How Plan Bay Area views the Marinwood Priority Area



The Marin Priority Development Area

Editor's Note: The follow is excerpted from Visions for Priority Development Areas published in May 2012 for Plan Bay Area. As Marinwood-Lucas Valley is primarily a bedroom community, it is difficult to understand why we were chosen as a Priority Development Area.
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Visions for Priority Development Areas
The Jobs-Housing Connection Strategy builds upon a rich legacy of integrated planning in the Bay Area. For over a decade, the region and its local governments have been working together to encourage growth of jobs and housing production in areas supported by amenities and infrastructure.


In 2008, ABAG and MTC created a regional initiative to support these local efforts called FOCUS. Through FOCUS, local governments identified Priority Development Areas (PDAs) and Priority Conservation Areas (PCAs). These Priority Development and Conservation Areas are the implementation framework for the Jobs-Housing Connection Land Use Strategy.

In PDAs, new development would support the needs of residents and contribute to a pedestrian and-transit friendly environment. While PDAs were originally established to address housing needs in urban settings, they were later broadened to address employment centers and rural settings.

Local jurisdictions have defined the character of their PDAs according to existing conditions and future expectations as regional centers, city centers, suburban centers, transit town centers or rural centers, among other place types.

PCAs are regionally significant open spaces for which there exists a broad consensus for long-term protection. PDAs and PCAs complement one another because promoting compact development within PDAs takes development pressure off the region’s open space and agricultural lands.

The planning processes for these key infill, transit-oriented neighborhoods are local efforts informed by a range of community members that involve hard work to address a unique and complex range of local goals and issues. The Jobs-Housing Connection Strategy is designed to connect these efforts and advance dialogue around a sustainable regional growth pattern that recognizes local aspirations and the distinctive characteristics of our region’s neighborhoods and communities. This is not a simple compilation of local proposals; rather it is the result of an ongoing dialogue on enhancing community and regional qualities for future generations.

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If you are having trouble understanding what the above means,  you are not alone.    It seems to suggest that Marinwood Priority Development Area will host high density housing and undergo "suburban renewal",  that will fundamentally transform Marinwood to an urban neighborhood with multifamily homes, and high density apartment buildings.

Did anyone ask YOU if you wanted Marinwood Priority Development Area?  Did they tell us in 2007 that they did this to us?  You would only know if you were a politician or one of their "Neighborhood Leaders" meeting behind closed doors.

This is not how Democracy is supposed to work.  Do not let them exploit our home for THEIR financial gain or political aspirations. 

Get involved.  Just say "No" to Marinwood Plaza Low Income housing.  Say "No" to the Marinwood Priority Development Area. 

Say "Yes" to a beautiful, green and prosperous future .  Save Marinwood-Lucas Valley.