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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

October 24, 2004

San Rafael tour features housing

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Despite a steady rain, a small brigade of planners, architects and smart growth advocates toured a series of housing projects in downtown San Rafael yesterday, hoping to encourage the use of those projects as a blueprint for future high-density urban development.

In a presentation at San Rafael City Hall before the walking tour, Bob Brown, San Rafael's community development director, welcomed the nearly two dozen attendees.

"It's great to spend a Saturday morning with a bunch of smart-growth policy wonks," he said.

The walking tour was sponsored by the open space advocacy group Greenbelt Alliance, which sought to point to five housing projects in San Rafael that promoted more downtown "infill" development. "Infill" refers to development on undeveloped lands within already developed urban centers, such as downtown San Rafael. The alliance and other open space advocacy groups promote infill development in order to protect the open spaces around those downtowns.

Alliance volunteer Mark Atkinson told the group that cities and towns had an array of policy options at their disposal to promote smart growth by encouraging mixed-use projects, development on smaller lots, increased density and a reduction in the amount of parking required for development projects.

Supervisor Steve Kinsey stopped by before the tour to encourage attendees to promote Measure A, the half-cent sales tax increase on the Nov. 2 ballot to raise $331 million for transportation projects over 20 years.

Brown explained a series of initiatives taken by the city over the years to promote infill growth, from zoning changes and $1 million in sidewalk improvements to credits and bonuses given to developers of high-density housing projects.

One such project, Lone Palm Court at 840 C St., the 60-unit housing complex that has one of the highest units-per-acre rations in Marin.

After the speakers, the group headed out into the rain, stopping first at Centertown, a once-abandoned construction project at 855 C St. before it was developed as a 60-unit affordable housing complex in 1992.

Several walkers noted the importance of reducing the amount of parking spaces required at a housing complex, in an effort to encourage less driving and, in turn, less congestion on Marin's roads.

Parking adds approximately $20,000 per space to the cost of a project, Brown noted.

Heather Gladding of EAH Housing in San Rafael, the co-developer of the complex, said her organization has found that residents will have fewer cars per household if faced with limited on-site parking.

"People will use the amount of spaces that are there, whether it's 60 or 120, particularly if they have plenty of shops around them," she said.

The group then crossed the street to Lone Palm Court, with Brown noting that he and his family lived in the complex for one year while his home was being built in Hamilton four years ago. He seconded Gladding's take on the parking issue.

"We got by fine with one car there, and we could never do that now that we live further out," he said. "It really reduces the dependence on multiple cars."

City officials often point to the Rafael Town Center, a 113-unit complex with 26,000 square feet of retail space and 40,000 square feet of office space, as the crown jewel of its efforts to develop its downtown wisely. The project was built in 2002 on the site of a former Macy's store.

Standing between the center and the buildings just west of it on Fourth Street, Brown said, "This is the perfect juxtaposition of old planning and new planning."

Pointing to the town center, he said, "That's what we have to get to."

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