Point Reyes Light - November 30, 2000
A chance to tell county about West Marin’s housing needs
By Stephen Barrett
West Marin residents have been asked to share their views on the need for affordable housing – and how their communities can meet that need – during a Dec. 4 workshop sponsored by the Marin Community Development Agency at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station.
County officials have scheduled the workshop at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 4, as they prepare to update the housing element of the Marin Countywide Plan. The housing element update is required by state law to assure that communities intend to provide sufficient housing for their residents.
Although counties and cities are not responsible for building adequate housing, they are required to set policies that encourage the construction of affordable housing and to identify locations where such projects would best be located.
West Marin needs
Barbara Collins, an affordable housing strategist for the Marin Community Development Agency, said the upcoming workshop will give residents a chance to explain the housing needs of West Marin, and what types of projects would best suit those needs.
The most recent housing element update in 1994 identified projects such as the owner/builder housing on A & B streets and Walnut Place apartments in Point Reyes Station as attempts to create affordable housing in unincorporated Marin. It also listed inclusionary ordinances, density bonuses, and allowing second units as policies through which the county promotes the construction of affordable housing.
"This effort is to really get the community to tell us what a good project would look like," Collins said.
521 units needed
The latest figures from the state Department of Housing and Community Development require the county to adopt policies that would allow for the addition of 521 more housing units in unincorporated Marin (which includes areas such as Strawberry besides West Marin). Included in that total is 85 dwelling units affordable to households earning less than half of the county’s median income.
These figures are not a quota of new construction that must be met, but simply a projection of unincorporated Marin’s housing demand as calculated by state officials and planners from the Association of Bay Area Governments, said senior ABAG planner Alex Amoroso.
Failure to plan for the anticipated demand could result in the loss of federal housing funds or legal challenges from housing advocacy groups, he said.
Sonoma County and the town of Corte Madera are fighting lawsuits from the Sonoma County Housing Advocacy Group and Marin Legal Aid Society, respectively, for adopting community plans that did not meet the projected needs of their residents, Amoroso said.
Water not legitimate constraint
State officials do not recognize limited infrastructure, such as inadequate roads or water supply, as valid reasons not to plan for new housing needs.
The question of water supply is a big one in Marin County. Marin Municipal Water District’s 185,000 customers are using about 1000 more acre-feet of water per year than is available to them, and the district has been debating whether to build a pipeline to Sonoma county to import more water from the Russian River.
On average, Marin Municipal imports an average of 6,800 acre-feet per year from the Russian River, roughly one-quarter of its total demand. The water is delivered through a pipeline owned by the North Marin Water District, which imports Sonoma County water to Novato (that water does not feed North Marin’s water system for the Point Reyes Station area).
Because it cannot appropriate more water from the Mount Tamalpias watershed, the district has look to the Russian River for future water supplies. The district is entitled to take up to 14,300 acre-feet a year from the Russian River, but its future ability to deliver that water depends on whether North Marin Water District will have any extra room in its pipeline as Novato continues growing.