Marinwood Association

MARINWOOD VILLAGE NEWSLETTER
Feb. 15, 2006

On Thursday, February 23rd, the Community Reps will be conducting a tour of Marinwood for Bob,
David and Doug Canepa, the owners of the Mill Valley Market. The tour schedule is set forth below.

We have set aside a half hour for residents to have an opportunity to meet the owners and ask questions.

From 11:30 am until 12 noon, on Thursday, Feb 23rd, you are invited to stop by the
Marinwood Community Center, meet the owners and ask questions.
Also, I am sure that the owners will want to ask you questions
about your shopping needs. This will be a great opportunity to demonstrate
the community’s interest in obtaining a market.

Remember, this is just a getting to know each other event. No one, the property owners
or the store owners, have made any commitments. The Mill Valley Market owners are doing
their research, making the effort to learn about our community.

You can visit the Mill Valley Market on line at   www.millvalleymarket.com

You are encouraged to visit the market in person. it is located at 12 Corte Madera Avenue in Mill Valley.
If you do visit, be sure to introduce yourself to Bob, David and Doug Canepa and tell them
you are from Marinwood.

MARINWOOD TOUR
Thursday, Feb. 23rd. 10 am to 12 noon

GOAL:  Provide an overview of the larger Marinwood Community.

SUMMARY:
1. Marinwood Plaza site
2. Townhouse neighborhoods
3. Residential neighborhoods
4. Four Schools
5. Church
6. Marinwood Community Center
7. Lucas Valley Community Center
8. Fire Department
9. Miller Creek
10. Open Space (provide open space maps).

TOUR:
1. The Marinwood Plaza site and the Dixie District parcels,
including a look at the adjacent section of Miller Creek.

2. Casa Marinwood, Roundtree and Miller Creek

3. The “stones” neighborhood, Mary Silveira School
and Regency Estates

4. las Gallinas Ave. to Lucas Valley Road.
Visit Miller Creek School and the Episcopal Church along the way.

5. Cross Lucas Valley Road on Las Gallinas and take the first
right, drive over the hill through the Mont Marin area
and return to Lucas Valley Road.

6. Up Lucas Valley Road to Miller Creek Road, past the
Community Center to Quietwood and drive the loop down
Quietwood and back on Pinewood.

7. Over to Idyleberry and tour some of the “berries”
neighborhood and the Waldorf School .

8. Up Lucas Valley Road to visit upper Lucas Valley,
the L.V. Community Center, Dixie School and then
continue on to visit the Lucas Valley Estates neighborhood

10. Return to the Marinwood Community Center. Tour the
Center and the Fire Dept. Walk a section of Miller Creek
across the bridge. Meet the CSD personnel.

11. Meet with community residents from 11:30 am to 12 noon.

  MARINWOOD VILLAGE NEWSLETTER
February 11, 2006

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Preparation of a Conceptual Drawing

2. Mill Valley Market

1. PREPARATION OF A CONCEPTUAL DRAWING

From the start of the Marinwood Village Planning Process the Community Reps have been guided by two goals:

1. Securing sufficient retail space for a grocery store and additional community serving
retail stores.

2. A village style design which enhances and compliments the community and provides a sense of “place” where residents want to visit, gather and do their daily shopping.

The Community Reps, the County Planners and the Owners have completed seven group planning sessions.

We have reached general agreement on many of the issues related to the project, for example: (a) creating a mixed
use (retail/residential), environmentally friendly village style development, which is in keeping with the scale and appearance of the community and provides a sense of place, (b) the importance of a Village style design, (c) use of green design and building materials, (d) connecting the Village Center to the community by means of pedestrian and bicycle paths, (e) encourage public transportation, (f) recapturing a significant portion of Marinwood Ave. and incorporating it into the design as public space areas and (g) creating an outdoor public gathering place.

The planning group has made a lot of progress and, very importantly, we have learned how to work together.

We have reached the point when we are ready to take a very crucial step.

The central issue we are trying to find the solution to is easy to describe but difficult to resolve.

The Community interest is primarily in obtaining retail space for a grocery store plus supporting ancillary retail services and the Village style design. The Owner and the County are primarily interested in the number of residential units.

The conflict is between the amount of retail space and the number of residential units. The 5 acre parcel can only support so much retail space and housing before the numbers begin to overwhelm the ability to create a genuine village style
design.

The problem we have all faced is that we do not have a clear sense of what the various numbers would look like when they are translated into a village style design.

What we have decided to do is to select one set of numbers for the retail and housing and request that the design team show us what the numbers look like on the 5 acre parcel.

The numbers that have been selected are: 32K sf for retail (20K grocery store plus 12K ancillary retail) and
100 residential units. No one has made a final commitment to these numbers. The goal is to use these numbers to provide us with information about the Village design possibilities.

When the preliminary designs are completed, we will present them at a community meeting for feed back.

The Village design team will include several community residents: Joe Runco and Bill Hansell, both Architects, Kathie Gaines, a designer, and John Hammond, chair of the Community Reps Design Vision Committee.

If you would like more information about the design process, please email the Community Reps at
marinwoodplaza@comcast.net

2. MILL VALLEY MARKET

We are continuing to meet with market owners in our effort to recruit the right market for the new Village Center.

Let me begin by reporting that the property owners have been going the extra distance to help us find the right market.

Everyone is getting into the spirit of the recruitment process. Supervisor Susan Adams has visited with store
owners to talk up the advantages of locating a market in Marinwood. As reported in a prior Newsletter, Walter Robb, Marinwood resident and President of Whole Foods, is helping us to get in touch with market owners.

Recently, we have been meeting with the owners of the Mill Valley Market.
The owners are Bob, Doug and Dave Canepa. The Canepa family has owned and operated
the Mill Valley Market since 1929.

The store owners have met with the Hoytt’s and our market recruitment team, John Hammond and Dave Mitchell. They also visited and toured the Marinwood Plaza site. In addition, at the invitation of the Canepa’s, John, David and I visited the store and spent 2 hours on a guided tour of the store and a meeting with the 3 owners. Furthermore, the Canepa’s have requested a tour of the Community. We are busy putting together the tour.

The only way to explain the Mill Valley Market is for you to go visit it.

First, go to the Mill Valley Market web site    www.millvalleymarket.com    and click on all the different topics.

Residents have commented on our Blog site that whichever store eventually chooses to locate in Marinwood,
they are concerned about the prices for ordinary grocery items. The Mill Valley Market owners read the Blog comments and are aware of these concerns.

Two things to keep in mind when you visit the Mill Valley Market: (1) The market is described as a dual purpose market, it provides gourmet selections and serves as a small town, independent grocery store for the local residents and
(2) The owners are very community minded. They are very responsive to the needs of the community.  They sponsor community youth sports teams and they provide what they call a “Shop and Give”  program where customers submit the name of their favorite charity and 3% of the customers total purchase goes to that charity. 100% of the money goes to the charity, no administrative costs. Much of the money goes to designated schools. When you visit the store, pick up a copy of the brochure which explains the program.

Incidentally, you will be amazed at the range of offerings they have designed into the 7K sf of retail space. For the market in Marinwood, the planning group is considering 20K sf of retail space for a grocery store.

The Mill Valley Market (12 Corte Madera Ave.) is located across the street from the Sequoia Theater, just a little ways down the hill at the 3 way intersection. You can drive past the store and park in the City lot which is the first right turn after you pass the market. Or you can park in a larger lot which is behind the Depot book store.

When you are in the store, introduce yourself to Bob, Doug or Dave and tell them you are from Marinwood. Bob is the uncle and Doug and Dave are the two nephew/brothers.

Don’t forget to check out the Deli. Many of the selections are made fresh daily in the upstairs kitchen.

February 2006 – Update

Marinwood Plaza  Marinwood Village

Frank Nelson has it all at Frank’s Blog. The markets we are courting and the progress on the development of the “Specific Plan” are presented in a newsletter format and allows for discussion and your input. A very lively discussion is currently underway about the upcoming tour of our community by the owners of Mill Valley Markets. Let your friends and neighbors know about this important development.

“Wiki”

A new feature has been added to our Web site www.marinwoodassociation.org. Instigated by Ward Bouwman, we have developed a “Wiki”. No! not some disease. It is an emerging communication tool. Very simple at this stage it will become much more through your and other members of the community’s efforts. Currently it contains information about the development of safer routes to our schools and our open space trails. You can get into it by clicking on that word Wiki above.

Storm Damage

We have been declared a federal disaster area. If you suffered storm related damages to your home or business in Marin we have a message for you from Supervisor Susan Adams.
“I attended a workshop today outlining how homeowners and businesses can access FEMA funds. It will be important that anyone who believes they were adversely affected with their businesses or homes apply for the funds, especially if insurance will not cover the total cost. Grants are available as well as low interest 30 year 2.68% interest loans. The number to call is 1-800-621-FEMA. The final day to call and file is 60 days from Feb 3, 2006”

The recent storms and the damage they created revealed vulnerability in our neighborhood. We don’t have enough members of our community trained to effectively respond to emergencies that affect the entire community. There is a program promoted within the county called CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) that could mitigate that vulnerability. Our Fire Chief, Tom Roach, will be leading efforts in the near future to develop teams in our community. It is important that you attend a CERT training and become a member of a response team. No one wants to feel helpless when an emergency strikes. We must all be prepared.

A SENSE OF PLACE
a new show of watercolors and oils by PATRICK GAVIN DUFFY. February 1-28, 2006 The Depot Café and Bookstore 87 Throckmorton Avenue,Mill Valley, CA

The artist, who lives on Millstone in Marinwood, may be contacted at: www.marinwoodstation.com or 415-286-6571.

“New Moon Over Mt. Tam” © 2005 Patrick Gavin Duffy

Dues, donations and ads

Please be sure to visit our first advertiser. Check it out at www.marinwoodassociation.org It is not too early to pay your 2006 dues ($10) or make a donation to the Marinwood Association (Any amount – we received a $500 donation this past year). You can make a direct donation or buy one of the cute Marinwood thingies located here or place an ad on our web site. The money is being used to finance a number projects within Marinwood. Did you know the community was responsible for contributing almost $6,000 to the Marinwood Village Project? Your funds in action! But we need more. We had to dip into reserves to make our commitment and are seeking to not only replace the amount we paid the county but also finance the other worthwhile activities such as creating safer routes to our schools and protecting Miller Creek.

Comments – Email - Join Association - Attend Meeting
We are making it easy for you to give us feedback on the various activities underway. Under some items above is a line of clickable text. Just click on “comments” to go to our online forums and post your note. Click on “Email” to send us an email. Click on “Join Association” to find out how to pay your annual dues of just $10. Click on “Attend Meeting” to find out what meetings are scheduled.

“The views expressed in this newsletter are those of the author and may or may not reflect official positions established by the Board of Directors of the Marinwood Association.

Tear off and mail with your check

To: Marinwood Association
c/o Geoffrey Mack
2742 Heatherstone Drive
San Rafael, CA 94903

From: ___________________________

Email address ______________________

Street Address______________________

______________________

Phone number ______________________

Dues $10 For all the many representations and planning efforts provided and to support our community’s efforts at self improvement I/we hereby submit payment of our 2006 Marinwood Association membership dues in the amount of $10.

Donation $__________Marinwood Association is a non-profit organization.