Marin IJ
7/18/2006

Robert Dobrin: San Rafael planning needs a fix
by Robert Dobrin

THE PROCESS for land-use planning in San Rafael is dysfunctional. The symptoms are contentious Planning Commission meetings and a growing distrust of government.

Neighborhoods from Peacock Gap to Terra Linda and Santa Venetia feel they have little advocacy in city government and have to simultaneously battle well-heeled developers and an entrenched bureaucracy to preserve the environment.

San Rafael's planning process has tilted so far in favor of developers, residents have to make Herculean efforts to be heard. Planning Commission meetings routinely go on for hours. One group of residents resorted to a march on a City Council meeting to present evidence of coziness with developers and protest developer bully tactics.

Apparently, environmentalists got somebody's attention at City Hall because San Rafael finally came to the obvious conclusion that an environmental impact report is needed to evaluate the impact of placing an 86,000-square-foot sports palace adjacent to an airport runway in the middle of the endangered clapper rail's habitat. This EIR is a welcome step, but it won't do much good unless the city undertakes the study with the correct motivations.

Community Development Director Bob Brown stated in this newspaper that the ultimate goal of doing this EIR is to avoid lawsuits and that the report probably would not contain much new information. Doing an EIR to avoid litigation and with foregone conclusions is not at all the point. Protecting the environment and making sound land-use decisions should be the immediate and ultimate goal. That's certainly what our Legislature had in mind when they passed the California Environmental Quality Act. Thus far, the only lawsuit is the one that airport developer Joe Shekou has filed against two outspoken critics of his project. I happen to be one of the defendants in that suit.

This misdirected approach to planning is not limited to the proposed airport facility. Citizens concerned about the high density housing proposed for the Loch Lomond waterfront have been battling on behalf of their neighborhood for years. The Loch Lomond EIR audaciously suggests that adding more than 80 units of new housing and eliminating a neighborhood market forcing people to shop further from home won't mean more traffic. Residents of Gerstle Park complain of poor code enforcement by city officials. The future of the San Rafael Rock Quarry is a concern for all of Marin. It's no stretch to say that San Rafael's land-use decisions are the most contentious in all Marin.

San Rafael residents say they are underrepresented in land-use decisions because of bias in the planning department. The fact that so many residents believe the Community Development Department is less than objective should be a wakeup call. Elected city officials need to be far more involved with how developers interact with neighbors so there is real environmental sensitivity and dialog. In the case of the airport soccer complex, the apparent point of meeting with the community was so the developer could say it did.

Mayor Al Boro and the San Rafael City Council need to diligently oversee their planning process and salvage what works and fix what's broken.

The city has just appointed a permanent city manager. The new city manager's first job must be to rehabilitate the city's relationship with it's citizens. That will require real advocacy of neighborhood concerns. An equally important step would be for the City Council to take public comment on the current planning process. San Rafael needs to solicit and act on the advice of its citizens. It's a corruption of democracy to make citizens yell to be heard.

Robert Dobrin is chairman of the Friends of Gallinas Creek and Wetlands. He lives in Santa Venetia.