San Rafael project opponents offer $4M buyout to developer

Opponents of a proposal to build 64 homes in San Rafael have offered the developer $4 million to purchase the property for open space.

The forested parcel of nearly 21 acres in the Dominican Valley neighborhood is on the northern edge of the Dominican University of California campus. The development plan calls for removing 542 trees.

Dominican Valley LLC purchased the land from the college in 2023 along with another 3-acre parcel. The price was $3.1 million.

“We’re hopeful that the developer will start negotiating with us to sell the land, and we can protect it in perpetuity,” said Barbara Treat, a leader of Save Dominican Valley, a neighborhood group with more than 450 members.

The Marin Open Space Trust has agreed to manage the negotiations and fundraising and to establish open-space protections. The Hoffman Institute, which purchased the neighboring Santa Sabina Center from the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael last year, has said it would take title of the property and oversee its maintenance, as well as help raise money. The institute, a nonprofit organization, offers retreats.

The developer was notified of Save Dominican Valley’s interest last year, said Bill Long, chair of the Marin Open Space Trust board. The developer received a letter of intent with the $4 million offer in December.

Long said he spoke with the developer’s agent, Raymond Cassidy, shortly before Christmas.

“He said he hadn’t had a chance to talk to his other partners about it yet,” Long said. “He said he might get back to me after the first of the year.”

Long said he sent Cassidy another email recently, but received no response.

Cassidy did not respond to a request for comment.

Dominican Valley LLC proposed 27 houses, 17 townhomes and six duplex dwellings. The plan also includes 14 junior accessory dwelling units that would be deed-restricted for low-income households.

San Rafael planning officials deemed the project complete for processing in October. The city determined that an environmental impact report will be necessary to evaluate the project’s compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.

The city sent the developer an invoice for $742,743 in October, which included the cost of the environmental impact report plus an administrative fee. Dominican Valley LLC has not yet paid the bill, so the city has not begun the report.

“We’ve pressed the city to deem the application withdrawn because he is so tardy in paying the invoice amount,” Treat said. “But the city hasn’t responded to our request.”

Micah Hinkle, director of the San Rafael Community Development and Economic Development Department, said in an email, “The City Council has authorized the contract with the CEQA consultant, but the city will not execute the contract until the project applicant pays the contract fund deposit.”

“We are approaching 6-months of inactivity,” he wrote, but added: “It is not uncommon for large scale projects to have a period of inactivity.”

Treat said she finds it puzzling that the developer would delay the start of the environmental review by not paying the fee, particularly because the process is expected to take 14 months. She said that given the amount of community opposition to the project, it is also likely to face legal challenges.

“We’re prepared to fight as long as it takes,” Treat said. “Our hope is that he’ll just sell us the land, because we have a great proposal, a great solution that works for everybody.”

Matt Brannagan, chief executive officer of the Hoffman Institute, said, “We’re willing to explore fundraising with our graduate and alumni base to keep the land accessible and preserve the sanctity of the community around it.”

Brannagan said the institute knew about the sale of the property before it purchased the Santa Sabina Center, but it was surprised to learn that a development the size of the one being proposed could be authorized there.

“It’s a really tranquil, beautiful area, which is appealing to our retreat programs,” Brannagan said. “We’d love to preserve that element of it.”

However, Brannagan said preserving the area’s serenity is not his only concern. He said the very narrow roads in the area and lack of effective evacuation routes in case of a wildfire make additional housing worrisome. White Sulphur Springs, a site in St. Helena that the Hoffman Institute owned and used for retreats, was largely destroyed by the 2020 Glass wildfire.

“We’re particularly considerate of fire mitigation,” he said.

Treat said the parcel wasn’t included among the preferred sites for housing development in San Rafael’s most recent housing element “because it is so inappropriate for this kind of dense development.”

After Dominican Valley LLC filed its development plans, Nicola Pitchford, the president of Dominican University, sent a letter to the city stating that the scale and density of the proposed development differed “significantly from anything Dominican understood to be feasible or reasonable.” Pitchford asked the city to give “due weight” to health and safety considerations.

“This is already a neighborhood with significant challenges to swift mass evacuation,” she wrote, “including the presence of high-density student housing and narrow roads, many made even more narrow by extensive residential parking.”

Treat said Pitchford told her that Dominican University, which was facing financial pressure and needed to generate revenue, offered to sell the land to the city, but the city expressed no interest. Had the community been informed at the time, it could have mounted a campaign to purchase the property then, Treat said.

San Rafael Mayor Kate Colin wrote in an email, “I’m not aware of any documented public statement or action that demonstrates that Dominican University approached the City with a formal offer to sell the property and that the City explicitly declined.”