Concerns mount among North Bay citizens as local control over new development is stripped from municipal gov'ts
Marin County homeowners lost their latest legal battle against a 43-unit project that will house mentally ill residents on a safe route for schoolchildren and negatively impact Corte Madera Creek. Ruth Holly contends CA is ramping up an assault on suburbs that started with the Obama Administration.
The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation was an attempt to force low-income housing and racial quotas in suburban areas. Governor Newsom and the California legislative Democrat super-majority are continuing this legacy as they pass law after law to weaken local control of housing development under the guise of responding to the “housing crisis.”
The state is spending millions on Project Homekey, which in the Greenbrae proposal will allow the severely mentally ill to be located/housed on a current “safe route” to school. In South Lake Tahoe, this program displaced seasonal workers and led to a new police substation to combat increased crime.
Cities like Santa Monica, whose housing element plan has not been state approved, are at risk of the “builder’s remedy,” which takes away all local control and allows developers to build high rise apartment buildings as long as they provide the state prescribed number of affordable units.
Marin citizens are fighting back. A group of Greenbrae residents are using California State Constitution Statute 34, which requires a vote prior to approval of public housing, and the California Environmental Quality Act to defend their neighborhood. Susan Kirsch’s group Catalysts for Local Control and Sustainable TamAlmonte are trying to encourage cities and Marin County respectively to join the Aleshire & Wynder lawsuit against the actions of the Department of Housing and Community Development. Residents in Mill Valley are trying to protect their neighborhood from a 4-story 45-unit affordable housing project.
This article originally appeared in Marin Republican Women, Federated. Read the whole thing here.
See other related links:
Larkspur Homeless article entitled "1251 S Eliseo is dangerous for the environment"
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