Hypothetical resolution submitted to:

County Supervisors July 17, 2001 regarding:

U.S. Fish & Game Marin Baylands Wildlife Refuge Proposal

The Resolution that should be passed by Supervisors should address Marin County’s true needs and would say…

Resolution _______

WHEREAS, 100% of the property owners, who have attended three property owners meetings, are against being included in a the USFWS process and final map; and

WHEREAS, these owners of 17,600 acres know and understand the fair, legal and appropriate, in most parts of the country, process that the USFWS is undertaking to possibly establish a Northbay Refuge; and

WHEREAS, 85% of Marin lies in undevelopable open space, agricultural reserves and park land; and

WHEREAS, these affected property owners have consistently and strongly said they desire to be left out of a refuge mapping area, even if it means waiting longer to receive a government payment, if at some future time they decide to become a willing seller to the government; and

WHEREAS, property rights have long been a cherished Constitutional right; and

WHEREAS, there are many other state and federal agencies, land trusts, and local environmentally titled organizations that can raise property purchase money and effectively lobby to increase the amount of Marin land put into an undevelopable state; and

WHEREAS, some leaders among Marin’s environmentally titled organizations have deftly and successfully used their lobbying and political skills to stifle the delivery of workforce housing and transit solutions; and

WHEREAS, the USFWS started this process with input from these same environmentally titled organizations rather than with the property owners, local governments and home owner organizations; and

WHEREAS, the initial USFWS public meetings were not well communicated and coordinated to include land owners, local governments and home owners associations; and

WHEREAS, these organizational mishaps, are interpreted by many of the property owners as part of a plan that has often been undertaken by Marin’s environmentally titled organizations to thwart land owners’ rights to use their land to address community and private needs -- other than those espoused by these environmentally titled groups; and

WHEREAS, repeatedly in the past terms such as “Baylands Refuge” – legal, acceptable, and appropriate in so many parts of the nation – have been misused in Marin’s political and planning meetings to the costly detriment of other community needs such as youth recreation, workforce housing, transit, air pollution reduction, energy conservation, etc; and

WHEREAS, for decades public officials and activists have repeatedly expressed verbal concern about the crisis in affordable housing and transit while both situations have grown wretchedly worse, as Marin’s median home price dances with $650,000 and traffic bump and grind approaches 8 hours a day; and

WHEREAS, in spite of these and other facts only the St. Vincent’s / Silveira property, from which Marin’s environmentally titled environmental groups have already denied an environmentally beneficial rail stop from the developer’s development planning is cited in today’s proposed Resolution Revision ….

Now, therefore be it resolved that the Marin County Board of Supervisors:

1) withdrawn its support for the USFWS planning process until all county and general plan processes are completed and until a majority of property owners request a USFWS study be undertaken, and/or

2) strongly endorse that the USFWS drop from its final map any parcels that may now or in the future have the ability to deliver critically needed housing, transit, recreation or agricultural benefits to the North Bay Region, unless petitioned by those land owners to add them to the USFW study; and

Be it further resolved that adding any terminology to the minuscule remaining developable land that delays or increases the cost of housing or transit delivery only exacerbates the profound housing and transit crisis suffered by North Bay residents which far exceeds the need for adding another layer of government to further protect North Bay lands.