Friends of Mill Valley

Dear City Council Members:

In September of 2011 Jim McCann and I met and discussed the Housing Element and a new approach to addressing ABAG / RHNA allocations. It is called the "Criteria Based" method of designating development sites. This approach, combined with the offering of various financial and zoning incentives, could have significant advantages over the simplistic "list the sites" approach that is presently driving so much community antagonism and distorting developer's understanding of "of right" zoning.

I sent you some information about this last year, but since you are now considering the General Plan and Housing Element, I felt is was a good time to reintroduce it. I urge you to make Mill Valley a leader in affordable housing solutions by building on the strengths of our community, rather than seeing those strengths as obstacles to planning.

By Paul Liberatore
Marin Independent Journal
Posted: 12/04/2011 08:00:00 AM PST
http://www.marinij.com/millvalley/ci_19457424

Have something you'd like to say to the Mill Valley City Council but can't make it to the twice-monthly meetings at City Hall?

Beginning with Monday's council session, that won't be a problem for Internet users as the city launches its electronic comment pilot program.

Citizens watching the live meeting webcast will be able to submit comments and questions to the council in real time during the public comment section of the meeting, in a process known as eComment. They may do so by using a form on the city website labeled www.cityofmillvalley.org/eCom ment.

Item 6: Consideration of an appeal by Betsy Bikle and Joyce Britt of the Mill Valley Streamkeepers of the Planning Commission’s approval of a determination pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act and the approval of a Design Review and Conditional Use Permit application for an 8,303 Square Foot commercial building at 15 LaGoma Street.

To all,

Public Hearing for threatened Steelhead Salmon/Trout at the Mill Valley City Hall Council Meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 7:30 PM, 26 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley. Mill Valley StreamKeepers has appealed the 15 La Goma Commercial Project and will be heard with their attorney Michael Graf. Coho salmon are now extinct in the Mill Valley watersheds, as of 1991, and only 5% of the historic Steelhead remain. Mill Valley's watershed, Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio, remains a known viable habitat for salmonids in the Bay Area.

Daniel Borenstein: MTC deal needs much more vetting in public
By Daniel Borenstein
Staff columnist - The Oakland Tribune
Posted: 08/13/2011 04:00:00 PM PDT
(this article has been posted because it ultimately has an impact on residents of Mill Valley and control of our local planning process that is increasingly driven by these larger regional agencies).

In a shameful display of empire building, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission plans to use up to $180 million of bridge tolls for a deal involving legally questionable downtown San Francisco real estate speculation.

The commissioners raised most Bay Area tolls from $3 to $5 in just three years to complete the new Bay Bridge and retrofit work on other area spans. Now they want to use tolls to buy a building that would house MTC and three other regional agencies under one roof so they can better cooperate.

When the economy is up, we're told need more housing to keep up with demand. Therefore we need to eliminate obstacles to development.

When the economy is down, we need incentives to spur development.

Where there is no vision, the people perish. But developers get plenty of work regardless.

Sincerely,

Dave

Dennis Fisco and John Schaefer will give a presentation on current trends in commercial leasing and development.

The Planning Commission will discuss proposed amendments to Title 20 of the Mill Valley Municipal Code (Zoning Ordinances).

The public is welcome to attend.

Dear City Council Members and Planning Commissioners:

I've attached a letter by Burton Miller that I think makes some very good points about the kind of planning missteps that have characterized the process in Mill Valley for more than a decade. It's a good time to get it right.

At this time I will only add this one comment for your consideration: It is somewhat axiomatic that public policy tends to lag real time events, and bureaucracies always tend to be passing legislation to fight the last war. The economic downturn we have experienced in the past few years is a case in point.

After the downturn of 2008 and 2009 there has been a tendency everywhere we look to throw out the social and environmental accomplishments of the past decades in order to promote immediate economic growth at all costs. This knee jerk reaction will prove to be as misguided as type of economic growth that brought about the crisis in the first place.

Here is a letter from Burton Miller regarding proposed amendments to the Mill Valley Municipal Code.