Housing, Crime and Property Management to be Discussed at City Council Study Session Tuesday Night

It’s been nine months of concern, nine months of intense education and nine months of hair-pulling angst for some. But a workable solution to Novato’s affordable housing crisis — an issue that has sharply divided the community — is just a few months away now.

It had better be. After all, work on the next required long-range housing plan is going to start pretty much as soon as this one is approved. Most agree that a break is needed between the two just for mental health’s sake.

A lot more will be learned Tuesday night at a Novato City Council work study session about multi-family housing. The session, which starts at 6:30 p.m. at Novato City Hall, will begin with a one-hour presentation on the relationship between crime and housing from Police Chief Joseph Kreins followed by a discussion about management of housing complexes and a lesson on housing choice vouchers, otherwise known as the Section 8 program.

Thousands of Novato residents have been transfixed and flummoxed by the general plan housing element, a required document updated every seven years that lays out the city’s long-range plans for providing housing for its citizenry. It was last spring when the city started to move forward with a new housing element that included rezoning of public and private properties for potential new housing developments to meet state mandates.

And it was last spring when those who paid close attention to the city’s inner workings went ballistic about the prospect of zoning for more high-density, low-income developments close to established neighborhoods. Several public meetings of the standing-room-only variety were interrupted by shouting from those opposed to the rezoning.

City Manager Michael Frank established an ad hoc working group in the fall to focus on the housing element, and volunteers have met in a series of meetings with the goal of deciding which properties around the city should be rezoned for such housing. Through the guidance of a consulting facilitator and staff members from the city’s planning department, the working group is getting close to the point where large maps will be laid out and specific sites will be debated.

“I’m happy with the way things have gone,” said Councilwoman Carole Dillon-Knutson, who attended most of the ad hoc working group meetings as an observer. “The educational process has been really good for those people and we appreciate all the time they have put in to learn about a very complex problem. They are very dedicated and focused, and I look forward to their recommendations.”

Councilwoman Pat Eklund, another regular spectator at the working group meetings, said she is eager for more public debate after the group makes its recommendations.

“We have another 50,000 residents and we need to listen to them, too,” she said. “It’s about building on whatever the working group recommends to the city manager. So I’d say let’s wait and see what they recommend. I have faith that they are getting to the heart of the matter.”

On March 30, the Novato Chamber of Commerce held a forum on affordable housing at the Marin Country Club and invited members of the ad hoc working group to discuss the progress made over the past few months. Dave Wallace, Novato’s director of community development, led off the meeting by saying Novato must provide 1,241 of new housing units in the seven-year span that ends in 2014. Factoring in that 745 units have already been built or approved for building, that leaves 496 units for which must be zoned.

Of the 496 remaining, 238 must be categorized for residents of low, very low or extremely low incomes based on average Marin County incomes.

Several of the speakers told personal stories about how and why they got involved in the debate and how much Novato’s character will be affected by zoning changes. Katie Crecilius of the Novato Housing Coalition and Stand Up for Neighborly Novato said the ad hoc working group “and the community as a whole” need to examine each of the 150 properties that are on the list for potential rezoning and think about the density per acre that might be allowable on each parcel.

“A number of those will be dropped off the site list because they are environmentally restrained, but others will require a lot of discussion,” she said. “I think what we all have indicated (in the working group talks) is that whatever sites are recommend are sites that have some potential, if they are rezoned, for actually being developed. I’m certainly not spending my volunteer time … to come up with sites that are not going to eventually work.”

Chamber CEO Coy Smith brought up the concerns that areas currently zoned for commercial use in Novato are much less than in San Rafael or Petaluma, reducing the opportunity for property and sales tax dollars that would boost the city’s coffers and help reduce an ongoing deficit. Novato only has five percent of its land zoned for commercial/industrial use vs. 17 percent in San Rafael and 11 percent in Petaluma, Smith said.

While talking about the undeveloped land along North Redwood Boulevard just north of the Old Town area, Smith said, “If we take the five percent of commercial/industrial zones we have and reduce it by putting housing on it, we’re becoming less competitive with retail. Our economic sustainability needs to be protected.”

Eklund said the past nine months have been eye-opening for a lot of people who previously were not involved in city government discussions.

“I’m very glad that so many people are aware of what is happening in our town,” she said. “I feel that I’m no longer alone in trying to advocate for our small-town character. Think there are ways to retain our small-town character and still ways to provide a more vibrant community. You don’t have to ruin that character. It’s going to take sacrifice and not just saying yes to every development that comes by.”