Matthew P. Welsh, Contractor
150 Filbert St. #3
Sausalito, CA 94965
May 1,
2001
Dan Ashe, Refuge Director
U. S. Fish & Wildlife
1849 C St. NW
Washington D.C., DC 20240
Re: Removing
Baylands Refuge designation from North Bay
My two sisters, my brother and I were raised in Marin county
by my single parenting Mom. Living in
Section 8 assisted housing helped my Mom make ends meet. Most of my school friends were much better
off than we were but the financial disparities were pretty much ignored by me
at that time. None of us could afford
to easily live – or even dream of buying a home here.
Now, after years of working as a contractor in Seattle, I am
back working in the Bay Area and Marin.
Part of the reason I am back here probably lies in the fact that so many
builder types no longer try to live and work in Marin. Consequently, I can command a pretty high
price for my services. My brother is
also back working as an electrician -- because even journeyman electricians are
hard to find or develop in pricey Marin.
Why am I telling this story? Because getting a few hard working people who grew up here to
come back at high wages building and remodeling overpriced Marin housing is
making Marin an enclave for the rich and old.
Making this kind of ghetto is not what government agencies should be
forcing on Marin county. I may not be
an elected officials believing he knows a lot or a rule quoting bureaucrat, but
I do know too many of those types have misused the land in Marin County so much
so that few of us hard working middle class people can afford to live
here.
Now that I am back in Marin and a bit older and wiser I
better understand how politics has harmed the delivery of affordable housing
for individuals like me. Every
significant development attempted in Marin is zoned down thanks to political
pressure groups. Then builders like me
are asked to build palatial estates rather than housing that I, my brothers and
sisters could afford to buy and live in.
When I was a kid you could walk the still preserved railroad
tracked train right-of way in San Rafael.
Old timers would talk about how the train should come back. Every time some developer proposed building
an European style mixed-use community on the train line, these groups who call
themselves environmentalists shot it down. Now only the St. Vincent’s Silveira
property remains upon which one could
build a mixed use community oriented to the train. The other large parcels along the train
line, thanks to pressure groups, became a non-mixed-use shopping center and a
typical expensive suburban sprawl community not oriented to the train. Hey, had that land been used smartly maybe
my brother could have bought a condo along one of those mixed use rail road
towns. Hey, maybe my sister could get
on the train and come down from Sonoma, where pricey Marin forced her to move
to, and visit him at his train sited condo without having to use a Highway 101
stuck-car.
Now you have this Baylands Refuge proposal for 17,000 acres
of bay land property – some of which might be able to provide the housing my
siblings and I could live in – and you want to give it a name that will just
cause headaches for developers and builders.
Having the term “Baylands Refuge” attached to these acres will allow
opponents of housing and the train to
raise false fears among voters. The
property owners will then have to spend money to offset the perceptions
raised. In the end, those costs will be
passed on to us – those in need of more affordably priced housing and a train
solution to our Highway 101 gridlock.
Take your Baylands Refuge to some area that doesn’t misuse
it. Take it off of the East San Rafael
Canalways parcel, off of the St Vincent’s Silveira property, off of the Marin
Airport property and any other properties that could in any way possibly
address housing and transit answers.
In your response, please answer these questions:
1. Must you do an Environment
Impact Report for the effects that I list here --- negative housing and transit impacts – that placing
any of these acres in a Baylands Refuge will cause?
2. If you are not
required to do one, how do people like me change the rules so you have to do
one just like developers do?
I look forward to your response as I venture into a fairly
new field of writing my representatives to see if written voter concerns have
any impact on public policy.
Sincerely,
Matthew P. Welsh
CC:
Gale Norton, Department of Interior
Mel Martinez, U.S. Department of HUD
Julie Bornstein, California Dept. of Housing
Bill Pavao, California Department of Housing
Mike Spear, Regional Director USF&WS
Marshall Jones, USF&WS , Acting Director
San Rafael Chamber
San Rafael Dredge Committee
Congresswoman Woolsey
Senator Boxer
Senator Feinstein
Marin & Sonoma Supervisors
Bay Planning Coalition
Mayor Al Boro & Council Members
San Rafael Planning Department
Assemblyman Joe Nation
North Bay Agricultural Coalition
Novato Council