MEHC Letter of Support for county zoning changes

On May 31, MEHC Board Chair Jenny Silva sent an official letter of support for zoning changes to the Marin County Board of Supervisors. You can view it here.

Dear Board of Supervisors,

The Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative advocates for more affordable housing in Marin, with an environmental and racial justice lens. We are writing to urge you to adopt the proposed ordinance proposed by the Community Development Department in item 15 at the June 4 Board of Supervisors Meeting.

One aspect of this ordinance was debated at the April 16 Board of Supervisors hearing. This was the proposed Development Code changes that would remove restrictions on residential subdivision potential. These restrictions were implemented as footnotes in the Development code to mandate subdivision for detached single family residential development at the lowest end of the density range regardless of zoning, unless affordable housing is proposed.

We urge the adoption of this ordinance for the following reasons. 

1) The County Housing Element requires that these zoning changes be adopted. If they are not adopted, Marin County will not be complying with its housing element and will risk decertification. 

California is currently experiencing a housing crisis. In response, the state is requiring all jurisdictions, including Marin, to increase their rate of housing production. County staff conducted a thorough, public process to determine the most beneficial way to meet these goals. These zoning changes are needed to implement the decisions that were made via this long, community process. Failing to implement these changes would both contradict the housing element, but also undermine the public process used. 

2) The higher density enabled by the proposed ordinance is better for the environment than the current lower density requirements. It is also better for the fiscal health of the County.

There is a common belief that lower density development is more environmentally beneficial than higher density development. This is false. All else being equal, higher density is almost always better for the environment than lower density. The higher the density, the less land that is required for housing, preserving open space, habitat, and migration paths. Low density development causes fragmentation of agricultural lands and wildlife habitat. 

Furthermore, lower density development creates higher infrastructure maintenance costs. Marin residents living in low density environments typically demand urban level services such as road maintenance, sidewalks, and parks, without providing a sufficient tax base. Low density development is harder to service from a public safety perspective, as low-density development requires more miles of road, more driving and time to patrol and evacuate. It also impedes the provision of good transit and pedestrian/bike infrastructure, furthering car dependency, the source of 50% of Marin’s greenhouse emissions. And, as the Sierra Club has noted, more cars, even electric cars, means more microplastics which are harmful to our environment and to our health. 

As noted in the staff report, this change does not override the existing regulations developed to protect the environment, including ridgeline and stream ordinances. We strongly believe that specific ordinances that address specific environmental threats, such as stream ordinances, are far more effective at preserving our natural environment than general limits on housing densities. 

Lastly, we will also note that this specific revision – the removal of footnotes restricting development to the lowest end of the density range – was a revision that MEHC specifically supported. This change removes an unnecessary barrier to development that does not provide a valid environmental benefit. We urge you to approve this ordinance in order to continue the implementation of the Housing Element and to improve the environmental sustainability of our Zoning Code. 

Sincerely,

Jennifer Silva, Board Chair