State backs Marin in Point Reyes housing project dispute

A developer seeking a subdivision in West Marin has suffered a setback in his challenge to Marin County coastal rules.

Yan Cui, a San Diego businessman, contends that the project is categorically excluded from having to comply with the county’s local coastal program, the general plan governing the county’s coastal zone.

Cui is seeking permission to subdivide an 82-acre property adjacent to Point Reyes Station into 37 residential lots. Five of the lots would be designated for affordable housing, while the rest would be designated for market-rate housing. No residences are currently proposed as part of the project.

The lots would range from 44,343 square feet to 358,281 square feet, with an average lot size of 91,288 square feet. The project also calls for the construction of roads to access the proposed lots; a stormwater management plan using storm drains; water service provided by the North Marin Water District; and a community septic system to treat wastewater.

The property consists of four contiguous parcels bounded by Point Reyes-Petaluma Road and Lagunitas Creek to the south; Highway 1 to the west; rural residential housing to the north; and open pasture to the east. Most of the land is undeveloped and consists of pasture, but there is a farmhouse on a parcel near the southwestern end of the property.

After the Marin County Community Development Agency informed Cui that the project failed to qualify for the exclusion, he appealed the decision to the Board of Supervisors, then withdrew the appeal after county planners told him they intended to submit the issue to the California Coastal Commission for an opinion.

On April 7, Stephanie Rexing, a California Coastal Commission district manager, sent a letter to the county stating that the commission’s executive director, Kate Huckelbridge, concurred with the county’s decision.

“After reviewing the submitted information from both the county and the applicant, the executive director agrees with the county’s interpretation that the category exclusion order E-81-6 only applies to land divisions of four parcels or fewer,” Rexing wrote.

To support its argument, the Community Development Agency has cited a letter written in 1982 by former Marin County administrator Mark Riesenfeld. It states that the exclusion applies only to land divisions of fewer than five parcels.

The exemption was created by an order adopted by county supervisors in 1980. The action categorically excluded certain types of development from California Coastal Act permitting requirements within specified areas.

The order was designed to encourage developments within a designated Point Reyes Station expansion area and excluded the construction of houses and land divisions in this expansion area from coastal permit requirements.

Cui contends that Riesenfeld misinterpreted the order in his letter. He has asserted that the order “does not distinguish the type of subdivision — instead, it applies to all land divisions in the community of Point Reyes Station.”

After receiving word of Huckelbridge’s decision, Mack Carlson, an attorney working for Cui, sent an email to the state commission to confirm when it would place Huckelbridge’s interpretation on the commission’s agenda for possible review.

Under state law, such interpretations are conclusive unless three or more members of the commission request to review them, “in which case the commission shall make the interpretation by majority vote of the appointed membership.”

In an April 17 email, Leslie Velasquez, a commission planner, replied, “We are discussing the logistics of this type of review with staff counsel and will let you know as soon as we have news about next steps and timing.”