Point Reyes Light - October 14, 1999
EAH's shrinks affordable housing project
The time has come to provide the Point Reyes community with a status report on the affordable-housing development on the Giacomini property. Many of you will have read our recent mailing, some of which is repeated below.
Following the last community meeting on May 11, we prepared and submitted a development pre-application to the Marin County Planning Department based on the 50-unit site plan from the community process. In their 11-page response letter, the Planning Department, among other things, concluded that the "staff would strongly encourage you to reduce the scale of the project to a level that could be supported on the property and that would be more compatible with the surrounding community."
Many in the community, including supporters, have expressed concern about the size and impact of the development. We continue to struggle with ways to address these concerns while maintaining an economically viable project. The problem with making the development smaller, of course, is that the smaller the development, the larger the amount of money needed to finance it.
During the community dialogue process, I reported to the community the informal financial commitments of the various subsidy providers. For a variety of reasons, the subsidy providers have indicated a willingness to consider higher subsidy levels. Accordingly, we have modified the original development plan and submitted a request for increased subsidies to the Marin Community Foundation and the Housing Trust Fund.
We are working now with our design team to revise the site plan as follows: We propose combining the five lots into one. A long-term local family is proposing to buy that portion of the property for small-scale agricultural use, including one moderate-sized, three-bedroom house, one 750-square-foot second unit, and a small barn.
We propose several changes with the 10 for-sale cottages. First, these homes would become permanently affordable to low income families with sale prices reduced to $150,000 to $200,000. Second, we propose that the homes be spread out sufficiently so that each home has its own septic system eliminating the problems associated with multi-owner community septic systems.
We further propose the development of the live/work units fronting on Mesa Road be delayed for a minimum of five years. The first phase would include only the 27 affordable rentals, 10 cottages, the small residence/farm, the pocket park, and public restrooms.
While we wait for subsidy providers to decide if they will increase funding for our revised development proposal, we hope to schedule a community meeting sponsored by the Village Association to present drafts of the proposed revisions. We expect to complete the site plan revisions and submit a formal development application to the county as soon as possible.
From what you have read here and in the flyer, we hope you will support the plan. Community support will help to insure the subsidies we need from the county and the Marin Community Foundation. We must use our time wisely. In the next 90 days, working with the community, we must decide either to pursue this opportunity to build affordable housing for the community members of Point Reyes Station or abandon the project. Please make your wishes known.