Most importantly, feel free to say what you think.\u00a0 Everyone in Strawberry should say what they believe.\u00a0 The following is our perspective, which you are welcome to share.<\/p>\n
First, why are we at the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) Board?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n After 12 straight weeks of requests by Bruce Corcoran for the Board of Supervisors to hear the Strawberry PDA issue, then-BOS President of Judy Arnold and current-BOS Kate Sears announced in October that TAM was the appropriate forum for the discussion, because it had to do with financial allocations.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been later clarified that, since so many other\u00a0 PDAs have been removed, Sears and Arnold would like to reconsider the allocations, which currently include $251,000 for Strawberry \u2013 maybe enough for a \u201cstudy.\u201d<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the thing – none of the other Planned PDA areas were heard by TAM.\u00a0 None.\u00a0 Not the county, not San Rafael, none.\u00a0\u00a0 So, the allocations didn\u2019t affect their inclusion (or not) in the PDA.<\/p>\n And on a higher level, why should they?\u00a0 Really, is that how we want to decide our inclusion as a targeted area for development for the next 25 years?\u00a0 On how much money – $251,000 or even $500,000 – they will give us in the 2014 budget?\u00a0 Is that how we\u2019ll be bought? \u00a0For the promise of better sidewalks so Supervisor Sears can walk our kids to school (even though some of our residents send their kids to Old Mill and Edna Maguire, since Strawberry is too full)? \u00a0Is that the only way we’ll get better sidewalks, to sign up to a designation almost no one else in the county does?<\/p>\n So if, like us, you don\u2019t want to sell out Strawberry for 251 pieces of silver, there are a couple of arguments you can make.<\/strong><\/p>\n If, like me, you\u2019re not a land-use lawyer, a city planner, an architect, a design review board member, you can build your comments around these simple points<\/p>\n 1) There is no question that inclusion in the PDA is 100% voluntary<\/strong>.\u00a0 It\u2019s written in Plan Bay Area, it\u2019s been said and written in a Marin IJ Op-Ed by the Director of the Association of Bay Area Governments (which runs Plan Bay Area), it\u2019s been said by Supervisor Sears.<\/p>\n 2) It is, as Supervisor Sears has said, a \u201cstatement of intent\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 and that intent is to develop high-density, transit-oriented housing.<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s what Plan Bay Area is all about.\u00a0 It is an intent to develop Strawberry with high-density housing, and to develop Strawberry with additional transit to support it.\u00a0 Looking around the county, that would make us like, say, the San Rafael Transit Center, or maybe Larkspur Landing (now being considered for over 900 new high density units).\u00a0 Those aren\u2019t even PDAs \u2013 what will they build here, if we accept this \u201cstatement of intent?\u201d<\/p>\n 3) There are only 4 PDAs left in Marin County \u2013 Marin City, Strawberry, Greenbrae and a square mile of San Rafael. \u00a0As has been stated,\u00a040% of new development in Marin<\/strong> is intended for PDAs (or maybe in the long term, the 80% target in Plan Bay Area<\/strong>), do we really want to bear the brunt of almost half the development in Marin for the next 25 years?<\/p>\n 4) The PDA is a relatively new concept.\u00a0 State legislature under Darrel Steinberg has been passing more and more aggressive development laws<\/strong> on behalf of developers, including SB743, SB 365 and the impending SB1.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know \u2013 long term \u2013 what being in a PDA will mean.\u00a0 How many more of these laws will get passed?\u00a0 Even if they get stopped, how do we know they won\u2019t then be applied just to PDAs?\u00a0 After all, PDAs are areas that are intended for the lion\u2019s share of development.\u00a0 As San Rafael City Councilwoman Kate Colin said when rejecting the Civic Center PDA, \u201cthere isn\u2019t an obligation, but there is an expectation.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The Supervisors say that there\u2019s a “blizzard of fear.” \u00a0That this PDA designation doesn\u2019t actually do<\/b> anything.\u00a0 But here\u2019s what it does \u2013 it takes away any ground we have to say for the next 25 years \u201cstop developing, you are destroying our community!\u201d\u00a0 Of course we fear that!\u00a0 Supervisor Steve Kinsey said just this week \u201cthe course of Marin development has been set for 40 years.\u201d\u00a0 Do we want them \u2013 in 2028 \u2013 to look back and say \u201cHey, the future of Strawberry has been set since 2013.\u201d<\/p>\n So, why would we – voluntarily – sign up to have the fabric of our community destroyed, to become the housing and transit center for Marin, one of only 3 areas with this novel land-use designation of unknown long-term consequences?\u00a0\u00a0 Is there an amount of money that is worth it?\u00a0 We think no.<\/p>\n If you have more advanced knowledge, like our former design review board members, or our local attorneys, and want to get into a policy-based debate with the Marin Planning Board, there are any number of policy-based objections.\u00a0 For a start, read Chuck Ballinger\u2019s Marin IJ Op-Ed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n But I\u2019m not.\u00a0 I\u2019m just a business guy, who is looking at the arguments made by the county, and they don\u2019t hold water.<\/p>\n So on January 23rd<\/sup>, we want to tell TAM, \u201cKeep your $251,000 of PDA money, we\u2019re not signing up.\u201d<\/p>\n We want to tell the leaders of Marin County (most of whom are on the TAM board \u2013 mayors, city council members, supervisors), \u201cKate Sears is here asking you for money for Strawberry.\u00a0 We, Strawberry, are saying she doesn\u2019t represent us.\u201d<\/p>\n And we want to tell the Board of Supervisors at that meeting, \u201cWhen you do in fact listen to us and put Strawberry on the BOS agenda in February (or whenever you finally acknowledge your constituents), we want out.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most importantly, feel free to say what you think.\u00a0 Everyone in Strawberry should say what they believe.\u00a0 The following is our perspective, which you are welcome to share. First, why are we at the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) Board?\u00a0 … Continue reading