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Town of Fairfax

Fairfax Special Town Council Meeting Tonight on Density Increases Downtown

Fairfax Women's Club
46 Park Road
Fairfax, California
October 29, 2015
6:00 PM PT - 9:00 PM PT

On Thursday, October 29th, the Fairfax Town Council is holding a Special Meeting for a General Plan Forum at the Fairfax Women's Club building to consider changing the Town Zoning Code to allow 2nd story residential units by right (guaranteed with no Use Permit required) in downtown Fairfax and along the Sir Francis Drake corridor.

This may result in the redevelopment of downtown Fairfax and adding 52 units above commercial businesses.There will be no added parking for these units.

The current Use Permit law allows approval of 2nd units above commercial but they must go through a public hearing process with no guarantees. It allows for approval of good projects and gives the Town real control and the ability to say no to bad projects.

Also the Lutheran Church property, all 20 acres not just 2 acres, was sold to an East Bay affordable housing developer who will now be applying for the State Density Bonus on top of the proposed 40 units bringing the new total to 56 units next to Canon Village.

In addition the owner of School Street Plaza wants to redevelop that site and add 58 more residential units.

And, the developer of the Wall property is proposing to cluster 10-12 2500 sq ft houses each with a 2nd cottage unit.

The Fairfax Planning Director is recommending the developer cluster the 10 to 24 units up on the Wall property but the Upland Residential Zoning Ordinance, UR 10, does not allow clustering (I know because I was one of the authors). The current zoning ordinance requires each lot to be a minimum of 10 acres and requires public streets, curbs and gutters, drainage, sewer and water lines. The only way to cluster development on the Wall property is to rezone it Planned District Development (PDD).

Fortunately the 2014 Referendum folks worked on reducing the Wall property density back down to a maximum of 9 units. Now a proposal to raise it up to 24 is on the table.

Fairfax is regularly voted the Best Town in Marin and that is due to the community's diligence.

Let's keep that title, Best Town in Marin.


Organization: Fairfax Town Council

Contact: Frank Egger

Website: http://www.town-of-fairfax.org/html/council.html