State rejects challenge to Point Reyes mini-mart, housing

The California Coastal Commission has rejected an appeal against a plan to transform a historic building in Point Reyes Station into a chain convenience store.

The commission held a “substantial issue” hearing on Thursday on the challenge by the Point Reyes Village Association. The hearing was a brief appraisal to determine if the project’s approval by Marin County supervisors in July merited a more comprehensive review.

“I just cannot see where the issues raised by the appellant really bring us over the threshold of impacting a coastal resource,” said Marin County Supervisor Katie Rice, who made the motion to deny the issue further review by the commission. The motion passed with a unanimous vote.

The project site is along Highway 1. The building, constructed in the 1930s, houses a 215-square-foot cashier’s stand with a limited retail store, a vacant automobile repair shop, office spaces, a kayaking/hiking store and two unpermitted apartments. There are gas pumps in front of the building.

The property owner, Julie Van Alyea, operates 24 gas stations and convenience stores. Van Alyea plans to expand the cashier’s stand into a 1,719-square-foot convenience store and convert 3,569 square feet of the building into five apartments. Two will be deed-restricted and priced for households at 50% to 80% of the area median income, which for a four-person household in Marin, is $93,300 to $149,400 per year.

Christina Desser, a planning commissioner who lives in Point Reyes Station, was one of several people who spoke at Thursday’s meeting in favor of having the California Coastal Commission scrutinize the project more fully. Desser use to sit on the state commission.

“Contrary to the findings asserted in your staff report,” Desser said, “permitting a chain convenience store of this magnitude in Point Reyes Station violates our local coastal program specifically regarding maintaining community character and permitting chain stores in Marin County and as such indeed raises a substantial issue for you to consider.”

After reviewing the project in April, the Planning Commission voted 5-1 to approve the project with nine conditions. Most notably, the commissioners said that the commercial component of the project could not exceed 15% of the structure’s floor area. The county’s local coastal program, which establishes rules for development in coastal areas, prohibits retail sales areas greater than 15% of total floor area.

“Point Reyes is a tiny town, but there is massive public sentiment against this project as approved,” resident Kathy Hunting told state commissioners Thursday. “During the county review more than 150 people, including 96% of village businesses, expressed their opposition to the convenience store. Its size. The fact that it is a chain store. The traffic dangers and its incompatibility with community character.”

Van Alyea appealed the Planning Commission’s decision to the Marin County Board of Supervisors, which took up the matter in July. The supervisors, siding with Van Alyea, approved the project without the conditions imposed by the Planning Commission.

Supervisor Dennis Rodoni, whose district includes Point Reyes Station, recused himself from the vote because he owns property near the project site.

The staff report for Thursday’s meeting recommended against further review of the project. It stated that the project was legally eligible for and complied with requirements for two concessions under the state density bonus law, since it includes the requisite amount of new affordable housing.

The report added that the concessions would permit a retail sales area above 15% of the floor area as well as allow apartments on the ground floor of a building facing a public road, which is prohibited by the county’s local coastal program.

However, the staff report noted that “there is no bright line test to determine if a project adequately balances the requirements of the local coastal program and density bonus law.” Such determinations must be made on a case-by-case basis.

In this case, the three additional apartments that the project will provide appeared to tip the balance.

“The housing that’s being provided as a part of this project is so needed,” Rice said. “The current tenants of two illegal units are being given the first right to come back at, I believe, the same rent they’re currently paying.”

Commissioner Susan Lowenberg said, “Given where we are in the state of California with housing in coastal communities like this, it’s very hard for me to vote against a project like this.”