Invoking emergency powers, Marin County plans to purchase a Point Reyes Station lot where it intends to place at least 12 units of short-term housing for residents displaced from West Marin ranches.
The county’s long-term goal is to develop permanent affordable housing at the one-acre lot, located at Sixth and B Streets, in partnership with the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin.
CLAM is under contract to buy the property, known as the calf lot, for $1.1 million. After selling it to the county, the nonprofit would lease the property and place between 12 and 16 homes on wheels there, hopefully before the rainy season arrives. The homes could later be relocated to other locations and placed on permanent foundations.
The partnership would allow CLAM to quickly generate housing under an emergency shelter ordinance adopted by the county in March. The measure allows the county to suspend zoning and environmental barriers for projects on properties it owns. CLAM would operate and manage the site and develop procedures for selecting residents.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to proceed with the purchase; it plans to take a final vote at its July 15 meeting. Supervisor Dennis Rodoni recused himself from the vote because he owns property near the lot.
Priority for the housing would be given to people living at 14 ranches in the Point Reyes National Seashore who must move out by early next year as the result of a lawsuit from environmental groups. Priority would also be given to residents of the Martinelli ranch outside Point Reyes Station whose homes have been deemed unfit for habitation.
In all, some 150 people from 40 ranch households qualify as extremely low-income and are at risk of losing their homes, according to county officials. The residents, nearly all of them Latino, form the backbone of the West Marin workforce, performing essential jobs at farms, schools, restaurants, nonprofits and retail businesses.
With long-term housing scarce and expensive, many would be forced to leave the region in search of affordable housing, resulting in a critical labor shortage.
“Beyond the economic impacts, these deep-rooted local families face significant psychological strain from prolonged housing insecurity and the threat of separation from community networks,” said Leelee Thomas, deputy director of the Marin County Community Development Agency.
Jarrod Russell, CLAM’s executive director, told the board that the calf lot is just one of several projects the nonprofit is exploring with partners like the West Marin Fund, the Marin Community Foundation and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust.
“We’re at a critical moment,” he said. “We have the opportunity today to build some bridges, to give these families some hope and a pathway toward staying in communities that they love.”
Enrique Hernandez, who has lived on the Martinelli ranch for 25 years, was one of several residents who urged the board to move forward with the purchase.
“We’re just here to ask for your help in providing us with the housing that we need so our families may remain united,” he said. “We don’t want to have to leave and to go to places that we’re unfamiliar with. We’re asking for a chance to remain in a community where we are happy.”
Jasmine Bravo spoke on behalf of Familias Afectadas de Rancho, or FAR, the group representing the ranch families in the seashore. “The calf lot is only a first step for shelter,” she said. “It’s an emergency, and we don’t have time to wait.”
Several neighbors who live close to the lot said they would support housing at the site but expressed concerns about the scale of the project, its potential environmental impacts and the fact that they only received three days’ notice of the board’s plans. They said the site is zoned for only four houses.
“We would like to create a sense of harmony with our neighbors, and we’d like to be involved in this,” said Stephanie Rapp, who belongs to a small homeowners’ association of 10 nearby neighbors. “Despite having no notice, we approach this with goodwill and a desire to work out a plan in everyone’s best interest.”
Jay Rosenblatt, who has lived across from the lot for 20 years, noted that the site is in the coastal zone, where extensive zoning requirements are typically enforced.
“Permits are required to remove trees, to build a fence, to undertake almost any change to the habitat and vista,” he said. “Yet this plan, which has so many potential impacts, given the numbers of mobile homes and people you are proposing to place on this property, is not subject to any of these rules. We have not had time to understand the implications.”