Supervisors Sears and Arnold confirmed at the Board of Supervisors meeting in December that the matter of the Strawberry PDA will be considered at the Transportation Authority of Marin meeting at 7pm on January 23 at the Marin Civic Center, in the Board of Supervisors room on the 3rd floor.

No other PDA has been considered at the TAM Board.  Supervisor Arnold indicated that the question for discussion is whether the amount of funds allocated to the Strawberry PDA should be changed.

When questioned during “open comment” time at the last TAM Board meeting, confused TAM board members told us that it’s not a matter for TAM to consider.   The San Rafael mayor (a TAM Board member) pointed out that the decision of whether a community wants to volunteer for a PDA is something for only that community to consider, and he wouldn’t be comfortable having a role in deciding Strawberry’s PDA destiny, any more than he would be comfortable having other groups determining whether San Rafael has a PDA area.

We don’t believe that TAM is the appropriate forum for this discussion either, but since that’s where we’ve been directed, we need to show up in force to make clear to the Supervisors (who are all on the TAM board) that we don’t want to be included in this novel land-use designation with uncertain long-term consequences.

As for funds, the only thing worse than accepting a designation for focused development with limited funding behind it is accepting that designation for focused development with a lot of funding behind it.

Please join us at the January 23 TAM Board meeting and add your voice. And join us at the January 12 Strawberry Community meeting at 7pm at the Strawberry Rec Center gym, for more information.

~SCA~