Op-Ed: 'Miles From Home' Housing Report Misleading

Marin County’s responsibility and requirements to the state in regard to affordable housing should not fall disproportionately on the residents of Novato.

High-density housing advocates have championed more high-density housing in Novato, but more housing units in Novato will not translate into fewer workers commuting to jobs in Central and Southern Marin. If the objectives that Live Local Marin is trying to realize (i.e. reducing pollution, traffic and congestion by living near work and driving less), then a greater proportion of affordable housing should be strategically and proportionately located in the areas with the higher job demand, in Central and Southern Marin. By locating affordable housing near these greater workforce hubs, Marin could decrease Highway 101 traffic and reduce our county’s carbon “footprint.”

The “Miles from Home: The Traffic and Climate Impacts of Marin’s Unaffordable Housing” report was funded by the Marin Community Foundation. The foundation is supporting efforts to increase the rate of Marin’s housing production in locations close to transportation and “address policies that have, for the past 20 years, impeded efforts to provide adequate affordable housing.” The report was released by Live Local Marin, made up of Greenbelt Alliance, an environmental advocacy group, the Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California, an affordable housing advocacy group and the Marin Community Foundation.

The Board of Citizens for Balanced Housing has concluded that the report failed to fully disclose the Marin County traffic impact. Important data from all three Marin “superdistricts” was omitted and Novato was the only poorly depicted community cited in the report. The report states: “Novato not only leads the county but also leads the Bay Area in commute length.”

It is true, when considering all workers and not just in-commuters, workers commuting to Novato drive a little over a mile more (15.6 vs. 14.6 miles), than their peers who commute to other Marin cities. But the significant difference is found when you look at the number of trips made to Marin. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission report divides Marin into three main areas called “superdistricts”: Novato (North Marin), San Rafael (Central Marin including other cities), and Mill Valley/Sausalito (Southern Marin including other cities). Using data from 2006, the total number of daily work trips to Novato was approximately 45,000. Commute trips headed to San Rafael were approximately 85,000. Those bound to Mill Valley/Sausalito numbered approximately 71,000.

This data confirms that almost twice as many more commuters drove to jobs in San Rafael than to Novato. Furthermore, there were approximately 57 percent more trips made to Southern Marin than to Novato. These are statistics from the MTC, the same used in the “Miles from Home” report.

In summary, Citizens for Balanced Housing find the "Miles from Home" report to be misleading since the traffic impact of the other Marin regions was not represented in the report. Novato has a significantly smaller commuter workforce than the other two Marin districts, yet has produced many affordable homes (around 1,444 units) as of 2008. Central Marin has the largest number of workforce commuters and provided about 1,455 units (2008). Southern Marin, with the second to the largest workforce, built approximately 775 affordable units (2008), the least proportional distribution of affordable housing among all three Districts. 

Novato, which represents about 20 percent of the county population, provides 33 percent of the affordable housing. 

The board understands that affordable housing is allocated to each jurisdiction using a state-mandated formula; however, it's important that Marin citizens be informed with full disclosure and transparent reports that summarize their data into easily understood comparisons of Marin's regions in order to provide the public with a broad perspective of the issues. It is our opinion that distributing affordable housing across all Marin districts proportionately where the highest concentration of jobs are, will help Live Local Marin realize its goals and assure Novato residents that all of Marin County is working together to meet its "fair share" of affordable housing.

Trish Boorstein is a board member of the Novato-based Citizens for Balanced Housing.

Statistics from Association of Bay Area Governments San Francisco Bay Area Housing Data 2009, page 4. Unincorporated areas not included in data.