Excessive high density housing could result from Supervisors' 7/21 vote on Affordable Housing Combining District. Below is a copy of the letter I sent to the Board of Supervisors.
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Dear Supervisors,
A great deal of effort and political capital was invested in legislatively reducing Marin’s default density to 20 units per acre from 30, in keeping with Marin’s suburban character. Frustrated with escalating traffic and infrastructure stresses, Marin voters appreciate the relief provided by AB1537.
We are repeatedly told that Plan Bay Area is all about local control. This was the rationale of Marin County supervisors who declined to intervene on their constituents’ behalf during the Larkspur Landing Station Area Plan controversy.
The Affordable Housing Combining District is indisputably in YOUR purview. Your vote on the Affordable Housing Combining District provides the opportunity for you to show where you stand on excessive amounts of high density housing.
If you vote to approve an Affordable Housing Combining District at 30 units per acre – or designate 50% more acres for development at 20 units/acre – you are promulgating pro-urbanization policies that are completely out of touch with your constituents. This was already the case with the 2015 Housing Element submission, with its huge pro-development “buffer” (much larger than, for example, that in Mill Valley, where elected officials respected residents’ wishes).
Your constituents look to you to represent them. They do not want excessive high density housing development and the traffic that comes with it. Few of them “buy” the spurious idea that massive development leads to less traffic. Worsening traffic is at or near the top of voters’ concerns.
The 2016 and 2018 Supervisor elections will be referenda on whether you are advocating for the same goals and ideals as your electorate. How you vote on the Affordable Housing Combining District will be remembered on Election Day.
Mimi Willard
Kentfield
July 20, 2015