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Date: 03.05.2004
Author: BY Jennifer Upshaw, Marin IJ
The City Council on Monday hired RBF Consulting to prepare an environmental impact report. The report comes in response to developer Sausalito-based Thompson|Dorfman Partners LLC, which late last month filed an application with the city to develop the East San Rafael site.
"What is being proposed is a mixed use project so it would retain and enhance the marina and marine related activity," said land use attorney Mary McEachron, who is representing the developers. "We have been working extensively with [water quality regulators] with a plan that will really invite the public out on the spit and out on the breakwater."
For years, a variety of plans floated by developers have raised the ire of neighbors, who fret that density, increased traffic, height, poor architecture and other issues would destroy the neighborhood's character.
Community Development Director Bob Brown said years of questions surrounding development at the site, such as whether neighbors' views will be blocked, will finally be answered.
"The neighborhood could really benefit from some redevelopment, some improvement, of the neighborhood, but we're actually enthused at this point," he said. "There were questions we couldn't answer that will come out in the EIR."
The project, if approved, is proposed for two phases, city officials said. The first phase includes a mixture of 70 single-family detached houses and townhouse units, and a new 21,000-square-foot commercial building.
Longtime neighborhood grocery store Bruno's would remain in the building it occupies for the duration of its lease, officials said. Once the lease expires in about 10 years, the second phase would begin with demolition of the building to make way for 18 additional units, city officials said. Buildings as proposed would be limited to two-story structures.
Whether Bruno's would remain has yet to be determined, although city officials said they want a grocery at the site. Upon completion, 20 percent of the project will be earmarked for affordable housing, developers said.
While the proposed project is in step with city leaders' vision for the area, Brown said he expects changes will be made.
"I think that in any public process including an EIR there's going to be a lot of refinements," he said. "We are interested in diversity, a mix of housing ... we are interested in retaining neighbor commercial services that's included. There's questions about [whether there are] enough marina operations preserved. We'll have to research that further."
Albert Barr, president of the Loch Lomond Homeowners Association and co-chair of the Point San Pedro Coalition's Loch Lomond Marina Committee, said even the scaled-back proposal is too much.
"It's unacceptably high, the density is unacceptable to us," he said, adding that the proposal appears to reduce dry boat storage, day-use parking for fisherman and relocate parking for boaters, all of which generally minimizes the "recreational aspect of the marina."
"From homeowners' perspective, it's high density," he said. "It will be paved over with ticky-tack little units, which I think is a shame with the potential use of that site along the bay."
Barr emphasized the need for aesthetically pleasing home design.
"We don't want all of the units to look alike," he said. "I'd like to see some imagination brought to the site that would make us proud of that neighborhood that would be a legacy to San Rafael."
Developers said they are sensitive to height, density and out of character architecture concerns.
While some might see visions of a dynamic urban environment, "for the people already living there that's not the epitome of community living to them," McEachron noted. "They see the ideal community being much more on the scale of existing community in that area."
Dialogues, such as those that started about a year and a half ago as developers met with a collective of neighborhood groups, will likely continue as the project works its way to through the Design Review Board and the Planning Commission before going before the City Council.
"I think with every major project there is going to be a tug and pull which reflects ones personal philosophy of a city and of neighborhoods," McEachron said. "And I think the Loch Lomond Marina is a fascinating example of watching that tug and pull in action."
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