Marin Independent Journal           June 30, 1991

 

OPINION

MARIN VOICE

Why wait for regional plan?

By Dwayne Hunn

 

 

     Here comes regional government. This time, it is in the form of AB 3. Assembly Speaker Willie Brown is the author of this piece of legislation which leads a spate of bills to establish regional gov­ernments.

 

     AB 3 addresses growing gridlock caused by our over-reliance on single oc­cupant vehicles, widening jobs-housing imbalances, and approaching stringent air pollution standards.

 

     In Marin many of these problems stem from entrenched NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) electing NIMTO (Not In My Term of Office) politicians who in the approval process force developers to pro­duce DECME (Density Erasers Causing Million Dollar Estates) rather than move us closer to a jobs-housing balance. The logical answer to our region’s in­creasingly obvious problems is to begin what regional government proponents claim needs doing.

    

     North Bay land owners and developers who control significant tracts of land along the Northwest Pacific Rail Right of Way should act on regional solutions. Property owners shouldn’t wait for the government to impose a regional bureau­cracy — with its formulas and plans by committee — to tell them what needs do­ing. Instead, they and the other large property owners along the rail line should merge their individual project concepts to answer regional problems.

 

     Working together on a voluntary, pri­vate-effort, regional plan, offers these property owners the opportunity to im­plement answers that cut the illogical base of arguments out from under the NIMBY, NIMTO, DECME crowd.

 

      For example, if a developer wants to build an industrial complex or shopping center on his appropriately zoned land adjacent to the rail line, he can establish affordable housing mechanisms with the residential landowners down the rail line. By providing housing for the indus­trial or retail center’s low- and moderate­ly-paid employees, the jobs-housing im­balance is improved, car usage is reduced, and the economic viability of the train is strengthened.

 

     Marin has three or four large uncom­mitted parcels of land which lie along the rail line. Sonoma has 10 to 12 such par­cels. If most of the landowners of these parcels work together, planning could overcome many of the costly and frus­trating problems they would face, when they try to shepherd their individual pro­jects through the planning process. If most of these landowners made con­scientious efforts to develop mixed-use projects (office, residential, retail, commercial, and parks within walking dis­tance of each other and the rail line) on their parcels, many of our jobs-housing imbalance, auto over-reliance, air quali­ty, and affordable housing problems would be eased merely by project design.

 

     Fortunately, over the last several months many of these rail-oriented Marin-Sonoma landowners have initiated discussions of regional cooperation.

 

     AB 3 consolidates regulatory agencies that deal with air, water, transportation and housing and channels all funding for single purpose agencies through the re­gional board. It forces all local general plans to conform to the regional plan. It also provides a framework for regions to develop their own plans without a new set of guidelines from the state.

 

     Why wait for AB 3? Landowners should work together to address regional problems now — before all that Sacra­mento mumbo-jumbo gets more confus­ing.

 

Dwayne Hunn, for the last nine years, worked for Novato Ecumenical housing