One Point of View
Downzoning can punish
community
Dwayne Hunn
Community contributor
Political decisions at the
local level seriously affect the world in which we, and tomorrow’s children,
must live. Although Democrats cheered wildly when Presidential Nominee Dukakis
alluded to working for the ‘community” as a reason for his success, local
Democrats as well as Republicans seldom think in terms of the larger community.
Californians spend 300,000
hours a day stuck in traffic at a cost of $350 million a year. Automobile
traffic, especially stop-and-go traffic, is overwhelming our atmosphere with
carbon dioxide. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen from 280 parts per
million in the immediate pre-industrial period to 348 parts per million in
1987, a rise of 24%
Marin’s population has grown
1/2 of 1 percent every year since 1970. Its automobile registration, during the
same period, has grown 6 times as fast. Today’s average home sale price in
Marin tops $270,000. What do these statistics have to do with local political
decisions?
Let’s use a real life
example. Recently San Rafael’s General Plan Revision public hearing process
ended. Shortly thereafter, at a late June San Rafael City Council Meeting,
Council member Thayer moved and the City Council unanimously supported an
immediate downzoning of the Spinnaker on the Bay Project.
Neither of the developers,
Sidney Hendricks or Dennis Horne, were present nor had they been apprised that
this downzoning was under consideration. “Four to five years of work was
re-planned in five minutes and $200,000 of our money was wasted,” was how
Dennis Horne described the downzoning to medium density (8-15 units per acre). According to Home, the San Rafael Planning
Department and Design Review had no serious problems with their design of 18.5
units per acre (506 units) with 15% of those to be affordable units. His
disgusted, initial reaction to this decision was to say, “I’m tired of all this
jacking around. If the City says we can build 20 palatial estates that’s what
we’ll build. No more attempts to provide affordable housing or work with the
community. It just wastes our time and money and gets us burned.”
If you are one of those who
think all developers are fat cats raping the land, then you don’t realize that
after about 7 years in the development business only about two out of five
still have the finances to remain in business. What you should also realize is
that the few who survive must acquiesce to the ‘planning forces” that publicly
control the private land for which so much was paid. The “planning forces” are
often composed of legions of NIMBYs (not-in-my-back-yard) or swell-worded
environmentalists. Both don’t seem to make the connection between their role in
forcing regular folks Into a long distance commute to find an affordable home
and the consequent degradation of our atmosphere.
How could this scenario be
better handled? The Council could reconsider it’s action based on:
I) East San Rafael pleas for less traffic and more affordable’ housing.
2) the developers desire to build a secure project that benefits more
than just the rich
3) suggestions by Novato Ecumenical Housing to swap the affordable
units proposed for Spinnaker on the Bay for in-lieu fees that could have been
used to:
a) purchase an existing apartment complex(s) in East San Rafael and
insure its long term affordability or make it into a coop(s)
b) purchase existing condominiums in East San Rafael and use a deferred
principal and Interest second trust deed program, as presently implemented by
NEH in Novato, to make home ownership available to low Income households.
4) In-lieu fees equal to 15% of 506 will buy more existing units in
East San Rafael than 5--15% of the reduced density of approximately 280 units.
Swapping in-lieu fees for
community controlled will provide a means to build “community.” Downzoning,
just because it sounds good to a narrow constituency, often punishes the larger
community. The more often this goes on in Marin and communities across the
United States, the more time we waste behind the wheel. The more time we waste
behind the wheel, the more we increase the Greenhouse effect and the less
competitive we become in the world.