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High Noon Decision Time On Corte Madera Inn Rebuild
Location: Corte Madera Town Hall
Meeting Time: 7:30 pm April 11, 2017
Good Evening Planning Commissioners:
Here we are at High Noon decision time.
After three years of contentious debate, what’s most amazing to me is that we’re still here talking about the same out-of-scale Corte Madera Inn rebuild project which a significant portion of our small town does not want.
Our General Plan states that we value “community livability” which includes “a clean and safe natural environment for wildlife” combined with “meaningful historical and ecological features”. (GP 1-3).
Doesn’t the Edgewater wildlife pond---with its historic 1920’slide gates connecting to Shorebird Marsh---fulfill GP criteria, if only it were better maintained and managed?
As of this date both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Regional Water Quality Control Board have declined to issue the applicant a fill permit for the current hotel’s .64 acre wildlife pond. That’s because the pond enjoys protection as wetlands under the Clean Waters Act of 1972.
The EIR in fact states: “Topographic mapping in 1971 shows that the northern end of the pond was historically part of a major slough system that connected marshlands to San Francisco Bay.” (Corte Madera Inn Rebuild EIR 4.8-2)
Both federal agencies also say that the applicant has failed to demonstrate adequately why a smaller pond-saving project than their desired 174 units would not be financially feasible or profitable.
So why after three years are we here still talking---considering certifying a project RFEIR that does not accord with wetlands protections guaranteed under federal statues?
Why on Page 5 of the Staff Report does it say “the Town has not adopted the Clean Waters Act for its own procedures or decision making process”? Is it legally defensible that the Town has opted instead for broader and looser evaluation criteria which Staff maintains still conform to CEQA?
Planning Commissioners need to consider: In any future Appeals Court battle, which project guidelines would be likely to prevail: those of the federal government or Corte Madera’s spin on those of the state of California?
Parallels to WinCup site project disaster are hard to miss. Neighboring Tam Ridge Residences , at 180 units, did not need to be that large. But Tam Ridge had insider help, prominent housing advocates who appeared before Planning Commission and Council to convince our decision makers to create a special zoning district favorable to the developer. Now we all living with the outcome: a massive project plagued by poor design, shoddy workmanship, years’ worth of delays and, and sadly, widespread community derision which has made Corte Madera planning the laughing stock of Marin.
We need to ask ourselves if this unpopular Reneson Hotels project also may have benefited from insider politics and insider help? How else to explain the fact that staff is even presenting, as viable, Option #1: Namely, certification of a RFEIR which approves 174 units and loss of a federally protected pond?
Isn’t it finally time to embrace Option #3: “no”to both filling the wildlife pond and the applicant’s environmental failure of a project, rejected by two superior federal agencies? If we are wise as a community, we’ll profit from hard experience and avoid retracing the path of WinCup déjà vu.
Sincerely,
Peter Hensel, Corte Madera