Point Reyes Light - November 24, 1999
Affordable housing project gets some breathing room
Working around yet another hurdle, the developer proposing to build affordable housing in downtown Point Reyes Station has received a temporary reprieve from making option payments to the property owners.
Lamar Turner, senior project manager for the non-profit Ecumenical Association for Housing, said his organization has been given a four-month extension by the Toby Giacomini family before it must begin making payments on its option to buy the 19.5-acre property on Mesa Road.
"This was an excellent gift, I thought," Turner said Tuesday. "The Giacomini family was very understanding of our situation."
San Rafael-based EAH struck a deal with the Giacominis in the spring of 1998 to buy the land by mid-2001, at a price in the range of $1.3 million. Turner and EAH had agreed to make payments to the Giacominis starting November 27, provided the project had not yet entered the phase of formal environmental review.
"We had agreed that if we had not reached the EIR process, then we were supposed to start making option payments," Turner said. "But we were unable to keep the pace needed to meet that deadline."
An environmental-impact report, Turner noted, can only begin after a formal building application is filed with the county Planning Department, which is still some months off.
After a slow, year-long grind of community meetings, and two supporting polls, EAH has decided to proceed "full-steam" with the project, which calls for 36 rental and for-sale dwellings plus a four-acre farm. "The idea to abandon the project is no longer on the table," Turner said.
He added that by the group's own estimation, a formal application will have to be submitted by Feb. 1. "Then we can begin the EIR process, and we can also proceed with what will be a very formal and specific public scoping process," he said.
Under the new terms of their deal with the landowners, EAH would have to start payments to the Giacominis only if the EIR has not been started by late-March.
EAH had been set to do hydrological tests on the site Friday, but rain forced a delay.