Movie kazillionaire George Lucas wanted to build a new movie production facility in Marin and he was going to do the following: Restore creeks, spending as much as $70 million; dedicate another 2,500 acres of open space; generate about $270 million in business revenue while the project was being built, annually this is about $83 million; generate $10 million in tax revenue while it was being built, annually this about $44 million in local and state taxes; and employ 340 people. For every 100 new Lucas employees, 276 jobs are created in the county. The money numbers come courtesy of Marin Economic Forum, thanks folks.
But Lucas has spiked the project and now plans to sell the land to develop low-income housing. He is taking all those numbers and sticking them someplace else. That comes courtesy of the local chapter of NIMBYs-Are-Us, Lucas Valley Estates Homeowners Association.
Before we get to the latest installment in Civic Center Theater, let’s take a quick look in the rear view mirror. The Lucas empire has built Skywalker, Big Rock, McGuire and Alta Loma ranches in Marin in a corridor that wasn’t supposed to accommodate commercial projects. But Lucas wanted what he wanted, and he was smart enough to hire good people to shepherd the projects through the county and rich enough to buy plenty of land and donate it as open space. He hired former Marin County Supervisor and lawyer/land use ace extraordinaire Gary Giacomini to devise strategies to sidestep the very policies Giacomini had helped create. Those polices kept development in check, forced housing to the north, and kept Marin a place where nature still bats last.
Lucas may have built his projects in places where traditional commercial/industrial didn’t fit, but he did it in a way that Giacomini could sell and in a way that Marin would buy. A barrister who can conjugate a certain four-letter word that begins with “F” better than most, Giacomini has the heart of an environmentalist and the mind of a first-class, screw-you-to-the-floor lawyer. He’s advised Lucas well, at times telling a man who doesn’t like hearing the word “no,” precisely that.
So, in spite of building projects in nontraditional places—or maybe because of it—Marin embraced Lucas. He didn’t want to work or live in Hollywood. He wanted to eat breakfast at Spanky’s in San Anselmo and make movies on his own timeline. That independence, along with the quiet help he gave nonprofits and the way he preserved 5,000 acres of open space and hid his projects, made him a local.
So when he came back to the county with an updated Grady Ranch project—a previous version had already cleared the county back in 1996—it was a matter of looking at the changes and taking it through a review process and giving it an OK. If this was Vegas, Grady would have gone off at 5-2.
But then the dark horse showed up in the form of the Estate folk, with a 50-page letter that questioned the project based on how it legally addressed the California Environmental Quality Act, essentially threatening to bring a lawsuit to scrap the project. Hillary Sciarillo, a resident of the Estates, explained to the Marin IJ that the neighbors “really were never against Lucasfilm” but wanted the project “located in a place where it made more sense.”
You don’t need to speak Marin to translate that into “Not in my backyard.” Also this: It’s tough to feel warm and cuddly about a homeowners’ association with the word “estates” in the name.
Fast forward to now. Lucas has had plenty of success building in Marin, and he’s also demonstrated he’s willing to go someplace else by building a state-of-the-art digital facility in San Francisco’s Presidio. He’s preserved 5,000 acres, planted 8,000 trees and funneled beaucoup millions into the local economy. The last thing George Lucas was willing to put up with were neighbors telling him that his project was going to get jacked around because they didn’t feel like they were invited to the cool kids’ table.
“The level of bitterness and anger expressed by the homeowners in Lucas Valley has convinced us that even if we were to spend more time and acquire the necessary approvals, we wouldn’t be able to maintain a constructive relationship with our neighbors,” a statement from Lucasfilm said. “We love working and living in Marin, but the residents of Lucas Valley have fought this project for 25 years. Enough is enough.”
Instead, the company will sell the land to a developer interested in building low-income housing. The property was originally zoned for residential construction with up to 232 units, but those plans were blocked when Lucas bought the land. Marin planners say that current zoning would allow for 45 units to be built on the 257 acres that Lucas could sell.
You think the neighbors didn’t like Lucas’ project. Wait for the screaming to begin over a low-income housing project.
In a last-ditch effort to convince Lucas to resubmit the project to the county, the Marin Board of Supervisors agreed to stand by Lucas if the Estates HOA brought a suit. It also went to bat with the state over jitters on the creek restoration and got the Marin Municipal Water District to back off a demand for Lucas to cough up $2 million up front to cover annexation to the district. The supes even packed their regular weekly meeting, encouraging almost 30 speakers to beg the bearded one to reconsider. Supervisor Judy Arnold told the crowd that she wanted to thank Lucas for all he’d done and “Reconsider! Come back! Let’s finish the Grady Ranch Project!”
Supervisor Steve Kinsey declared the entire board was with the community in supporting the project and that, if Lucas came back, the board would approve it.
Thing is, Lucas favors cowboy boots and, when he digs his heels in, there isn’t much give. By the time the supes made their final plea, it was a stone cold lock that Lucas was gone.
There was no Return of the Jedi.
