West Marin’s representative on the Marin County Planning Commission has resigned from her post, weeks shy of completing a second term. Point Reyes Station resident Christina Desser said a phone call with Supervisor Dennis Rodoni left her feeling that she no longer enjoyed his support.
“I feel like I was fired,” Ms. Desser said. “He may take umbrage at my saying that I was fired, but that’s what it feels like to me, because he clearly wasn’t going to reappoint me. I asked him why not, and he just said we don’t agree on things.”
In a letter to the Light, Mr. Rodoni thanked Ms. Desser for her service. He did not cite any disagreements between them. “She contributed valuable perspective, local knowledge and leadership, contributing to thoughtful and sustainable planning decisions for our communities,” he wrote.
Mr. Rodoni invited Ms. Desser to apply for the seat in 2017, shortly after he was elected, and he supported her reappointment to a second term. But in their conversation last week, he said he planned to open the seat to other applicants.
Unlike supervisors, who are elected to four-year terms, planning commissioners are appointed. The county posts openings online, and anyone can apply. The full board votes on the appointment, typically endorsing the local supervisor’s preferred candidate.
This year, the county launched an effort to increase diversity on its boards and commissions and align their membership more closely with Marin’s changing demographics.
The Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors have diverged several times recently on West Marin matters, mostly over state laws meant to encourage the construction of more housing, especially low-income housing.
Like most of her colleagues on the Planning Commission, Ms. Desser fought to maintain local control in cases where county and village rules are in tension with state law. Supervisors have been more willing to adapt local rules to accommodate new housing, citing the acute shortage of long-term rentals on the coast.
The differences emerged during last year’s debate over an update to the housing element of Marin’s countywide plan, which sought to meet ambitious mandates set by the state. The supervisors unanimously approved an update proposed by staff, while planning commissioners opposed it.
Ms. Desser and most of her colleagues objected to language in the update that would give priority to more lenient county development rules when they clashed with more restrictive community plans promoting single-family housing.
The subject resurfaced this year after a Strawberry resident sued over the housing element update and a judge ordered the county to eliminate language prioritizing county policies over community plans. County staff were reluctant to remove the precedence clauses, arguing that they were needed to facilitate the construction of multi-family developments and advance state fair housing laws.
When county staff devised a response to the lawsuit without consulting the Planning Commission, Ms. Desser was outraged. “I feel that the way that you are handling the process deprives people of their voices and deprives us of any real role in decision making,” she said in September.
The debate over the renovation of the Point Reyes gas station underscored tensions between state and local development priorities. The proposal, which was unanimously approved by supervisors last month and survived a challenge to the California Coastal Commission, included five new apartment units and a full-scale convenience store.
Ms. Desser led opposition on the Planning Commission to elements of the plan that she viewed as an assault on local control, advocating for a much smaller convenience store and retention of the building’s front porch. Her advocacy won the admiration of members of the Point Reyes Station Village Association, which appealed the project’s permit multiple times.
“Many people in the community support the diligent, thoughtful and responsible work Chris has consistently done as planning commissioner, and before that as coastal commissioner,” said Laura Arndt, the association’s treasurer. “Her responses, questions and assessments at hearings and meetings reflect the concerns of our community and we have been well represented by her.”
Ms. Desser was appointed after Wade Holland resigned as the District 4 commissioner, a position he held for 13 years. An attorney and environmental advocate, she previously sat on the coastal commission and worked as a deputy land-use attorney for the City of San Francisco.
She said she was eager to serve a third term, and she remains perplexed by Mr. Rodoni’s reluctance to reappoint her. When she pressed him to explain his concerns, Ms. Desser said, he gave confounding answers.
According to her, he seemed upset that she had mentioned his recusal on the gas station vote during last month’s coastal commission meeting. (Mr. Rodoni co-owns property nearby and cited state ethics rules.) He also suggested that she should have recused herself sooner from voting on the county’s short-term rental rules because she owns an Airbnb. Ms. Desser recused herself on the eve of the vote, after the publishers of the Light pressed commissioners to declare any conflicts of interest.
Mr. Rodoni never mentioned the issue at the time, Ms. Desser said, adding that she routinely checked in with him about controversial issues because she wanted to be on the same page. He always encouraged her to exercise her independence.
Ms. Desser worked intensively on the short-term rental issue, and many of her recommendations were ultimately incorporated into the updated rules.
“This isn’t stuff that you do because, gee, it’s really fun,” she said. “You do it because you care.”