Housing group supports IJ editorial

Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Dec. 18, 2019

I am writing on behalf of the Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative to commend the IJ on its perceptive editorial (“Housing plan questions are hard for Marin,” Dec. 13). It bears repeating: “Local jurisdictions need to change their attitude toward housing proposals. Instead of a political message dissuading such proposals, they need to look for reasonable projects — with the right design and size and in the right location — that help strike a responsible housing-jobs balance.” We could not agree more and have been saying so for years. And we also are concerned that our seniors are being driven out by the lack of an affordable way to retire where their roots are.

We also note the editorial’s mention that Marinites fear that more housing here would bring a “promise of more traffic,” which, if true, would exacerbate our carbon impact and add to our daily driving inconveniences. Yet, the fact is that this fear is simply not well-founded. Plentiful workforce housing actually would reduce traffic, because our local workers would not have to clog our roads commuting from afar.

Yes, the issue is hard, but we need to face it head on, rather than head-in-the-sand. Check MEHC out, at MarinMEHC.org if you are looking for ways to help Marin change course.

— Steven Saxe, Corte Madera