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Marin County jurisdictions are racking up the rejections in their efforts to reduce the state’s housing mandates.
The Bay Area Association of Governments rejected requests for reduced housing allowances from Fairfax, Larkspur and Mill Valley in a third day of hearings on Friday.
Corte Madera and Belvedere appeals had the same result on September 29.
Municipalities are among the 10 local governments in the Marin attractive The regional allowance for housing needs from ABAG, the state directive for the creation of new residences. The edict calls for more than 14,000 additional housing units to be approved in Marin County between 2023 and 2031.
Each Marin call cited factors such as drought, the risk of forest fires and the lack of land to challenge the number of houses allocated to the community. The numbers were determined by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
During Friday’s hearings, the three appeals were provisionally dismissed for the same reasons. One of them was that ABAG failed to find that none of the jurisdictions had proven its inability to develop housing at the required pace.
For appeals that cited drought as a reason to contain development, the commission said no local jurisdiction investigation into water use had been submitted by callers.
Each jurisdiction has reported conditions that could make construction unsafe in high-risk locations, but they were told that the housing law does not consider the risk of natural hazard as a constraint – except when the Federal Management Agency and the Ministry of Water Resources determine that flood management infrastructure is inadequate.
Members of the ABAG board of directors were unable to examine complaints criticizing the methodology used to determine housing allocations. Board member Carlos Romero, Mayor of East Palo Alto, said the board needs to set boundaries for the determination process “which none of us liked, but we had to accept” .
Board member Pat Eklund, mayor of Novato, said on Friday she did not support the council’s methodology for housing requirements, calling it “preparing cities and counties for the ‘failure, in my opinion “.
However, she said she was obligated as a board member to assess the appeals “on the basis of the developed methodology”.
While some commentators agreed with Eklund and pushed against the attributions, there were also commentators on some of Marin’s calls who wanted them denied.
Marin’s Debra Taube and David Levin told ABAG they fear cities may not want to meet equitable development demands.
“The equity adjustment helps increase affordability, ensuring that everyone can live in the neighborhoods of their choice based on individual and family needs rather than on the basis of historical patterns of segregation,†Levin said. in a comment sent by email.
Taube wrote that “exclusionary zoning and community opposition in neighborhoods with well-funded schools and public amenities are major obstacles to the development of affordable housing.”
“It is because of this that Marin and Sonoma counties are considerably more segregated today than they were four decades ago,” she said. “We need RHNA allocations to deal with the impacts of our historic inequitable land use policies. “
Corte Madera’s planning director Adam Wolff said the city had no other calling plans.
Larkspur Mayor Kevin Haroff said: “I can’t say if the city would seek further legal remedies, but that’s definitely something I thought about.”
“My interest is to make a sufficient case that could support litigation if this is a path that our city decides to follow,” he said.
The board will hear appeals from Ross, San Anselmo, Sausalito and Tiburon on October 15. appeal for the unincorporated Marin County will be heard on October 22.
San Rafael and Novato did not contest the housing allocations.
A final decision on all appeals is expected from ABAG by the end of the year.
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