Marin Supes Compromise To Move Controversial Housing Project Forward

MARIN COUNTY, CA — The five-story apartment building planned for 825 Drake Ave. in Marin City was too tall. It blocked the view for low-income seniors living in a group home behind it. It was on the site of a Baptist church at the center of an historically Black community. It was approved during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the neighborhood was distracted by the health crisis. It was the subject of two lawsuits and years of protests, but on Tuesday, a compromise that split the project in two moved forward.

The 74-unit project on Drake Avenue will now have 42 units and the remaining 32 units will be built at a second site in Tamalpais Valley located at 150 Shoreline Highway.

In a unanimous vote, the Marin County Board of Supervisors approved the Alternative Project Agreement between the county and the project developer, Pacific Companies, owned by Caleb Roope.

Public comments at the meeting included representatives from Save Our City, the community group that opposed the Drake Avenue project and sued to stop it.

"Given this unique point in the time of our nation when the ugly face of racism is exposed, I would like to invite you, our county, to plant a flag of equity from our city for all the people of color who live and work in the city," said Marin City resident Deborah Turner through tears. "The sledgehammer of SB 35 permits aggressive contractors to make fortunes at the expense of people. Let's stop this now for countless reasons. First among them, justice!"

The Drake Avenue project was the first application for ministerial approval under Senate Bill 35 by the Marin Community Development Agency. The 2017 law sets in place approval through a purely administrative process rather than leaving it to the discretion of the local government. In other words, it automatically streamlines approval for affordable housing projects that meet all legal requirements.

"I'm hearing a lot of calls to stop 825 Drake from moving forward at all costs. I don't see that option before us today," said District 5 Supervisor Eric Lucan.

Although the second development in Tam Valley is situated in a flood plain, the design includes features to prevent flooding, according to Community Development Agency Director Sarah Jones. She said the 150 Shoreline site is not being considered under SB 35 and subject to discretionary approval.

Discretionary approval was not offered in the Marin City case. It would have allowed the neighbors and local governments to hold permit approvals and request design modifications.
Jones said that at this point in time, the 150 Shoreline project is not subject to any of the requirements of SB 35.

"It's not applicable here," she said. "That is because we achieved the regional housing needs assessment goals in all income categories under the previous housing element. One of the reasons that we are in that status is that 74 units of affordable housing were approved at 825 Drake."

To complete the financing for the project, the developer petitioned the state for $40 million in bond financing, which was approved by the Board of Supervisors on March 2023. The special bonds, available through the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, were the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Save Our City coalition. The group argued that the Marin supervisors could have denied the bonds, based on features they considered detrimental to the community, but they mistakenly believed the law would not allow it. The coalition prevailed in that lawsuit, but the developer is continuing with the project anyway.

"We have heard several areas of concern since the project was submitted in 2020," Jones said. "There was not a mechanism for a formal public process since this was ministerial review."

"In my mind, frankly, the die was cast when the private landowner in Marin City sold this property," said District 2 Supervisor Brian Colbert, the newly elected and first Black member of the Board of Supervisors. "At that point, the hands of this body were essentially tied. This project could have in fact gone a different way if the private landholder had decided to approach it from a different perspective, and approached the county with a sense of placemaking, or how can we partner together?"

Marin City has the largest population of Black residents in the county due to the Great Migration, when people from the South headed west to work in California's military shipyards. Men and women came to Marin County during World War II for better lives but found themselves forced to live in one place -- Marin City -- through housing redlining and segregation.

The alternative arrangement comes with a commitment for 25 vouchers from the Marine Housing Authority and the developer, said Jones. The vouchers make it possible for very low income and extremely low-income people to rent units in the Drake Avenue building at the price that they can afford, which would be 30% of their income.

"I agree that we have a concentration of affordable housing in Marin City," said District 3 Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters. "We will see the county build more affordable housing throughout the county with the projects that are in the pipeline now."

Story by Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News.

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