On June 12, the Marin County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to consider an appeal from the Inverness Association of the county’s earlier approval of a coastal development permit for the Moonrise Kingdom project at the top of Vision Road, next to the national seashore. As it is currently planned, the property will consist of five buildings with 10 toilets, and have a floor area totaling 8,726 square feet. Including decking, the total development will be 10,786 square feet. The project will create 15,421 square feet of impervious surfaces and require cutting 44 mature trees.
Our community must join the Inverness Association to send a clear message to the Planning Commission that this mega-development is too big for Inverness. The county’s single-family residential design guidelines state that “the floor area of the proposed development should not substantially exceed the median home size in the surrounding neighborhood.” The median floor area of homes on Vision Road is 1,530 square feet, with the largest at 5,477 square feet. Though the proposed main residence has a floor area of 3,993 square feet, Moonrise Kingdom will have a total floor area more than five times that of the median home on the road and will be 60 percent larger than the largest home. Yet the Community Development Agency’s staff report on the project states, “A residence of this size is not out of character with residences located in the surrounding Inverness community, nor is it out of character with the newer homes located throughout Marin County.”
Hold on here. Is supersized Moonrise Kingdom characteristic of our Inverness homes? Did county staff drive around the Tiburon peninsula, looking at all the grandiose mansions that are popping up willy-nilly, and think they were driving around Inverness? How does this project fit in with the character of the small to modest neighboring houses? Something is not adding up.
If the Moonrise Kingdom out-sized development is permitted to proceed, it will create a terrible precedent for the construction of additional mega-scale homes in Inverness and Inverness Park. There will be no stopping the county’s approval of projects like Hidden Dragon, previously proposed for Balboa Avenue in Inverness Park.
The only way to fight this excess is to flood the Planning Commission with letters objecting to the size of Moonrise Kingdom as being out of character with our area. Please immediately email your concerns to: [email protected]. Send a copy to Supervisor Dennis Rodoni so he is aware of our concerns.
Our community is part of one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and all of us who live here and those who love to visit must strive to protect this unique environment, not ring its boundaries with super-sized vacation houses.
Marcia Nute, a retired financial officer snd high school teacher, lives in Inverness.