Residential development is never easy in Marin, a place where change is greeted with the same enthusiasm as Lindsay Lohan at a car dealership.
But Larkspur isn’t afraid to pull the trigger. The city council has decided it will build a “mixed-use community facility” on the 2.5 acres it has coming to it as part of the development of the old Niven Nursery off Doherty Drive.
For years, the property sat fallow, as landowner Irving Group and Walnut Creek developer Larkspur Housing Partners tried to put a project together. But now The New Home Co. is building 29 single family homes, 50 condos designed for senior living and half a dozen below market rate cottages with the blessing of city hall. The company closed escrow on the purchase last September.
The city will use 0.8 acres for a park, so the remaining land can go for some sort of community building. This is where it gets a little tricky, despite how sexy “mixed-use community facility” sounds.
The first hurdle is the fact the city is a little shy on cash for the project, which could run between $12 million and $16 million. The city has just $1.3 million in its capital improvement vault, and most of that money is destined for a public works corporation yard project.
As if the shortage of ready cash wasn’t interesting enough, there’s more than a little debate over what kind of community facility would best serve Larkspur’s almost 12,000 residents.
As in any Marin city worth its organic consciousness, there are many vocal denziens who feel that a library would serve their thirst for knowledge. There’s also a bonus should the council decide a book lending institution is the way to go. A $4 million donation is teed up, along with a $1 million matching grant if the library checks out.
Despite the $5 million waiting in the wings, the city council wants to be sure all points of view are considered and that Larkspur winds up with a facility that serves the needs of the most people. So the council is using a tried-and-true Marin tradition—appointing a citizens advisory committee. The committee will study the issue from all sides and report back to the council with a recommendation. And at some time in the future, the city council will likely make a decision that will please some residents while making others wonder who elected these yahoos, er, hard-working, open-minded public servants.
Just up the road in San Rafael’s Santa Venetia neighborhood, it’s a numbers game. (In the interest of full disclosure, I live in Santa Venetia, though I don’t have a pony in this race.) Thompson Development has 12 home sites on a 15-acre parcel on North San Pedro Road. The land is currently zoned for a maximum of 32 homes. If Joel leaves the site traveling at 25 miles an hour, how long will it take…no, wait, that’s a different joke.
The planning commission recommended the county allow construction on seven or eight lots, or possibly reject Thompson’s plan altogether. Thompson, a division of Bel Marin Keys-based West Bay Builders, wants to build a dozen homes including two that would be moderate income units.
Some of the neighbors would like to see the county step in and rezone the land so just five homes could be built. A group called Friends of San Pedro Mountain 650 Group are concerned the sites have soil that’s as unstable as Lindsay Lohan (bonus Lohan mention…you’re welcome), that there could be traffic concerns and that the property might also experience some drainage and flood issues.
Design, Community & Environment, a firm out of Berkeley, says that if the property was willing to really commit to doing the work, with the right kind of counseling, the issues could be overcome. OK, they didn’t use that language, but they are from Berkeley and their analysis showed the impacts could be knocked down to a “less than significant level.”
In the end, the county supervisors voted 4-1 to take a couple more months to study the project. After George Lucas’ Grady Ranch was sent packing, it’s only a matter of time before somebody gets around to suing the county over its planning process.
And who’s representing West Bay? None other than former Marin supervisor Gary Giacomini, who also represented Lucas before he said he had enough of the neighbors. Some of the Santa Venetia neighbors pointed to campaign donations made by Giacomini’s firm of Hanson Bridgett to some of the supes, and the danger of those dollars tipping the scale. The trouble with that grassy knoll scenario is that West Bay’s application fits county planning regs, so the donations wouldn’t be buying something that, on paper, West Bay doesn’t already have coming.
Psst—Wanna buy a building?
Blackstone Group, the New York-based private equity player, has decided the time is right to put more than 710,000 square feet of Class A office space on the market in Marin. Through its Equity Office subsidiary, Blackstone has put the Woodside Office Center in Novato, Drake’s Landing Office Park in Greenbrae, Shoreline Office Center in Mill Valley, Harbor Drive Executive Park in Sausalito and Wood Island and Larkspur Landing Office Park (both in Larkspur) on the block. Vacancy figures for the first quarter in Marin were 18.4%, which is down almost 3% from a year earlier.
No soup for you
After a Baskin-Robbins location in downtown Mill Valley went into a permanent deep freeze, the ubiquitous sandwich chain Subway wanted the location. The gent who brought the application for the sub shop operates 28 stores, so one might guess he knows his way around a foot-long and might be able to make a go of it. But he was up against it as almost 1,200 residents signed a petition saying the Subway would violate the “core values” of the general plan. The crowd let him know they were leaning more toward maybe something a bit more ethnic like Indian food or something that would hold on to the look of Mill Valley’s “ancestors.”
It was unclear just how many BMWs that would involve.
