Letter to the editor:

St. Vincent/Silveira housing

Editor:

I strongly disagree with the call to change the 1,230 acres of St. Vincent's and Silveira from City Centered Corridor designation into a new Baylands Corridor proposed in the current [Countywide] plan update. St. Vincent and Silveira were considered for development, since they are well located for transit between Highway 101 and the old railroad tracks (strong commitment given to reopen this train route with a bond measure just pushed back for voting in 2006). Highway 101 over the Puerto Suello Hill into downtown San Rafael is in the process of being widened, which will relieve traffic congestion, though we all know it will again fill with commute cars whether or not St. Vincent and Silveira add development, unless public transit somehow draws people out of their single-occupant autos.

A citizens' task force designated 1,800 to 2,100 housing units in a plan worked on between 1991 and 1994. A new citizens' task force between 1998 and 2000 recommended a range of 500 to 1,800 units with sufficient affordable housing. This is absolutely the last parcel available for development able to include a substantial amount of affordable housing, well located as an infill site. Small mixed use proposals by cost and inability to get grants absolutely will provide little critically needed affordable housing. Why not the kind of community Marin used to be for people of all incomes?

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Moody

Response by Charles McGlashan and Gordon Bennett, members of the Marin Group ExComm and authors of "Affordable Housing for Marin shouldn't mean building in wetlands", July-August 2004 Yodeler, page 20.

The Club supports infill development between lots close to public services, but "infill" on 1,230 acres between cities remote from service is what we call "sprawl". Train service will do nothing for St. Vincent/Silveira because the state law authorizing a train mandated that no stations would be constructed at St. Vincent/Silveira, so as to improve transit time enough to beat drive time. Highway 101 is not being "widened"; the project is to fill a gap in the carpool lane. Thus, adding 2,100 homes (plus commercial space) will surely have a traffic impact.

The citizens' taskforce reports recommending development were brainstorming sessions intended only as a basis for further study and were never endorsed by the Club. The Club has endorsed the Baylands corridor report, recommending preservation, as well as the Housing Element of the Countywide Plan, which shows that the county's fair-share allocation can be more than met using infill sites - without any development on the St. Vincent/Silveira baylands.

The "kind of community Marin used to be" included workers and shopkeepers integrated into our communities, not living in transit-isolated low-income developments. The Sierra Club encourages infill affordable housing near existing transit hubs where it can be built by local contractors, not by the large Southern California tract-home builders proposing to develop St. Vincent. Affordable housing should not be constructed in the flood plains or critical wetland ecosystems of St. Vincent/Silveira, whose flood and seismic hazards make it too expensive for truly affordable housing.