Friends of Mill Valley

From the Marin IJ - Thursday August 12, 2010

The Marin Muncipal Water District's plan to build a $400 million desalination plant is based on the flawed premise that a drought could occur any time, replicating the 1976 drought that Marin suffered in 1976.

The following evidence-based facts indicate otherwise:

- Scientific tree ring studies show that droughts similar to the 1976 drought occur about once every 400 years.

- Climate change scientists agree that the ocean front and coast mountain range will be receiving more rain and that will fill MMWD reservoirs more frequently.

- There has been a 35 percent increase in the MMWD reservoir water capacity since 1976.

- With current conservation measures, MMWD consumers have recently reduced their water consumption by 25 percent.

June 25, 2010
To: Wallace, Roberts & Todd
1328 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103-2642

Dear WRT Design Team:

Having attended the Streetscape Workshop meeting on June 8th, I wanted to take this opportunity to offer some comments and provide some perspective in the hope that it might better inform what you’re about to do.

General Comments:

I think that if you want to achieve broad-based support from community members who have put in more than 10 years and countless hours working toward the best possible outcome for the planning of Miller Avenue, it’s important that you’re circumspect about the facts and the history of the public process.

Marin IJ: Thursday Readers' Forum 6/24/2010

In regard to Sunday's article on construction of affordable housing in Novato, the Association of Bay Area Governments needs to be reined in on its draconion estimates of low-cost housing needs in Marin and elsewhere.

In the past, this group has designated parkland, open space and community centers as possible spots for low-cost, high-density housing.

If Marin communities do not step forward and stop ABAG, the county will be inundated with mostly empty apartment buildings.

A perfect example is the Fireside housing in Tamalpais Valley. This complex is located a few feet off Highway 101, next to a freeway onramp. The cost to build on this undesirable site was astronomical , averaging about $500,000 for every 500-square- foot unit. The low-cost housing developer went bankrupt on the project, and it has taken well over a year to fill the units.

Reprinted from the Marin IJ; 05-01-10

Supervisor Charles McGlashan wishes to legislate everything without knowing the events taking place around him.

He wants to outlaw plastic bags in Marin. At the same time, the third largest sportswear and shoe company announces it is going to the "use of corn starch-based product (biodegradeable) to replace paper in shoe boxes, and carry bags in the group's stores."

It is now available and there is no need for the McGlashan group to impose more of his command and control on Marin citizens.

He feels the market has to be government controlled. He is wrong again.

He wants government in Marin to be in the electricity business. At the same time, PG&E is announcing the installation, contract purchasing and authorization of solar energy panels that will produce energy for 400,000 or more homes.

Reprinted from the Marin IJ 04-21-10

It may not have occurred to Suzanne Swift (Marin Voice, April 18) that a large number of Marinites who, in her words, are "loud and persistent" actually do not want a "strong political commitment to build workforce housing".

NIMBYs? Not really. Rather, we do not want more traffic congestion, more crime and more retail.

We know our municipalities should not exist to build housing or to participate in social engineering. People do "have the right to live here" but we should not be under any obligation to subsidize them to live here.

That's socialism at its worst, and we are all getting pretty tired of being put on the defensive by Marin's limousine liberals who can isolate themselves from the real effects of overbuilding in their exclusive enclaves.

Posted from Letters to the Editor; Marin IJ 3-26-10

Thank you for your editorial highlighting the waste of money on the county computer system - a cool $20 million down the drain.

You also ran an article on the county pension fund's lavish headquarters, acquired at a time when commercial real estate was headed downhill, at an initial cost of $17.5 million, and remodeled to suit the then director's tastes for an additional $1.5 million.

The bulletproof glass has recently been removed to make it friendlier for the county employees to visit. The pension fund director was on extensive paid administrative leave for reasons not disclosed to us, who had paid her for doing nothing, and who paid for the building and redecorating it.

Posted from the Mill Valley Herald: March 25, 2010

Why is this Blithedale Terrace building project even being considered? (“Blithedale Terrace project raises concerns,” March 10). The only person who stands to gain anything from this project is the developer and his bank account. Hasn’t it crossed the minds of the mayor, the City Council and Planning Commission that we live in a valley? How many more people are we going to cram into this valley?

Is the Planning Commission intentionally trying to cover every empty space with a building surrounded by concrete? Enough is enough! The traffic situation on East Blithedale is ridiculous, thanks to the already bloated population of this town. Please, don’t parrot the favorite mantra of the developers: “Growth is good.” If they and the Planning Commission want growth, they should move to places with plenty of open space: Kansas, Oklahoma, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska.

Posted from the Mill Valley Herald: March 17, 2010

It is almost impossible to believe the Planning Commission would approve Joel Coopersmith’s plan to do everything he can to spoil Mill Valley (“Coopersmith project clears final hurdles,” March 3).

The outrageous scheme, now approved, to add so many new residential living units on Miller Avenue should motivate citizens to raise their voices any way they can to protest this latest development.

This small town is already overcrowded due to all the development, townhouses, apartments and many, many new private homes, and is so thick with traffic that much of the great joy of living here is fading with each passing year.

The traffic can be so thick one wonders how hundreds of additional vehicles will add to the pleasure of living in this once near-perfect community.

Posted from the public record of letters sent to the City of Mill Valley City Council: 2-23-10

To: Mill Valley City Council
From: Kevin Ferrell
Date: February 22, 2010

I write to add my name to the rapidly growing list of well informed citizens of Mill Valley including eleven of its former mayors calling for you to opt Mill Valley out of the Marin Clean Energy (MCE) project and to withdraw Mill Valley from the Marin Energy Agency (MEA) as soon as possible.

Posted from the Marin IJ

By Michael Smith -Marin County Treasurer 2/21/2010

At the Feb. 4 Marin Energy Authority meeting, Marin County Supervisor Charles McGlashan, MEA's chairman, publicly stated that I had not carefully read materials relating to MEA.

For the record, I did read MEA's documents, the grand jury's report, interacted with professionals in the municipal investment field and have concluded that MEA's plan to enter the energy business poses a financial risk for Marin County ratepayers and taxpayers.

As your elected county treasurer, I have no agenda, political or for personal gain. My primary responsibility is as an independent fiduciary to protect the fiscal and financial health of this county.

During my tenure, I have seen both exemplary and ill-conceived proposals, but in my opinion, none as concerning as MEA's intent to enter the energy business.