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 Welsh

 

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