Marin County announced last week that the developer of a controversial five-story, 74-unit affordable housing project in Marin City has purchased a property near Tam Junction, with the goal of splitting the number of units over the two sites.
The new plan calls for 42 units at 825 Drake Ave., Marin City, and 32 units at 150 Shoreline Hwy., Tam Junction. Both properties are in unincorporated Marin County.
While the Marin County Board of Supervisors must approve the proposal, it may be a fait accompli. The developer, Caleb Roope of Pacific West Communities, and the county have worked together on the terms for months.
Pacific West Communities closed on the Shoreline property on May 20, according to the assessor’s office. The developer paid $1.8 million for the vacant lot, located just off the freeway, next to the Holiday Inn and Floodwater restaurant.
Neither the developer nor the county announced the purchase at the time, despite strong public interest and substantial opposition to the Marin City housing project. Both said they wanted to ensure the Tam Junction site met the developer’s needs.
On Aug. 19, the developer requested a zoning change from the county for 150 Shoreline, yet it’s already zoned for multi-housing.
“The rezoning would be to change it to the Housing Overlay Designation, which allows for ministerial approval,” said Sarah Jones, director of the Marin County Community Development Agency.
Jones went on to explain that ministerial approval removes discretionary reviews. Instead, it relies solely on county staff to ensure that the project meets coding standards and requirements, bypassing subjective judgment and assessment of the development’s merits. It also eliminates the need for an environmental study under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Simply put, the developer wants fast-track approval for its Tam Junction development.
In 2020, the Marin City project received ministerial review under Senate Bill 35, state legislation passed in 2017 to address California’s housing shortage. If a local government has not met state mandated housing production goals, SB 35 requires the streamlined approval process for multi-family developments.
When the developer applied for the Marin City project approval, the county had not reached its housing production goals. Now, it has.
While the 825 Drake property benefited from ministerial approval, the project stalled as the developer and county considered numerous objections raised by the densely populated community.
Roope, owner of Pacific West Communities, says he needs ministerial approval of the Shoreline development to avoid further delays.
“We’re so behind,” said Roope. “We’ve been sitting doing nothing for a year or more, trying so hard to find this other situation to move units off of Drake. Ministerial approval basically means staff approval. We really can’t afford a long, lengthy review of the new property.”
Construction delays, buying the second site and changing the project design have added signifant costs, which Roope estimates at $4 million.
The revised proposal may alleviate some of Marin City’s concerns, including the lack of parking. Still, reducing the number of apartments has not changed the height of the building. It towers over the two-story senior housing complex just yards away.
Traffic and safety for children remain issues, with Marin City’s only park directly across the street. The planned development, located in a state-designated high fire hazard zone and an area prone to flooding, could strain the infrastructure in an emergency. Marin City has only one road in and out.
Although Roope had repeatedly said he wanted to reduce the building’s size to three stories, now the developer and the county agree that 825 Drake will be the site for a five-story building with 42 apartments.
The 74 modular units, for two wings of a building, were constructed months ago for Marin City, but never moved to the site. Reconfiguring the modules for two properties proved difficult, especially because of the Tam Junction site’s size limitation—just over half an acre. Meanwhile, 825 Drake is almost an acre.
Roope said he focused on finding a second site large enough to accommodate two stories from each wing of the Marin City building. But available properties did not fit the bill.
As Jones observed, “One of the things that we’ve been working through with his development team is what are the possibilities of configuring these units differently.” She added, “We ultimately came to the conclusion that the feasible way for this project to get split was to do a vertical slice and separate the wings.”
The Marin City hilltop property will retain the larger, five-story wing, with the four-story wing going to the smaller parcel in Tam Junction. Roope and the county must still iron out details for the second site.
A property adjacent to 150 Shoreline, owned by the county, could provide much needed parking for the planned 32 apartments. However, Jones said the county would not “gift public land” to the private developer, mentioning a lease or sale of the property as options.
On Oct. 15, the Board of Supervisors will consider a memorandum of understanding on the proposed project changes, which is based on a “term sheet” agreed to by Roope and the county in April.
Even without approval for the two-site plan, the developer already has a building permit for 825 Drake Ave. Grading and foundation construction could begin this fall. Roope estimates the Marin City construction could finish in 15 months. If he receives ministerial review for the Tam Junction site, Roope says that project should be completed in about 21 months.
The public can weigh in at Board of Supervisors meetings, a not yet scheduled workshop at the Tam Design Review Board and Planning Commission meetings, according to a county news release.
Ultimately, if the county grants ministerial approval for 150 Shoreline, the Tam Design Review Board and Planning Commission will have no say. Neither will the community, with one possible exception.
Save Our City, a local group opposing the Marin City development, filed a lawsuit against the county and the developer to stop the project. The lawsuit seeks to reverse the Board of Supervisors approval of the issuance of $40 million in tax-exempt bonds to develop 825 Drake, claiming county counsel advised the board incorrectly before the vote.
Last year, Save Our City rejected an offer by Roope to settle the case. The terms were similar to the proposal now under consideration by the county.
Roope, however, says the lawsuit will not stop development.
“The lawsuit is about financing,” Roope said. “It’s not about our physical ability to build. Could our financing be hurt by this lawsuit at some point? Yeah, I guess it could, but so far it has not. And if it does get hurt, that will be well after we’re already under construction. Maybe even built.”
In a statement released last weekend, Save Our City indicated they’re “skeptical that the new proposal will address their “core concerns.” The group also says its members were never included in discussions with the county and developer.
“Our strategy hasn’t changed,” Marilyn Mackel, a Save Our City member and named plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in an interview. “Nothing has changed for us—nothing. The next court date is October first.”
Thank you NIKKI. Your journalistic skills are excellent and appreciated!