PRESS RELEASE
From :Lew Tremaine 415-450-8747
tremainepub@yahoo.com
Fairfax, CA
Town of Fairfax planning officials, this last week, sent two separate letters to the proposed developers of School Street Plaza (95 Broadway Blvd.). The first letter, sent Wednesday, June 4 advised Mill Creek Properties and School Street LLC that their application is incomplete, lacking a number of necessary items. The second letter, sent Thursday June 5 advised the developer that the project does not meet the criteria under State Statute for ministerial review and exemption from the normal planning and design review process. In short, the public hearing process for development proposals shall be adhered to.
The June 5 letter advises the developers that the project, a six story mixed use (retail and housing development) fails to meet the criteria because the project is in a high fire danger area, as identified by Cal Fire. The project, according to the letter, also exempts ministerial review because it is in a flood zone and includes construction in “wet lands. Further, the project does not qualify for ministerial review because the project displaces several existing low-income live-work units which had been occupied within the past 10 years (within the past year in this case).
The June 5 letter mirrors many points made in an appeal filed by Lew Tremaine, three-time former mayor and 12 year town council member, on May 28. That appeal was deemed premature by Fairfax Planning Staff because the town had not yet responded to the developer’s May 8 request for ministerial review.
“I am very pleased with this outcome,” Tremaine said. “I have believed from the beginning that this project does not qualify for ministerial review, and The Town of Fairfax has confirmed this. I do expect that the developer will appeal, but that will happen in an open public hearing, as will, apparently, the Design Review and Planning Commission determination on the merits of the School Street project.”
The town letter also invites the developers to engage in the normal planning and design review process.
Before this happens, however, the developer must submit a planning application deemed complete by town planning staff. The town’s June 4 letter constitutes the second time that the developers have been informed that their application is incomplete.
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Lew Tremaine's Press Release re proposed Fairfax School Street Plaza 243 Unit Development