Tomales’ design-review board on Wednesday, Sept.
28, will hold a public meeting on a proposed housing development that
could add as many as 40 residents to the town (pop. 371).
Board members this week said they plan to tell townspeople
about problems and proposed solutions in a revised plan from developer
Michael Sass.
The board represents the town on land-use matters,
making its recommendations to the county Planning Division.
Several board members and townspeople told The
Light that Sass’ latest proposal, which would create 19 homesites
on the west side of town, includes four lots under 6,000 square feet,
and the resulting density would be out of character with Tomales.
Other residents, however, are less concerned with
density than with the town’s small, if not gradually declining,
population. (Estimates of Tomales’ year-round population 20 years
ago were about 30 people higher than current census figures.)
Smart growth welcomed
The Design Review Board’s secretary-treasurer,
Blair Fuller, told The Light some homebuilding would be good
for the town: "I welcome the idea of more houses in Tomales. [Having]
more schoolchildren and more customers for businesses would be a benefit
to the town."
Board member Ginny Magan, said she is worried about
the proposed development’s traffic and social effects on Tomales.
Magan is the board’s liaison to the Tomales Regional History Center.
Ironically, Tomales is far smaller now than in its
heyday around 1900 when it had roughly 500 residents, was a major railroad
stop, and had been considered for the countyseat.
Although much of Tomales’ downtown is still intact,
it is now the smallest town in West Marin other than Olema (pop. 245)
and Dillon Beach (pop. 319). Even sparsely settled Marshall (pop. 394)
is bigger.
Tomales’ small population has in recent years
become a serious problem for some of its mainstreet merchants. "For
God’s sake let us put some houses in," Ed Vallejo, owner of
the Diekmann’s General Store, told The Light.
More customers needed
So few customers live in Tomales, Vallejo said, that
he has been forced to take out several loans just to keep the town’s
main business afloat. An increase in population from the development
is one of the only chances his store has to survive, he added.
Jennifer Puccioni, who co-owns the William Tell House
Restaurant, was less adamant than Vallejo about the need for Sass’
development, but she agreed with her fellow merchant that "it would
definitely help us out."
The upcoming meeting will discuss a letter the design-review
board sent Supervisor Steve Kinsey, Johanna Patri of the county planning
staff, and Sass. The discussion is intended to inform townspeople about
certain issues before a Nov. 12 public meeting with Kinsey and possibly
Sass.
The letter cites the 1997 Tomales Community Plan,
which calls for:
• Enforcing the 6,000-square-foot minimum
lot size.
• Requiring that streets within the development
be at least 60 feet wide because "the rural character of the streets
must be maintained."
• Requiring a minimum of three access roads into
the development to avoid traffic congestion, maintain room for firetrucks,
and because "the new community should be as integrated as possible
with the existing village."
• Designating "a small, central open-space/sitting-area
which would in some manner commemorate the former location of the depot
of the Northern Pacific Railway."
Sass is aware of the letter and has taken steps to
respect the board’s wishes. He added that he has been "working"
with county staff on the development of 6,000-square-foot lots. However,
he added, if larger lot sizes are required, they may be less affordable
to the general public.
Sass said his original development proposal contained
all of the access roads the design-review board would like. However,
he said, county staff, for reasons unknown to him, opposed the street
pattern.
The developer said that he is now working with planning
staff to designate three access roads, one from Mound Street, emergency
access for fire vehicles on Carrie Street, and a connection to the north
from Second Street.
Character of town
He has also hired consultants, Architectural
Resources Group of San Francisco, to ensure that the homesites are in
character with the historic town. The group, he said, is forming plans
for in some way recognizing the former train station.
Sass first proposed the development two years ago,
and "to get to where we are today [has taken] considerably longer
than I ever anticipated it would take," he said. "That’s
really frustrating."
Although he has extensive experience as a developer,
he said, the county’s planning "process has been slower than
I’ve experienced anywhere and on any other thing."