Friday, July 26, 2013
Marinwood Village and Silly Walks Subsidies
Is it possibly that the millions of dollars of grants that Bridge Housing is securing for Marinwood Village like Silly Walks Subsidies?
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Plan Bay Area is Racist and Locks the Poor into Poverty.
Do minorities "prefer" to lived in cramped apartments? That is what the planners of Plan Bay Area want you to believe. If the Housing Element and Plan Bay Area are approved, not only will we have massive affordable housing complexes, our neighborhoods will be upzoned to 50 units per acre.
Wake up and smell the coffee! We must fight the Housing Element and Plan Bay Area!
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
What is Satire? A special note for the "Outraged ".
Satire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Satire was used long ago, even as long ago as the Ancient Greeks. It was widely known in Elizabethan times. Swift used satire in his book Gulliver’s Travels to make fun of people’s stupidity. Works like The Beggar’s Opera (1728) used satire to show how silly the politicians of the time were. In modern times the German playwright Bertolt Brecht used a lot of satire in his plays.
Satire is not possible under dictatorships. It was not allowed, for example, in the Soviet Union. Anyone trying to make fun of Stalin would have been put to death immediately.
For a related story see: Wanted Gay Eskimos
West County Gateway idea riles Occidental residents (Priority Conservation Areas are coming. Wake up West Marin!)
see article in Santa Rosa Press Democrat West County Gateway idea riles Occidental residents
By SEAN SCULLY THE PRESS DEMOCRAT on Monday, May 27, 2013
The fate of the aging and underutilized community center in Occidental has spawned a bitter controversy that has split neighbors over questions of how best to use public lands — and about the limits of government power.
Residents of the unincorporated town were surprised to discover earlier this year that their community center appeared to have been designated as the future hub ofsomething called the West County Gateway, an expansive vision for linking more than 11,000 acres of parks and open space, using trails and shuttle buses, from Jenner to Bodega Bay and inland to Occidental and Monte Rio.
The humble community center, a nondescript concrete artifact of early '70s municipal architecture that is now the regional home for the YMCA, would be reborn as an Adventure Day Lodge, with a visitor center, bike and hiking equipment rentals, food service and public gathering areas.
Local critics learned of the two-year-old concept in January, when it came up as a minor detail in a county Regional Parks presentation to the Board of Supervisors. The news set off an uproar, with some neighbors arguing that unaccountable bureaucrats were making secret decisions about the community's destiny, and others arguing that risk-averse NIMBYs were threatening progress by refusing to discuss reasonable options for the future.
“It's caused a little bit of division,” said Pieter Myers, one of the residents supporting the gateway idea. “People I used to be close to, we view each other with a little bit ofsuspicion because we're on different sides of the issue.”
An ad-hoc committee calling itself the Town HallCommittee, meanwhile, has been gathering what information it can about the gateway idea and has called a June 4 meeting to discuss the findings. Members say it appears that the Regional Parks agency has invested considerable time and energy on the plan without giving area residents any idea of its scope or implications in terms of new tourists, cramped parking and increased traffic on the narrow local roads.
Many people in Occidental “don't want a government agency coming in and changing it in such a radical way,”msaid Jacques Levy spokesman for the group.
But it is not entirely clear if the West County Gateway is even a real plan. Whether the flap is the result of a secret government plan or a comedy of errors depends on who you ask.
“You've got to recognize that their concerns are about a concept that is unfunded and unplanned and is not a project at this time,” said Caryl Hart, head of the county's Regional Parks Department, which owns the community center. “Right now, the only thing we're involved in is the OccidentalCommunity Center.”
Hart says the West County Gateway was nothing but a concept paper her office dashed off back in 2011 to apply for a small community outreach grant from the National Park Service. Into that paper went an assortment of big ideas about interconnecting the vast patchwork of county, state and federal lands that sprawl across the Sonoma Coast. Much of that land is inaccessible to the public, often simply because it lacks basics such as parking, trailheads, restrooms or even access roads.
Even the name West County Gateway is just a working title, she said. Some area residents don't believe a word of it. Levy points out that the very same details from the grant application, including the name Adventure Day Lodge, were written into the county's official Capital Improvement Plan as part of the project to rehab the community center. The Board of Supervisors just approved the latest version of that plan on May 21.
And while the county's website has made no mention of West County Gateway until this week, Hart or her staff has mentioned it in an offhanded way at least twice to the supervisors, most recently in January during a discussion of tourist improvements in Bodega Bay.
These tantalizing traces of evidence suggest to Levy and others that the parks agency has been viewing the West County Gateway as something close to a done deal, all without a single public meeting or any environmental review.
“Our contention is that the county and the community need to get together in a way that doesn't imply top-down dictation,” he said.
Others in Occidental, however, aren't so suspicious of the the idea, and welcome some kind of tourist hub. Heidi McNeal, longtime member of a group called Save the OccidentalCommunity Center, said the gateway plan is far from perfect, but she appreciates the agency's effort to find some self-sustaining uses for the center. She worries that the sponsors of the June 4 meeting willsimply oppose any change and kill off any effort to revitalize the property.
“We all get it: Nobody likes everything ... but let's hear where Parks are now,” she said.
Supporters of the gateway concept have been trying to rally like-minded residents to attend the June 4 meeting to provide a counterweight to what they fear will be a largely hostile agenda.
“We have got to get together and talk about what's best and stop talking about what's bad about the gateway,” Myers said.
The dispute appears to have come as a rude shock to Hart, herself an Occidental-area resident who has headed the county parks agency for just over two years. Previously, she was best known as a private activist pushing for land preservation and greater public access to recreational lands.
All she really wanted to do in this case, she said, was help the people of Occidental come up with some interesting way to keep the money-losing community center open. The sharp reaction to the resulting gateway proposal has made her realize that the lofty, high-concept ideas she espoused as a private citizen may not sit comfortably with her new job.
“Now that I am a government official, there are limitations,” she said, with evident frustration. “I have to out what that middle ground is between assisting people in raising money and creating a sense that government is acting too quickly and is going to do something without any process.”
Former west county Supervisor Eric Koenigshofer agrees, saying Hart's relative inexperience as a bureaucrat led to a process that “has gotten out ofsync a little bit with the community.”
Koenigshofer, an Occidental lawyer and a board member of the conservation-oriented Bodega Land Trust, has agreed to moderate the June 4 meeting, saying he hopes to keep it reasonable and fair. The sponsors of the meeting are “understandably confused” by what they know of the gateway concept so far.
Hart, meanwhile, said she has heard the concerns from the community and is in the process of removing phrases like “adventure day lodge” from official documents, including eventually from the capital improvement plan. On Friday, her office posted its first official mention of the gateway concept here.
She promised to call her own meetings over the summer to give residents a chance to say what they do — and do not — want.
“If they don't support it, it's not going to happen,” she said.
See related article: If you own rural land beware
For more on the West County Gateway project see Gateway Project in Occidental and Bodega Bay
 |
| Jacques Levy leads a group upset with proposals to turn Occidental's community center into the hub of the West County Gateway. ((JOHN BURGESS / The Press Democrat)) |
By SEAN SCULLY THE PRESS DEMOCRAT on Monday, May 27, 2013
The fate of the aging and underutilized community center in Occidental has spawned a bitter controversy that has split neighbors over questions of how best to use public lands — and about the limits of government power.
Residents of the unincorporated town were surprised to discover earlier this year that their community center appeared to have been designated as the future hub ofsomething called the West County Gateway, an expansive vision for linking more than 11,000 acres of parks and open space, using trails and shuttle buses, from Jenner to Bodega Bay and inland to Occidental and Monte Rio.
The humble community center, a nondescript concrete artifact of early '70s municipal architecture that is now the regional home for the YMCA, would be reborn as an Adventure Day Lodge, with a visitor center, bike and hiking equipment rentals, food service and public gathering areas.
Local critics learned of the two-year-old concept in January, when it came up as a minor detail in a county Regional Parks presentation to the Board of Supervisors. The news set off an uproar, with some neighbors arguing that unaccountable bureaucrats were making secret decisions about the community's destiny, and others arguing that risk-averse NIMBYs were threatening progress by refusing to discuss reasonable options for the future.
“It's caused a little bit of division,” said Pieter Myers, one of the residents supporting the gateway idea. “People I used to be close to, we view each other with a little bit ofsuspicion because we're on different sides of the issue.”
An ad-hoc committee calling itself the Town HallCommittee, meanwhile, has been gathering what information it can about the gateway idea and has called a June 4 meeting to discuss the findings. Members say it appears that the Regional Parks agency has invested considerable time and energy on the plan without giving area residents any idea of its scope or implications in terms of new tourists, cramped parking and increased traffic on the narrow local roads.
Many people in Occidental “don't want a government agency coming in and changing it in such a radical way,”msaid Jacques Levy spokesman for the group.
But it is not entirely clear if the West County Gateway is even a real plan. Whether the flap is the result of a secret government plan or a comedy of errors depends on who you ask.
“You've got to recognize that their concerns are about a concept that is unfunded and unplanned and is not a project at this time,” said Caryl Hart, head of the county's Regional Parks Department, which owns the community center. “Right now, the only thing we're involved in is the OccidentalCommunity Center.”
Hart says the West County Gateway was nothing but a concept paper her office dashed off back in 2011 to apply for a small community outreach grant from the National Park Service. Into that paper went an assortment of big ideas about interconnecting the vast patchwork of county, state and federal lands that sprawl across the Sonoma Coast. Much of that land is inaccessible to the public, often simply because it lacks basics such as parking, trailheads, restrooms or even access roads.
Even the name West County Gateway is just a working title, she said. Some area residents don't believe a word of it. Levy points out that the very same details from the grant application, including the name Adventure Day Lodge, were written into the county's official Capital Improvement Plan as part of the project to rehab the community center. The Board of Supervisors just approved the latest version of that plan on May 21.
And while the county's website has made no mention of West County Gateway until this week, Hart or her staff has mentioned it in an offhanded way at least twice to the supervisors, most recently in January during a discussion of tourist improvements in Bodega Bay.
These tantalizing traces of evidence suggest to Levy and others that the parks agency has been viewing the West County Gateway as something close to a done deal, all without a single public meeting or any environmental review.
“Our contention is that the county and the community need to get together in a way that doesn't imply top-down dictation,” he said.
Others in Occidental, however, aren't so suspicious of the the idea, and welcome some kind of tourist hub. Heidi McNeal, longtime member of a group called Save the OccidentalCommunity Center, said the gateway plan is far from perfect, but she appreciates the agency's effort to find some self-sustaining uses for the center. She worries that the sponsors of the June 4 meeting willsimply oppose any change and kill off any effort to revitalize the property.
“We all get it: Nobody likes everything ... but let's hear where Parks are now,” she said.
Supporters of the gateway concept have been trying to rally like-minded residents to attend the June 4 meeting to provide a counterweight to what they fear will be a largely hostile agenda.
“We have got to get together and talk about what's best and stop talking about what's bad about the gateway,” Myers said.
The dispute appears to have come as a rude shock to Hart, herself an Occidental-area resident who has headed the county parks agency for just over two years. Previously, she was best known as a private activist pushing for land preservation and greater public access to recreational lands.
All she really wanted to do in this case, she said, was help the people of Occidental come up with some interesting way to keep the money-losing community center open. The sharp reaction to the resulting gateway proposal has made her realize that the lofty, high-concept ideas she espoused as a private citizen may not sit comfortably with her new job.
“Now that I am a government official, there are limitations,” she said, with evident frustration. “I have to out what that middle ground is between assisting people in raising money and creating a sense that government is acting too quickly and is going to do something without any process.”
Former west county Supervisor Eric Koenigshofer agrees, saying Hart's relative inexperience as a bureaucrat led to a process that “has gotten out ofsync a little bit with the community.”
Koenigshofer, an Occidental lawyer and a board member of the conservation-oriented Bodega Land Trust, has agreed to moderate the June 4 meeting, saying he hopes to keep it reasonable and fair. The sponsors of the meeting are “understandably confused” by what they know of the gateway concept so far.
Hart, meanwhile, said she has heard the concerns from the community and is in the process of removing phrases like “adventure day lodge” from official documents, including eventually from the capital improvement plan. On Friday, her office posted its first official mention of the gateway concept here.
She promised to call her own meetings over the summer to give residents a chance to say what they do — and do not — want.
“If they don't support it, it's not going to happen,” she said.
See related article: If you own rural land beware
For more on the West County Gateway project see Gateway Project in Occidental and Bodega Bay
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Is this Upzoning Nightmare coming to Marinwood-Lucas Valley?
It is not just affordable housing we must be concerned with, it is the destruction of our quiet suburbs through upzoning to allow lot splitting and building multifamily homes on single family lots.
Supervisor Adams has kept this quiet since August 7, 2007 when she helped create the Marinwood Priority Development Area.
Supervisor Adams has kept this quiet since August 7, 2007 when she helped create the Marinwood Priority Development Area.
 |
| Goodbye quiet family suburbs. |
See related story about multifamily homes in single family neighborhoods.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Marin IJ's Richard Halsted on affordable housing issues in Marin
Marin IJ reporter, Richard Halsted tries to explain the controversy surrounding the affordable housing in Marin. He still doesn't quite get that most people in Marinwood-Lucas Valley are concerned about the financial impacts on schools and government services with non-profit housing. He dismisses the legimate concerns of regular people and suggests that outside "conservative forces" may be influencing the debate with conspiracy theories. Clearly, the IJ reporter needs to actually talk with our community to learn more.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
"No Way!" for Citizen's Vote on Plan Bay Area.
Published on Jun 26, 2013
Click on a link below to jump to a segment. Video by Steve Kemp
00:00 Meeting called to order
00:37 PUBLIC COMMENTS (general)
01:44 - Leslie Jones
02:58 - Suzanne Tringali
05:17 - Judy Galletti
07:31 - Mimi Steel
10:27 - Dave Erlich
12:38 - Jim Bitter
14:29 President's Report
16:41 Draft Plan Bay Area - Miriam Chion
40:10 - question- Cap and Trade funds
44:26 - Infill developments?
45:48 - Send PBA to public vote?
48:52 - Trucks on I-580?
53:50 - Population & Jobs projections?
56:54 - Allow public vote?
59:34 - how is this being done statewide?
1:01:56 - I want an advisory vote of the people
1:04:13 PUBLIC COMMENT on draft PBA
1:04:27 - Chris Pareja
1:06:26 - Michael Ling - Non-profit housing association
1:08:17 - Larry Tong - EBRPD
1:10:37 - Matt Nichol - Six Winds
1:12:23 - Aubrey Freedman
1:14:37 - Dave Eirlich
1:16:41 - Peter Singleton
1:19:02 - Pam Farly
1:20:25 - Heather Gass
1:23:19 - Clarissa Comisaugan
1:25:48 - Charles Cagnon
1:28:11 - Maybelle Inzagu - Public Advocates attorney
1:30:06 - Kirsten Spalding - Sa Mateo county union alliance
1:31:44 - John Dowllrimple - San Mateo Union Alliances
1:34:10 - Jim Bitter
1:36:02 - Tim Frank - Director Sustainable Neighborhoods
1:38:17 - Mimi Steel
1:40:15 - Judy Galletti
1:42:40 - Lou Tavares
1:44:24 - Deborah Tavares - Stop the Crime.net
1:46:50 - Jim Bennett
1:49:19 - Celeste Paradise
1:52:13 - Alberta Brierly
1:53:29 - Liz Manning
1:54:28 - Carol Gotstein
1:57:29 - Jose Arellous
1:59:57 - Joel Burnha
2:02:49 ABAG amendments to draft PBA
2:04:30 - Trucks on I-580
2:58:52 - citizens vote of PBA
3:13:41 - HOW THEY VOTED
3:23:56 PUBLIC COMMENTS on amendments to draft PBA
3:24:07 - Hanson Han
3:26:00 - Dave Erlich
3:28:10 - Chris Pareja
3:30:23 - Deborah Tavares
3:32:42 - Jim Bennett
3:37:28 - Starchild
3:40:16 - Jim Bitter
3:41:15 - Celeste Paradise - closing song
00:00 Meeting called to order
00:37 PUBLIC COMMENTS (general)
01:44 - Leslie Jones
02:58 - Suzanne Tringali
05:17 - Judy Galletti
07:31 - Mimi Steel
10:27 - Dave Erlich
12:38 - Jim Bitter
14:29 President's Report
16:41 Draft Plan Bay Area - Miriam Chion
40:10 - question- Cap and Trade funds
44:26 - Infill developments?
45:48 - Send PBA to public vote?
48:52 - Trucks on I-580?
53:50 - Population & Jobs projections?
56:54 - Allow public vote?
59:34 - how is this being done statewide?
1:01:56 - I want an advisory vote of the people
1:04:13 PUBLIC COMMENT on draft PBA
1:04:27 - Chris Pareja
1:06:26 - Michael Ling - Non-profit housing association
1:08:17 - Larry Tong - EBRPD
1:10:37 - Matt Nichol - Six Winds
1:12:23 - Aubrey Freedman
1:14:37 - Dave Eirlich
1:16:41 - Peter Singleton
1:19:02 - Pam Farly
1:20:25 - Heather Gass
1:23:19 - Clarissa Comisaugan
1:25:48 - Charles Cagnon
1:28:11 - Maybelle Inzagu - Public Advocates attorney
1:30:06 - Kirsten Spalding - Sa Mateo county union alliance
1:31:44 - John Dowllrimple - San Mateo Union Alliances
1:34:10 - Jim Bitter
1:36:02 - Tim Frank - Director Sustainable Neighborhoods
1:38:17 - Mimi Steel
1:40:15 - Judy Galletti
1:42:40 - Lou Tavares
1:44:24 - Deborah Tavares - Stop the Crime.net
1:46:50 - Jim Bennett
1:49:19 - Celeste Paradise
1:52:13 - Alberta Brierly
1:53:29 - Liz Manning
1:54:28 - Carol Gotstein
1:57:29 - Jose Arellous
1:59:57 - Joel Burnha
2:02:49 ABAG amendments to draft PBA
2:04:30 - Trucks on I-580
2:58:52 - citizens vote of PBA
3:13:41 - HOW THEY VOTED
3:23:56 PUBLIC COMMENTS on amendments to draft PBA
3:24:07 - Hanson Han
3:26:00 - Dave Erlich
3:28:10 - Chris Pareja
3:30:23 - Deborah Tavares
3:32:42 - Jim Bennett
3:37:28 - Starchild
3:40:16 - Jim Bitter
3:41:15 - Celeste Paradise - closing song
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
MARIN COUNTY is about to embark on the biggest high-density housing explosion in its history.
Marin Voice: Plan Bay Area means big changes for Marin
 |
| Linda Pfieffer, Sausalito City Council |
MARIN COUNTY is about to embark on the biggest high-density housing explosion in its history. It's called Plan Bay Area.
Yet most residents remain in the dark.
Plan Bay Area sounds good on paper. It aims to reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG) by building high-density housing near mass transit, claiming it doesn't usurp local zoning control. But the facts tell a different story.
Local city Housing Elements must comply with the Association of Bay Area Government Regional Housing Needs Allocation. SB375 requires RHNA be consistent with Plan Bay Area's Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS).
So local governments are compelled to select RHNA sites near mass transit and allow for compact, high-density, mixed-use development at state-mandated housing sites.
Residents need look no further than the high density housing policies being crafted locally to see Plan Bay Area's influence over local control. Add SB375's streamlining of environmental protection regulations, and Plan Bay Area could give the keys to your neighborhood's open space to big development.
Plan Bay Area also promises to reduce GHGs.
Unfortunately, the plan is based on questionable assumptions regarding job and population growth, and environmental impacts.
For example, the plan's draft EIR doesn't consider California's new "Pavley" higher miles-per-gallon standards or the new federal environmental standards (e.g.54.5 mpg for cars and light trucks), which will reduce car and light truck emissions more than any of Plan Bay Area's alternatives, even if we do nothing.
The DEIR also uses outdated 2005 GHG emissions data.
Plan Bay Area fails to assess water supply and waste treatment systems required for the thousands of new homes planned.
Further, it fails to assess the risks to endangered and protected habitats, such as creek, bay, and wetlands damage from water diversions and drawdowns needed to accommodate the massive development.
The plan's high-density Priority Development Areas border sensitive eco-habitats near neighborhoods with antiquated storm drain, road and sewer infrastructure, high traffic congestion and rising sea levels.
What cumulative impact will water diversions have on wildlife? How will existing water resources supply proposed development? Without considering Marin's water constraints, how can anyone predict the magnitude of adverse impacts of Plan Bay Area?
Plan Bay Area says high density housing projects will have individual EIRs, providing sufficient environmental impact analyses. But EIRs are not required for individual city housing elements, despite constraints like traffic congestion, threatened species, sea level rise and crumbling infrastructure.
And the plan "streamlines" state environmental requirements for PDA developments, so by the time we know the impacts it will be too late.
The plan's projected growth rates for Marin County are unrealistic.
The state Department of Finance projects much lower job and population growth. And the Pitkin-Myers University of Southern California report notes, —... much lower population growth is foreseen" than state population projections.
The plan's GHG projections are flawed.
Research by the Australian Conservation Foundation indicates that the type of development proposed by Plan Bay Area will increase, not decrease. Plan Bay Area's proposed "solutions" for Marin County could produce 2.5 times the GHG emissions of single family home development and three times the GHG emissions of attached, townhouse development.
The plan's conclusion that Transit Oriented Development (TOD) reduces GHG emissions is questionable.
The methodologies used in the draft EIR should be reviewed independently. What primary research on real-world TOD projects, as opposed to simulated scenarios and computer models based on assumptions, were used to assess the accuracy, reliability, and validity of the draft EIR conclusions?
As presented, Plan Bay Area and its environmental review fail to inform the public, elected leaders and key decisions-makers as to Plan Bay Area's true economic, social, and environmental impacts.
Residents have been bombarded with pro-Plan Bay Area material. I encourage residents to read the "other side" at www.CitizenMarin.org
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