Dominican University is located in what's called Dominican Valley, where a controversial development project has been proposed.
Dominican University officials are suggesting they were misled by a developer when the San Rafael college sold him 24 acres of land near the campus for $3.1 million.
Developer Raymond Cassidy acquired the sloped acreage, which shares two parcels along Deer Park Avenue in San Rafael, from the university in April 2023. Two months later, Cassidy then submitted various pre-applications to develop between 29 and 75 units on the larger, 19-acre parcel and has now filed a formal application to construct 50 units and 14 accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on the site.
But in a letter sent recently to the City of San Rafael, Dominican University President Nicola Pitchford said university officials were given the impression the development potential of the property, which is on a steep lot, was much smaller.
In the letter, Pitchford wrote that the currently proposed size and density of the residential development “differs significantly from anything Dominican understood to be feasible or reasonable” throughout their discussions with the developer prior to the sale. She said the university consulted with land-use experts throughout the sale, as well as engaging in land-use discussions with Cassidy. “The number of units [in Cassidy’s development proposal] far exceeds the maximum discussed with us as likely or even possible on this land,” she wrote.
A neighborhood group dubbed Save Dominican Valley has formed to oppose the project.
Since Cassidy is including 14 ADUs in the project proposal, he’s filed the application under what’s known as the “builder’s remedy,” which under Senate Bill 330 fast tracks affordable housing projects through jurisdictional planning processes. The builder’s remedy can be allowed when an affordable housing project is proposed in a city or county without a compliant housing element—at which point such projects are approved “ministerially,” or without subject to denial by city officials.
Whether Cassidy’s application qualifies for the builder’s remedy remains an open question—he submitted his pre-applications in June 2023, after San Rafael had submitted its updated housing element to the state, but before the housing element was approved June 22.
In a letter last March to the City of San Rafael, Cassidy argued his application was within time to qualify for the builder’s remedy. “This project was submitted at a time when the city was not in substantial compliance with the housing element law and therefore the city cannot deny the project based on any purported zoning code or general plan inconsistency,” he wrote in the letter, as reported by the Marin Independent Journal.
In addition to the ADUs, Cassidy’s project calls for six 1,805-square-foot duplexes, plus 27 single-family homes from 2,595 to 3,165 square feet and 17 townhomes from 1,150 to 1380 square feet.
