Note: Bruce Corcoran, the prevailing plaintiff in the case against Marin County, wrote a powerful letter posted here. The letter is also in the public record at the County website.
To the Marin County Board of Supervisors,
I fully endorse Bruce Corcoran’s letter. As it contains complete details of the legal case, I am only adding additional comments.
As Chair of the Tam Design Review Board, I take Community Plans very seriously. This letter is not submitted in that official capacity, but rather to represent the many hundreds of individuals who also support Community Plans, and have signed the Sustainable Tam Almonte and Citizen Marin petitions over the course of this issue.
It’s time for county staff to accept that the language they insisted on adding to our Housing Element was unlawful, and that a judge has ordered precedence clauses removed from our documents.
Staff has chosen at every turn to ignore the law and instead stick with their own interpretive language.
When this issue should have been settled by your Board in the Fall, County Counsel reached out to Corcoran publicly, in a meeting, and offered Option D — which required Corcoran to ask the court for an extension so a collaborative document that satisfied the petitioner could be crafted.
Corcoran agreed, and requested the extension.
There was no collaboration.
Instead, we now have Option E, created in a Planning Commission meeting with no public participation or understanding of the process.
Staff has continually threatened that HCD could decertify our Housing Element if the Court Order was actually followed in intent. They seem to have encouraged decertification by interacting with HCD (twice) before the Planning Commission had a chance to weigh in. HCD has not sent a warning letter, to my knowledge. In reality, HCD could decertify our Housing Element at any time. If not now, we can expect it at mid-cycle review.
Option E, as options before it, comes with an outrageously confusing chart that is literally impossible for the public to understand, and very difficult even for those who have been following all versions. In Option E, as in all previous versions (save Option B): wherever the precedence clause language is removed, it is followed by new language that again subjugates Community Plans.
The County has wasted two years on this issue, long decided by a Superior Court Judge. Option B was the cleanest solution, and with the absence of the collaborative Option D ordered by your Board, it remains the correct choice.
Marin County has a compliant Housing Element that doesn’t contain any of the extraneous language staff or the new Planning Commission’s Option E offers. What it does contain is unlawful precedence clauses. I would like the Board to show leadership, stand up for the integrity of Community Plans, and meaningfully represent constituents by approving the language of Option B.
Sincerely,
Amy Kalish
CitizenMarin.org
Submitted on behalf of more than 500 signer petitioning to save Community Plans
