For over three years, a housing proposal in Marin City has been stalled by community outrage. But the Marin County Board of Supervisors will consider a workaround, potentially moving more than a third of the proposed units to a site in nearby Tam Junction recently acquired by the project’s developer.
The split attempts to resolve what the county called “significant community concern” after it tried to fast-track the construction of a 74-unit building in Marin City in 2020. Under the new proposal, 32 of the units would be built on the Tam Junction site with the remaining 42 on the original site at 825 Drake Ave.
“The County listened to the community at a number of meetings and worked to find a solution that addressed their concerns,” said Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, who represents Marin City.
Both the project and residents’ subsequent concerns balance on Marin County’s difficult history of redlining. Once a home to a significant population of Black workers, the county’s Black population has declined since the end of World War II.
Like in much of the U.S. during the decades after the war, Black workers in Marin County were prevented from buying housing through explicit covenants in housing deeds and the systematic denial of their requests for loans.
The housing project would give a bump to the county’s rental stock, which only accounts for about one-third of housing in Marin. Its Black and Latino residents, in particular, rely on these rentals, with both populations renting at some double the rate of owning.
While Marin County, as a whole, was hostile to Black families during the mid-1900s, unincorporated Marin City offered a place of refuge. Today, Black and white people occupy a similar number of units there.
A modern form of redlining?
To opponents of the proposed housing project, it represents a sort of quasi-redlining to select Marin City for an expansion of affordable housing rather than richer and whiter cities elsewhere in the county.
Additionally, opponents contend that standards for affordability in the county, which has a median household income of more than $140,000, would make the proposed units unattainable for Marin City residents. This, they worry, will push people already there out.
The county seemingly agreed, reducing the number of units approved for Marin City to 42 earlier this year. The community’s “unique circumstances and history” and “inequitable policies following World War II” were some of reasons the county cited for the reversal.
“This innovative approach means that there will be more open space around the building in Marin City and less impact on the residents of Village Oduduwa next door. In Tam Junction, residents will be close to transit, stores and services.”
Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters
“A key aspect of this split development approach is making sure that housing is distributed around the county and not concentrated in just a few areas,” said Sarah Jones, who heads the county’s Community Development Agency.
Instead, the 32 units struck from the plan are slated to be built just outside of Marin City, at 150 Shoreline Highway in Tam Junction. The site is part of a complex including a Holiday Inn and a casual restaurant.
The county Board of Supervisors will consider rezoning the site for the project during its Oct. 15 meeting. The 42 units in Marin City are all approved, the county said, and construction could start sometime this fall.
“This innovative approach means that there will be more open space around the building in Marin City and less impact on the residents of Village Oduduwa next door,” Moulton-Peters said. “In Tam Junction, residents will be close to transit, stores and services.”
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