PDA Overview

The regional One Bay Area Plan designates areas as “Priority Development Areas” (PDAs) for accelerated development and growth in areas .  Strawberry is one of the few remaining designated areas in Marin County left in this voluntary program, as residents of San Rafael, Marinwood, Tam Almonte and other areas have successfully lobbied their representatives to be removed from this designation.

Our Supervisor, Kate Sears, has stated publicly – repeatedly – that the PDA designation itself doesn’t change zoning, it is simply “a statement of intent to develop.”

A growing number of Strawberry residents are concerned about the impacts of PDA designation:

  • first, we like the general fabric of the Strawberry community, and we *don’t* want to be the target of aggressive development
  • new laws are coming from Sacramento every month intended to reduce checks on environmental impact and local constraints
  • increased state and federal involvement in community planning, such as compliance with SB375
  • the premises of this plan doesn’t line up with the facts – housing growth projections, greenhouse gas growth, Marin’s actual available open space

Strawberry already provides a higher proportion of multi-unit and diversified housing than most of Marin does. Our school districts are full, and the focus on tax-exempt housing means we’re likely to get more people with less infrastructure.  

The funding currently associated with the PDA designation is $175,000.   That was the cost of a study for the Tiburon Blvd/US101 intersection.  It doesn’t pay for 1/5th of an onramp.  More importantly, the solution to our traffic problems isn’t designating Strawberry as a “growth area” for more roads and housing.  (Might we suggest instead dealing with the 101/Sir Francis Drake interchange, and not building an additional 900+ housing units there, as has been recently proposed by/to the Larkspur City Council?  Or not adding 180 units in Corte Madera on the freeway at the old Wincup site?)

The current elected representatives throughout Marin County are bowing to “affordable” (tax-exempt) housing interests, developer interests, and Sacramento lawmaking run amok to support growth that Marin County residents don’t want.

Here in Strawberry, we don’t want to be the target of regional accelerated growth plans or high density housing, and we want Supervisor Sears to hear that we don’t volunteer for the voluntary PDA program.

Our goal is to get Strawberry removed as one of the last PDAs in Marin County.

Supervisor Steve Kinsey has publicly stated that he will support any community that does not want to be a PDA.  Supervisor Susan Adams has already removed two of her communities from the PDA list, and should be willing to do so for us. We need our Supervisor to recognize her constituents’ requests, lead the decision, and put Strawberry’s PDA status on the Board of Supervisors agenda.  Supervisors Sears and Judy Arnold have put the Strawberry PDA on the TAM (Transportation Authority of Marin) agenda before they will consider it at the Board of Supervisors – something none of the other PDAs had to go through.

We need your help to remove Strawberry from the Highway 101 Corridor Priority Development Area of the One Bay Area Plan: 

  1. Subscribe to our blog to get News Alerts and other updates to stay informed and add your voice to the Strawberry community who opposes the Strawberry PDA by clicking the SUBSCRIBE button on the right side of this page ->
  2. Sign the petition to stop the PDA in Strawberry!
  3. Email all of the Marin County Board of Supervisors. Tell them you don’t volunteer Strawberry to be Marin County’s PDA.
  4. Donate your time or money to support our cause by clicking the DONATE button on the right side of this page ->
  5. Tell your neighbors and friends to sign the petition and to receive their own updates.  Any dialog with have with our elected officials must include all of us.