Not One Single Building
Dear Neighbors—
There’s understandable confusion, amid a raft of images and claims, that I think one basic fact sometimes gets lost:
Measure X does not approve a single new building.
Not one.
A developer doesn't get to walk into City Hall the day after Measure X passes and start building whatever they want. There is still a huge process and a ton of protections and guardrails.
The day after Measure X passes, the biggest difference will be enabling a local business like Diamater Plants to locate in the Marinship, or a beloved company like Heath Ceramics to expand; creating jobs, and generating tax revenue to help pay for our infrastructure—so that we residents have a smaller tax burden. Watch some amazing testimonials here.
You will notice right away an increasingly more lively Marinship but you will not notice any new buildings resulting from X.
It will still be very very hard to build anything in Sausalito.
Have you ever applied for a permit to remodel your house? Most people say it was hard and lengthy. In fact, one resident found it so hard that he wrote a book about his ordeal entitled: “I am Applicant; One families seven year odyssey building a home in Sausalito”
To be clear, all Measure X does is let that same lengthy process that today works (slowly!) for you and me in our residential zones, work in our industrial and commercial zones. The same process. No change.
First, you submit an application. Before the City even considers it, staff determines whether it is complete.
Then neighbors are notified and the public has opportunities to comment.
Then comes environmental review. Experts have to study traffic, flooding, soils, contamination, wildlife, noise, air quality, historic resources and other impacts. State and federal agencies may become involved. Mitigation measures may be required. Studies get revised. Questions get answered. The public can participate. And significant disputes can ultimately end up in court.
That process alone can take months to years—it can cost substantial money; for complex projects it can be hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars
And you're not approved at this step.
Next comes what we call design review.
Design review the City and Planning Commission doesn't just ask, "Is this use allowed?" It actually looks at what the building will look and feel like—its height, mass, scale, architecture, materials, landscaping, relationship to neighboring buildings and compatibility with Sausalito.
Design review means Sausalito will never be Miami.
Again, neighbors are notified. Again, the public input and debate is had.
The Commission can impose conditions. It can require changes. It can tell the applicant: make it smaller, change the architecture, move this wall, change the landscaping, reduce the visual impact, address circulation or infrastructure issues—and then come back, and we might have some more for you.
And applicants frequently do come back, over and over again.
New drawings. New staff review. Another public hearing. More public comment. More changes.
I've watched this personally. From the Council dais, we once redesigned an applicant's house—cutting his third-floor bedroom back by three feet.
Eventually, the Planning Commission votes.
And you're still not finished.
Its decision can be appealed to the City Council.
Then there is another public process. More notice. More public comment. Another hearing. The Council can continue the hearing to another night. It can require additional changes.
And after all of that, judicial review remains available as does the right of the people to override the government via referendum. (your right to vote in this way is preserved by state law; Measure X does not change that)
Measure X preserves this entire lengthy protective process.
But the existing additional requirement, added in 1985, that in addition to all of the above, an election be held for zoning changes or variances, has meant that nothing new has been built in the Marinship in 40 years! This provision makes certain proposals practically impossible.
Today, Heath Ceramics has no path to enclose their storage yard without holding a special election to approve it. That was a practical burden that discouraged them for trying. Instead, they expanded in San Francisco.
This requirement is not giving us choices to choose from.
Measure X fixes that.
Heath Ceramics endorses Measure X because, as the owner said:
"Measure X provides the first hope, in decades, that things may change in Sausalito in a way that Heath can stay here for the long run”
As the steps above show, after Measure X passes, we have plenty of tools to control what is built in our commercial and industrial zones.
Measure X doesn't take development in Sausalito from difficult to easy.
Measure X takes us from nearly impossible to very, very hard.
That's what I think has become confused in this debate: permission to propose something is not permission to build it.
Measure X makes more proposals possible while preserving substantial review and discretion over what actually gets approved.
We do not have to worry about the giant ridiculous buildings showing up in your mailbox because, unlike for housing where state law trumps (and Measure X does not zone anything for housing), we have discretionary control in the industrial and commercial zone.
Measure X preserves the local power to say no.
Measure X is not a revolution.
Measure X is an attempt to give Sausalito the ability to consider ideas, negotiate with property owners, demand good design and community benefits, and say either YES or NO based on the actual proposal in front of us.
Measure X is about giving Sausalito the freedom to choose.
PS: If you have the time to dig deeper:
Here are emblematic messages from an artist, marina steward, entrepreneur, maritime organization, fisherman, and maritime leaders who are being suffocated by our current laws.
Here is Heath Ceramics pleading for help. Do we value Heath?
Click to read the endorsements from the Marin Independent Journal here, the Greenbelt Alliance, the Sustainable Waterfront Association.
Here is a link to the SFChronicle polemic on Measure X.
Here is a description of the mind numbing multi-year process that will still exist after Measure X that ensures we can control the appearance of anything actually permitted; regardless of what is proposed.
Watch the whole Measure X debate here.
Here is an FAQ and a Fact vs. Fiction, if you have time to read.
Here is how CAST, and MALT are examples of what is empowered by Measure X. Both these protective mechanisms take money. And Measure X is a pathway to funding things like this.
PPS. We can do better than this:
This is an actual photo of an RV storage yard in today’s Marinship that the current rules will not allow to be developed into anything with higher commercial usage.
