MANAGING DEVELOPMENT CONCERNS

By Kevin T. Haroff

Focusing on the need to balance pressures for development against the need to preserve the character of our community.

Plan Bay Area calls for a 9 percent increase in new housing in Marin to sustain its ABAG estimate of 17 percent job growth by 2040. It is difficult to really know whether the numbers are realistic or not. ABAG's process for developing its projections on both population growth and future housing demand has been less than transparent and may be thrown out altogether depending on the outcome of pending litigation challenging Plan Bay Area. Any assumptions about the potential for job growth within the County need to be assessed in light of Marin's unique character and environmental setting, and it is not clear that Plan Bay Area has done a wholly defensible job in making that assessment.

We should be skeptical of effort to meet regional housing demands through increased development within Marin County. Our local communities do have an obligation to support the provision of affordable housing. Greenbrae already is one of the best examples of a community that has taken that obligation seriously over the years. Moreover, Marin County cannot isolate itself from the economic challenges facing the Bay Area as a region. But Marin is different from the rest of the Bay Area, and neither Plan Bay Area Nor ABAG has done an adequate job of reconciling those differences.