”

It will be safe to say that affordable housing is not a problem.

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION

I heard calls in the crowd for Susan Adams to be recalled, but I am not sure how serious people were, but it is an indication how charged the evening was.

Susie Cohen stood up and supported the Village Task Force and didn’t trust Susan Adams.

There were claims by the organizers that the process has turned from collaboration to circumvention. Circumvention was mentioned more than once. The county was accused of being really great at planning, process, and more planninng but no so good in the “action” department. Oooh. Snap!

Also heard last night — If the community doesn’t “rise up” there will be more weeds and more drug dealing (!!!).

AS IF YOU ASKED FOR MY OPINION…

Will we get our market? If you want to know, you are better off asking a magic 8-ball.  ASK AGAIN LATER.

I signed something last night in support of the Task Force that was going to Susan Adams. I did it out of a sense of being neighborly and I do support the concept of a community task force being involved with the process. I am not sure who should be on that task force, but a wide variety of residents should be included. I am not sure who is right. It is possible that everyone is wrong, except me.

I, for one, would like to see these drawings Trammell Crow came up with. There are people who say that these drawings are not ready for the public to see since they are still in flux. As I see it, I would like to know what the developer is thinking about knowing that it isn’t set in stone.  For now, all we see are out-of-date drawings we know are not in the running anymore. One of the main frustrations for me has been that the majority of Marinwood residents have no idea what is going on and there has not been enough transparency or communication with residents. Until recently,  I had not heard about marinwoodvillage.net and the Marinwood Association site hasn’t been updated in awhile. I know as much as I do because I doggedly ask for more information. I am telling you that the majority of Marinwood residents have absolutely no idea about what is going on. This process was supposed to be about community involvement.

I am often scolded that I just do not understand or I am not fully informed. It is not my fault if those things are true.  Last night really didn’t help. It created more questions than were answered.

I remain concerned with any plan that permanently losing badly needed commercial/retail zoning. This community has relinquished so much commercial space over the years. Whether the zoning is changed under the guise of multi-use or straight residential, it still represents a loss to the community. Marinwood Plaza, Casa Marinwood, and everything to Las Gallinas was once zoned commercial/retail as Hoytt promised us in his 1955 brochure.

Wouldn’t it be better to be able to take care of all of our errands without having to go on 101 instead of adding more people on 101?

There is an argument in waiting out the Hoytts until we what we really want and not buy into accepting residential in order to get our market. Let the blight be his legacy.

I am also concerned that traffic issues haven’t been taken care of. Caltrans wants Marinwood to help take traffic off 101, so they will be no help to us. Apparently, Susan Adams got some funding to put stop signs to discourage freeway jumpers. In the long term, some sort of traffic circle may be put in at the intersection at Miller Creek and Marinwood. I am unclear how this would increase traffic safety and as someone who lives near that intersection I don’t see how that would make things better for residents living in the Stones or Casa Marinwood. If we are to accept our role as Caltran’s overflow for 101, is it really wise to add a development that would add more cars?

Officially I am in no particular camp. I love and respect my neighbors — even those I disagree with. I am holding out for the best deal. I haven’t heard it yet.

I welcome everyone to register and post your views here. I am genuinely interested in your ideas, disagreements, and your inevitable praise.

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Marinwood Plaza, originally uploaded by denisecastellucci.

The last time we talked about the Marinwood Plaza, we were all doing the happy dance because we heard that the Marinwood Plaza was sold to a developer around Christmas 2007 and there was going to be a meeting on January 30, 2008 to meet with the developer.

It turns out that the sales agreement with Trammell Crow that was signed was an agreement to buy, but does not represent a completed sale. There are outstanding issues with traffic and a chemical spill created by the Dry Cleaning business. According to Trammell Crow’s Peter Brandon the spill extends even into Caltrans property and the entire center would have to be dismantled to clean it up. I have to say that when I heard that the current Marinwood Plaza would have to be destroyed, the prospect made me all happy and warm inside.

At the January 30th meeting there was much excitement about the prospect of movement and there were questions about when one could drive or walk over and buy a quart of milk. The excitement was deflated a bit when it was found that the planning and county approval would take about 2 years providing there was no opposition. It could take anywhere from 2 to 5 years before anything would be ready.

It also appears that the 100 units that seemed so absolutely necessary for success has been downgraded to 70 units.

In general, people seemed to be pleased that Peter Brandon of Trammell Crow was a local resident who knows personally that our community needs a market as well as a cafe and meeting area.

As of March 17th, Peter Brandon had this to say about the plaza:

“Nothing new to report yet on Marinwood, we have been studying the contamination issues and site plans for the center. I am hopeful that we will be presenting a new design for the center in the coming summer months and will move the approval process forward.”

So we look forward to seeing what they have to come up with in the Summer. Hopefully, the plan will not only clean up the spill, but solve the traffic and parking issues that have plagued proposals all these years.

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