Blog Post < Previous | Next >
Terri Leker
Marin County Planning Commission did the right thing — now it’s up to our Supervisors
A recent Marin County Planning Commission agenda item to finalize the Corcoran v. County of County of Marin lawsuit, which the County lost, has morphed into a much larger exposure of dysfunction between county interests and staff.
Some history
On Sept. 23rd, the Marin County Planning Commission voted 5-2 to recommend that the County follow a court order to remove unlawful language from county documents that had been inserted by staff – over the Commissioners’ objections – in 2022.
In a perfect world, the Marin County Board of Supervisors would follow suit, and our ”corrected” Housing Element would be sent off to the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The matter would then be concluded.
The issue at hand revolves around unlawful wording, called “precedence clauses,” that elevates one part of a plan over another – when they are actually both parts of a single plan that must work together.
Previously, when there was a conflict between the Countywide Plan and community plans, the more specific plan prevailed (typically the community plan). This specificity had been helpful in Marin’s complicated landscape when general guidelines were not enough.
County Staff inserted illegal precedence clauses into the Countywide Plan to undermine community plans from the beginning of the Housing Element process. The Planning Commission repeatedly told staff to remove the clauses, because they “eviscerated” community plans. But, staff continued to insert and defend the clauses, even after learning they were unlawful.
As a result of staff's actions, the Planning Commission rejected the Housing Element.
Staff then presented the Housing Element, with the illegal clauses included, to the Marin Board of Supervisors, who approved it under time pressure. This exposed the County to a lawsuit (Corcoran v County of Marin), which the County predictably lost, leading to the court order noted above court order noted above.
As of today
At the recent Planning Commission meeting, instead of simply presenting documents that removed the clauses, staff presented a larger document with a clever workarounds that attempt to bypassed the court order and make staff the arbiters of any conflicts between the Countywide Plan and community plans: when conflicts between plans arise, staff would “harmonize” the differences (an vague term without a legal definition). The staff's proposed, new language went so far as to include staff's “submitting to the authority of any state agency.”
The Planning Commissioner's strongly opposed these revisions, arguing that it created a whole new set of problems and failed to correct the relationship between the Countywide Plan and community plans, as ordered by the court.
However, worse than all that, it turned out that staff had run the whole thing past the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) before the giving the Planning Commissioners any chance to review it or comment on it!
HCD is the agency that decides whether the County is in compliance with state housing laws. What the County was ordered to do by the Marin County Superior Court is beyond their jurisdiction. For staff to hold undisclosed meetings with HCD in an attempt to further subvert the legal authority of community plans is unconscionable.
The Planning Commission was blindsided by this.
Commissioner Christina Desser was blunt about it, saying
“That’s backwards.”
In response to the Commissioner's condemnations, staff offered nonsensical explanations, citing concerns that community plans were limiting and the new language must now be retained because the HCD expected it – or the Housing Element would be in jeopardy.
Commissioner Margaret Curran commented,
“I feel like now we’re in this box where HCD is expecting a broader scope.”
Commissioner Desser’s reproach to staff was clear.
“The way that you are handling the process deprives people of their voices and deprives us of any real role in decision making. Obviously I feel very strongly about this – manipulated, like, ‘get rid of us.’ I guess state law requires that we exist, but why are we wasting our time?”
Desser tapped into long-standing concerns voiced by the public and Planning Commissioners that county staff have been crafting the County's Housing Element and Countywide Plan documents to suit their own agenda and interpretations of state housing law. And their guidance has often gone far beyond what Sacramento requires, contrary to the interests of Marin County residents.
In the end, the Planning Commission voted to recommend that the Board of Supervisors follow the court order, eliminate the illegal precedence clauses, and reject all of staff's new language, calling it “unnecessary,” “vague” and “complicating.”
The County must follow the court's order
The court order is clear:
“The County shall remove the void precedence clauses which direct subordination of the community plans to the (countywide plan).”
At the Board of Supervisors meeting on Oct. 29, the County Supervisors should follow the Planning Commission’s lead and strictly comply with the court order. Deferring to the staff's convoluted, new proposals would, again, subordinate community plans and create potential for other conflicts and confusion and even more lawsuits.
It is unknown how well the Supervisors understood the Corcoran lawsuit, when they were pressured by staff into making their disastrous decision (3-2) in June -- a decision that removed the low density protections from the Ridge and Upland Green Belt, Bay Lands Corridor, other high fire risk and environmentally sensitive areas, and areas without roads or utility access.
Staff had pushed for these changes to show HCD that Marin was willing to increase density absolutely anywhere — even if it had no effect on furthering workforce / affordable housing. Common sense and best practices — as described in community plans — set aside these areas to be tread on lightly.
Finally, staff’s assertion that there is a threat of Housing Element decertification by HCD is unfounded. Even Marin County legal counsel was uncertain (during the Planning Commission questioning on September 23rd) that the omission of staff’s proposed new language could be grounds for such an action by HCD.
CLICK HERE to sign Petition to the Marin County Supervisors, asking them to honor the recommendations of the Planning Commission.
The Petition is open through October 28th at:
https://www.change.org/BOSFollowPlanningCommissionRecommendations
Amy Kalish is an activist fighting against overblown state housing mandates, following Marin-specific and statewide issues as they relate to housing policy. Her organization, Citizen Marin, alerts members to current issues and actions they can take. The citizenmarin.org site is a growing resource for all cities regarding issues related to state housing policy. To contact / sign up for updates, email: 1citizenmarin@gmail.com