City Fires Consulting Firm Working on General Plan Update

A consulting firm hired by Novato to assist with the updating of the city's general plan has been given the boot by the Novato City Council, pleasing some residents who hope to fend off approval of high-density affordable housing complexes.

Several dozen people raised their hands Tuesday night at the council meeting when asked how many people favored the city discontinuing its contract with Design, Community & Environment, a Berkeley-based firm that assists municipalities with comprehensive planning.

The council voted 5-0 to cease involvement with DC&E and have city staff come back with options on how to proceed with the general plan update.

Dave Wallace, the city's community development director, was instructed by the council to reexamine the short list of consulting firms that were considered before DC&E was awarded the city contract in 2008.

"I think staff is fine moving forward with a different contractor," City Manager Michael Frank said. "We hope we're able to move forward collaboratively with the community."

Affordable housing has been a sticky issue in Novato since earlier this spring when the general plan update's housing element was in the processes of mandated revisions and city planners shared a list of properties in the city that were pinpointed for possible rezoning for high-density housing. The reaction was swift and largely negative when the list showed a concentration of sites along Novato Boulevard — mostly current home to churches — and an undeveloped parcel owned by the Novato Unified School District in the San Marin neighborhood.

Several council members said Tuesday they weren't impressed with DC&E's performance through the general plan update thus far. Councilwoman Carole Dillon-Knutson said she didn't think DC&E took the time to learn about Novato's desires before the process started, and Councilwoman Pat Eklund said she was ready to "cut our losses" with DC&E because of a lack of faith in the work that's been completed.

"The general plan takes up too much time and too much money," Councilwoman Jeanne MacLeamy said. "There is a lot of discourse about DC&E and I was not impressed with their outreach in the first place. I don't think they did a good job. The staff had to do a lot of cleanup and the general plan steering committee was having difficulty, too."

Mayor Madeline Kellner said an ad hoc citizens committee set up by Frank and his staff should continue its work with consulting facilitator Susan Sherry and come back to the council with recommendations on how to address the housing quotas mandated by state and regional government. Part of the 5-0 council vote was to allow $50,000 more for facilitating fees for Sherry, who has orchestrated organizational parameters for the 23-member ad hoc group and tried to identify the major sticking points.

Councilwoman Denise Athas said it will be frustrating to start over with a new consulting firm and that resident feedback was important as the council considered its vote. "We definitely hear the public," she said.

A DC&E representative did not return a phone message for this story.

The city's planning staff had recommended that the council approve a renewed but reduced budget for DC&E of $649,000 (about $162,000 less than planned) at its Tuesday meeting. In May 2008 the council had approved a $973,140 DC&E contract, with a built-in 20 percent contingency, to work on the general plan and devise an environmental impact report. The money was paid with a surcharge on building permits, not from the city's general fund.

General plan updates must be done by incorporated towns and cities to show that a legitimate attempt to meet affordable housing needs is being made by the local government. Since the spring, public meetings have attracted upwards of 200 people about the high-density housing issue. Three of 10 planned meetings by the volunteer group have taken place since the group was formed in the fall.

The three groups — Novato Community Alliance, Balanced Housing and San Marin Compatible Housing — have formed and spent months vehemently questioning the rezoning of land for high-density housing, which some believe bring higher crime to neighborhoods. Although developers are not lined up to bulldoze existing structures on the land if there is a shift in rezoning, community members have demanded explanations for the quotas monitored by the Association of Bay Area Governments and want more say in the process.