WOW!
Quite a turn out for the July 10th Public Meeting on the Marinwood Village Concept Plan
The Grocery Store owners were quite impressed.
Now we have to get ready for the follow-up meeting on:
Monday, July 17th, 7:30 pm.
Marinwood Community Center
The County sent out notices which you should receive today.
There will be no booths stationed around the room, which means space for more chairs.
There will be a slide show presentation at the meeting.
However, the main purpose of the meeting is to allow time for public comment.
Whether or not the concept plan comes close to expressing the vision of the community
can only be determined from public comments. It is important that you comment on what parts
of the plan you like and what parts you have a problem with. Your comments are used
to guide the planners in making adjustments to the plan. We will keep doing this until we get it right.
The goal is to locate the planning sweet spot: a concept plan which the community agrees should guide
the planning process into the next planning phase.
The feed-back seems to suggest that the sweet spot has not yet been reached.
The feed-back suggests the following:
A. STRONG SUPPORT FOR:
1. Grocery Store and Retail
2. Community Plaza area
3. Importance of the Quality of the Overall Design
4. Re-design of Marinwood Ave.
B. JURY STILL OUT ON:
1. Number of housing units
2. Traffic
3. Parking
Here is the Agenda for the July 17th Meeting:
7:30 p.m. Welcome
• Susan Adams, Board of Supervisors President, Marin County District 1
7:40 p.m. Project Overview
• Alex Hinds, Marin County Community Development Agency
7:50 p.m. Review of Design and Site Plan
• Bruce Brubaker, Design, Community & Environment
8:00 p.m. Discussion and Community Input
9:20 p.m. Next Steps
9:30 p.m. Adjourn
IMPORTANT
As you prepare your comments for the Monday, July 17th meeting
on the Marinwood Village concept plan, please consider the following:
1. There are 3 main parties who have an interest in the development
of the Marinwood Plaza site:
a. The Community
b. The Owners
c. The County
2. This is not an “all or nothing” game such as
sometimes takes place when the proposed development site
includes environmentally sensitive lands.
3. Each of the 3 parties has legitimate interests.
4. Some of these interests are in conflict.
5. No one party can get everything they want.
The challenge is to create a plan which, to a reasonable degree,
meets the needs of each of the parties.
If you cannot attend the meeting on July 17th,
please consider emailing your comments to
the following government officials:
1. Susan Adams, Supervisor SAdams@co.marin.ca.us
2. Alex Hinds, Director, Community Development Agency AHinds@co.marin.ca.us
3. Tom Lai, Principal Planner tlai@co.marin.ca.us
Help plan Marinwood Plaza
A COMMUNITY workshop for the proposed Marinwood Village concept plan is scheduled for July 10, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., at the Marinwood Community Center at 775 Miller Creek Road.
The plan is a set of guidelines for redevelopment of the five-acre Marinwood Plaza shopping center site, one of several sites throughout the county being designated as a potential location for an in-fill project consistent with the new sustainability goals of the Marin Countywide Plan.
The plan includes up to 32,000-square-feet of retail space (including a 20,000-square-foot grocery market), 100 residential units of market-rate and affordable townhouses and apartments and a community plaza/gathering area.
The plan emphasizes enhancing pedestrian, bicycle and public transportation opportunities and using green building principles.
The plan is the product of a community-based planning process, initiated by the public through meetings with our county supervisor, Susan Adams, county Community Development Director Alex Hinds and the property owners.
This planning process, involving more than a year of meetings and discussions, has included Marinwood community representatives, property owners and county planners. The meetings were facilitated by David Early,president of Design, Community and Environment, a Berkeley design/planning and architectural firm.
The process is funded by the Marinwood Community Services District, the Marinwood Association, the county and the property owners.
During the planning process, the public has been kept informed and encouraged to participate.
This has been accomplished through e-mail newsletters, outreach meetings with homeowners associations and monthly meetings at the community center.
This community-based planning process has delivered clear benefits to the community:
- A site vision that meets community needs;
- Inclusion in the plan of space for an appropriate amount of retail;
- Direct involvement in the recruitment of a full service market and ancillary retail appropriate to the community;
- Recapture of a significant portion of Marinwood Avenue to be used for the creation of a community plaza/gathering area;
- Volunteer community architects involved in the design process.
The community has made it clear that it will not approve a stand-alone housing project and that the project must include:
- A full-service grocery store and additional retail;
- traffic management;
- A community plaza/gathering area;
- A village-style design.
For more than 40 years, Marinwood/Lucas Valley has had a local grocery store and other retail at the Marinwood Plaza.
However, the plaza has never been redeveloped. As the demographics and shopping preferences changed, the plaza was unable to attract the newer stores we have come to expect.
In January, Bell Market closed, leaving Marinwood without a grocery store.
Now, residents face a 10- to 15-minute car trip for even the smallest items - adding to the traffic congestion and air pollution.
Opinion surveys demonstrate an overwhelming preference for including a full-service grocery store and retail at the Plaza site.
Discussions with several grocery store owners and the results of a recent market feasibility study have demonstrated the viability of a market and retail at the site.
The Marinwood Village concept plan will return a market and additional retail to the Marinwood Plaza site.
The July 10 workshop will include presentations by Supervisor Adams, Alex Hinds, community representatives and the property owners. The workshop will also include information booths and a question-and-answer session. The workshop is a critical step in the planning process.
Marinwood and other local residents are strongly encouraged to attend so they will have an opportunity to determine the future of this valuable community asset.
Frank Nelson is chairman of the Land-use committee of the Marinwood Association.
David Mitchell is board president of the Marinwood Community Services District