San Rafael, CA – A long-range housing plan for unincorporated areas of Marin County is bound for the Marin County Board of Supervisors’ agenda now that the Marin County Planning Commission has approved a Draft Housing Element update for 2015-2023.
The Planning Commission approved the document Monday, November 17, after reviewing recommended changes from the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and hearing three meetings worth of public feedback. The Supervisors are scheduled to take up the matter during the afternoon session of their regular December 9 hearing.
The Planning Commission’s recommendation includes sites with existing zoning for 419 housing units dispersed among eight sites for Board of Supervisors consideration. The commission eliminated two locations from its recommendation Monday: Easton Point near Tiburon and the California Park site on Woodland Avenue near the San Rafael city limit.
This 2015-2023 draft update plans for significantly fewer housing units than the 2007-2014 update, which accounted for 773 units. The units above the state-required minimum -- the so-called buffer -- would allow for decision makers to have flexibility when approving any potential developments on proposed sites over the next eight years without having to re-open the Housing Element. The proposed inventory carries over the sites list from the previous update with some modifications.
Staff from the Marin County Community Development Agency (CDA) has been engaged in a community discussion about potential housing sites and development densities per acre for more than two years and has hosted 17 public meetings on the subject. The purpose of the Housing Element update of the Countywide Plan is to achieve an adequate supply of decent, safe and affordable housing for Marin’s workforce, residents and special-needs populations, with a particular focus on the unincorporated areas. It assesses housing needs for a variety of income groups and lays out a program to meet those needs.
On September 30, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1537, effectively lowering the County’s default density for lower income housing from 30 units per acre to 20 units per acre for the next Housing Element cycle. Previously, Marin’s default density was the same as San Francisco’s and that of other nearby areas designated as metropolitan. AB 1537 changed that designation to suburban only for Marin and only for the 2015-2023 housing cycle. The new law does not require changes to existing zoning or to the Draft Housing Element sites inventory recommended by the Planning Commission, but it does provide the Board of Supervisors with flexibility to consider including sites to accommodate lower income housing opportunities at a density of 20 units per acre rather than 30.
A Housing Element is a plan and guide, not a guarantee for a property to be developed. As with any major development, property owners and developers would have to introduce plans to public scrutiny and government approval before obtaining construction permits. In addition, the County’s Draft Housing Element does not allow more housing development than currently allowed by the County’s land use regulations.
All California towns, cities and counties must regularly update their Housing Elements according to a 1969 state law. Marin has 11 incorporated towns and cities each with their own Housing Element. While 87 percent of Marin County is unincorporated and, for the purposes of housing planning, falls under the jurisdiction of the County’s Housing Element, more than 90 percent of the total Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the county as a whole is the responsibility of cities and towns for the current Housing Element planning period.
Marin has a history of meeting state housing regulations while upholding local policies of the Countywide Plan and community plans. The County adopted Housing Elements in 1971, 1984, 1994, 2003 and 2013. To remain on an eight-year cycle, Marin must adopt its new Housing Element update within 120 calendar days of January 31, 2015. The County would be placed on a four-year cycle if that deadline is not met.
As it continues the public outreach process, the County encourages interested residents to view the documents on the County’s Housing Element webpage, including answers to frequently asked questions. Find the video of the November 17 meeting on the Planning Commission webpage. To receive the latest updates, sign up to receive email notifications. Input from community workshops, along with the feedback received from the 2014 Marin Housing Survey and other sources, will be provided to County decision-makers during the update process.
Questions and comments can be emailed to staff directly at housingelement@marincounty.org. For more information, call the Planning Division at 415-473-6269.