Blog Post < Previous | Next >
meehyun kurtzman
What The Marin Community Alliance Victory Means to Marin
The Marin IJ and County Spin MCA Court Decision Result:
Yes, our victory was narrowly defined. And yes, Steve Kinsey, County Counsel and the IJ dismissed it as minor and easily dealt with—is anyone surprised at that? Were we expecting differently from the IJ or the county?
MCA Victory
The Marin Community Alliance asked the court to set aside the FSEIR for further review or throw it out altogether. However narrowly defined, the FSEIR, for now, is set aside. This FSEIR is the foundation for both the old and the new Housing Element. It is what developers are waiting to be nailed down before they come forward with their massive projects for these 49 areas that the county has pre-defined as being ripe for high density housing.
The ruling states that the County will need to do a traffic study, which they will narrowly define, but we believe it will also be subject to Public Hearings. We all know these hearings are theater, but it is another opportunity in the political arena and in an election year cycle, to make the points that need to be made about the county’s headlong rush into overbuilding. As they ignore cumulative impacts by dealing with projects on a “case by case basis” like we are now seeing at St. Vincent’s/Silveira and Grady, the county is pushing for 30+ units/acre and disregarding impacts on schools, traffic and the environment.
Why You Should Care about Lucas Valley
The traffic study may concentrate only on the impacts to Lucas Valley Road of the many projects being planned or waiting in the wings. If you think this only concerns Lucas Valley, or if you think that putting all these projects into this one area is going to protect your area, we fear you are missing the point. Traffic in one given area affects all of Marin. More importantly, every project that goes through without addressing the local conditions becomes another nail in the coffin for every other area. Every time we write off one set of residents who are voicing legitimate concerns about high-density development, we risk losing everyone’s rights, which are eroding daily.
DeathStar comes to Lucas Valley
George Lucas is proposing 224 units of housing with a multiplex building 60 foot tall with huge underground parking garage! This is bigger than Wincup. What are the consequences of locating such a huge project far up the road where residents will have to drive, further clogging 101 when they do? This project, if allowed to build in a remote area as pristine as Lucas valley, sets a dangerous precedence for the entire county.
Next Steps:
We will keep you posted on the MCA lawsuit and share information as we can and hope you will continue your efforts. Our rallying cry now is “Not just Lucas Valley: Marin wants County-Wide Traffic Study” as the meaningful study we need done.