The Sonoma Press Democrat      December 8, 1989

 

Fighting Marin’s NIMBY’s

Close To Home

 

By Dwayne Hunn

 

In the context of growth management, Marin County is finally talking about land use planning. The problem with this seemingly posi­tive step is that many of Marin’s elected officials are still two steps be­hind where they need to be for the region’s health and welfare.

Marin’s affordable housing, jobs/housing balance, traffic, air pollution and water problems are not problems that can be handled by “local implementers” whose vision is controlled by that unique Marin NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) attitude. The problems are regional, which means they affect at least Marin and Sonoma counties.

With 81 percent of Marin set aside in open space, with an average population growth of .3 percent (that’s right 3/10ths of 1 percent) over the last 15 years, Gabriel himself must ask the Big Landlord, “How much more do they want to keep to their aging selves, Lord?”

          The last little bit of fiat land, which represents half of the 4 percent of Marin land that can be considered for develop­ment is not needed for open space. It Is needed for logical land use and project design to:

   •     Provide more affordable housing

   •     Reduce water consumption beneath Marin’s current daily 180+ gallons per person;

   •     Enable rail transit on the NWP rail right of way to become financially viable;

   •     Offer the opportunity to balance jobs within walking distance of housing

   •     Provide a tax revenue base to the cities in which it Is developed, and

   •     Reduce reliance on the polluting single occupant vehicle.

          This can be done by adding mixed used overlay maps to the general plans of Novato and San Rafael and the Sonoma cities whose lands abut the rail line. Such allowance for mixed-use development would permit developers to submit designs similar to architect Peter Calthorpe’s pe­destrian pocket communities In addition to the existing suburban sprawl designed communities. When the two are analyzed in competition, the regional environmental benefits of pedestrian pocket developments should be clear even to the most staunch NIMBY.

                At the Marin Conservation League’s countywide growth management on Nov. 29th former Novato Mayor Christine Knight called for pedestrian pocket developments to be considered as an answer to our region’s needs. Tentative or negative sup­port was expressed by some among the six other panelists who responded to her call to support the. national Sierra Club’s call to put density along rail lines to reduce our reliance on the automobile.

          In the response to Knight’s visionary and environmentally sensitive proposal lies an important point which the “region’s envi­ronmentally concerned citizenry” must not miss. The day should have disappeared long ago when one county’s parochial desires forces extremely expensive, subur­ban sprawl development upon all develop­ers, which then gridlocks all of us into becoming single occupant vehicle addicts and contributors-by-default to the Green House effect.

          As executive director of North Bay Transportation Management Association,. I represented my board’s overriding concern that land along transit corridors be utilized as effectively as possible with this question to the forum’s panel:

          “Would the building industry, the city councils of the two largest Marin cities represented here tonight, and staff, from both counties sit down with the American Institute of Architects and Peter Calthorpe to assess the possibility of implementing pedestrian pockets In Maria and Sonoma counties — so that 10 years from now all remaining land Is not wasted on additional traffic generating suburban sprawl?”~

          My question was not clearly answered. Yet I hope those of you in Sonoma County who have regional and global environmental concerns lobby your local officials to consider the pedestrian pocket concept as an effective solution to many of our region’s needs, including redirecting the 30 percent of our national trade deficit that goes to financing the import of oil.

          North Bay TMA will continue to educate and offer innovative solutions to Sonoma and Marin traffic problems, but without your thoughtfulness and support on these Issues, little positive impact will result. For Information on participating in our Feb. 2nd Sonoma-Marin Land Use and Traffic Reduction Conference at the Petaluma Community Center, please contact the North Bay Transportation Management Association in Novato.

 

 

 

 

Dwayne Hunn is program director for North Bay Transportation Management Association and assistant executive director for Novato Ecumenical Housing, Inc.