Controversial Marin City housing project could shrink

Nearly half of the housing units slated to be built at a site in Marin City could be off-loaded to a new southern Marin location under a plan negotiated between the county and the project developer.

The agreement that would relocate 32 of the 74 units slated for 825 Drake Ave. to a site outside of Marin City was hammered out over the course of many months of negotiations between the county’s Community Development Agency and Caleb Roope, the chief executive officer of Pacific West Communities. Roope could not be reached for comment.

The announcement comes as a number of communities throughout Marin are having to accept development proposals they consider inappropriate for their areas, due to new state laws that have stripped local jurisdictions of their review powers.

“We realize there is a strong possibility that people see this as a precedent,” Community Development Agency Director Sarah Jones said. “We don’t see this as a precedent, and we don’t intend to do this elsewhere.”

Jones said that the project is unique due to its location in Marin City, the community with the largest concentration of African Americans in Marin County and one of its lowest income communities. Jones also noted that the project was approved prior to the adoption of the county’s new housing element so the site received less scrutiny than other county projects.

Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, who played a leading role in the negotiations, said in a statement, “Within the limits of state law, this new proposal reduces the size and scale of the project, including more parking spaces and improved landscaping, in a community that has uniquely suffered decades of inequitable policies since World War II.”

The deal, however, is not a sure thing. The tentative term sheet, which must be approved by county supervisors, states, “The parties acknowledge that the described reduction in the 825 Drake project may not be feasible or possible and will depend on factors that neither parties controls.”

Jones said that Roope is currently attempting to purchase the land on which to place the remaining 32 units. She would not identify the parcel or parcels being considered, but she did say they are located in southern Marin.

Apparently, one option being considered is for Roope to locate the 32 units on a county-owned site. The new agreement specifies that in such a case, “county staff will expeditiously determine whether the county site should be made available for that purpose, in compliance with applicable law.”

The new agreement, once approved, would allow Roope to begin grading and construction of the building at 825 Drake Ave. immediately, but it would bar any “vertical construction” until he has pursued or secured the alternative site.

The agreement would also preserve a prior commitment made by Roope to provide at least one parking space for every new unit of housing he builds at 825 Drake Ave.

Jones said the project’s delay and reconfiguration are going to necessitate a considerable amount of changes in the financing. In 2022, supervisors allocated $1.85 million from the county’s affordable housing trust fund for the project.

The project was approved in 2020 under ministerial review due to the provisions of Senate Bill 35, which exempts projects from most zoning and environmental requirements if a requisite number of their units are affordably priced.

The project is a 100% affordable housing development. The plan is to make 20% of the 74 apartments affordable to households making 30% of the area median income (AMI) for Marin; 10% to households making 50% of AMI; 40% to households making 60% of AMI; and 30% to households earning 70% of AMI.

The project has met with stiff resistance, however, from some Marin City residents who are concerned about the effects the project would have on traffic, a shortage of parking in the area and the project’s proximity to Village Oduduwa, a low-income seniors complex. Critics say that because Marin’s area median income is high many current residents of Marin City would be unable to afford to live in the proposed units.

The project calls for 24 new parking spaces. Under SB 35, the developer is not required to provide parking because the site is within a half-mile of a bus stop. If the project didn’t qualify for special treatment under SB 35, the county would require two parking spaces per apartment.

Under the new agreement, the developer is required to provide an air purifier for each housing unit in Village Oduduwa before beginning grading and construction of the foundation.

Opposition to the project intensified after Marin County supervisors voted 3-2 in March 2023 to allow the California Municipal Finance Authority to issue $40 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds to be used to underwrite the project.

State and local governmental leaders then began lobbying the developer to alter his plans. According to a statement issued by State Sen. Mike McGuire at the time, he and Assemblyman Damon Connolly met with the developer to insist “he work with the community in a sincere and meaningful way.”

In April 2023, Roope signed an agreement with the county promising to provide a parking space for every new unit and to consider substantial changes in its size and scope. Roope also pledged to donate his entire $2.5 million development profit to underwrite local projects in the Marin City community.

That, however, didn’t stop Save Our City, an advocacy group opposed to the project, from filing a lawsuit in May 2023 to try to block issuance of the bonds by challenging Marin County’s approval. The suit is still working its way through the courts, but it came too late to stop the bonds from being issued.

Regarding the new agreement, Thomas Lippe, one of the attorneys representing Save Our City, said, “At this point, my client is fully committed to reversing the decision by the Board of Supervisors to approve the bond funding.”

Bettie Hodges, one of the leaders of Save Our City, said the group’s leadership hadn’t had time to develop a formal response.

Roope has said that he had spoken with Save Our City about the possibility of reducing the number of units at the site to 40, and the organization told him that would not satisfy them. Jones said Roope’s $2.5 million development profit offer was also rejected.

“When he brought that to them, they said, ‘We’re not interested,’” Jones said. “There hasn’t been further discussion about that issue since he talked with Marin City about it.”

Marin County Counsel Brian Washington wrote in an email Wednesday that despite the lawsuit, no court order has been issued to prevent Roope from proceeding with construction of the project should he decide to do so. Jones, however, said the agreement Roope signed in April 2023 would prevent that.

Jones said, “He voluntarily engaged in the agreement.”