Coalition Newsletter

April 11, 2006

Welcome to Our New Website

This initial on-line newsletter is also the debut of our new website for the San Pedro Road Coalition.  A considerable amount of work and design has gone into what, we hope, will be an enhanced communications vehicle for our community.  On this website you will find information about major projects and activities along the Pt. San Pedro Road corridor, local and governmental contact information, announcements of events that concern or interest our neighbors and much, much more.  We hope you will find this website useful and informative as you participate (either actively or vicariously) in the life of this vibrant community.  To enhance the usefulness of this website, please communicate your concerns, comments and information using the various feedback forms found throughout this site.

Loch Lomond Project Coming Up Fast

More than three years after the developer first broached their proposal for redevelopment at the Loch Lomond Marina the march toward approval is nearing its end. The draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project was released in February and will undergo review by the San Rafael Planning Commission beginning at their April 11 meeting. Assuming that one to two months would be needed to respond to public concerns about the draft document, approval of the final EIR and the project itself could take place this summer.

In preparation for the April 11 meeting homeowner groups and the Point San Pedro Road Coalition’s Loch Lomond Marina Committee have been scrutinizing the draft EIR to document its inadequacy.

Thompson/Dorfman of Sausalito submitted their application for redevelopment in February 2004 after a couple of years sending out feelers to check the community’s pulse on acceptance of the high-density proposal. After an application is submitted the normal planning process takes the following steps:

• Complete the information in the application.
• Prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the proposed development
• Hold public hearings on the draft version of the EIR, so the public can comment and ask for additional information
• Rewrite the draft EIR in response to public comments
• Hold public hearings on the final EIR
• Certify the final EIR
• Hold hearings on the merits of the project before various city boards and commissions leading to approval or denial by the City Council.

After dragging their heels on preparation of the EIR, San Rafael now appears to be fast tracking the project. Concurrent with hearings on the EIR the project itself has been undergoing review this past month by the City’s Parks and Recreation Commission and Design Review Board. The Coalition’s Loch Lomond Marina Committee, homeowner associations along Point San Pedro Road, and individuals turned out in force to critique the plans at these meetings. The community is united in asking that redevelopment adhere to the following:

• Focus development on marina usage of the property.
• Permit only low-to-medium residential density.
• Insure development would be compatible with surrounding neighborhoods, including height compatibility.
• Emphasize preservation and enhancement of existing marsh, wetlands, breakwaters, and open space.
• Protect views – not just view corridors.
• Keep the current commercial area, covering about the eastern third of the developable property, including a full-scale market.

On April 11 the public is expected to turn out in force to point out major flaws in the draft EIR, notably in the section on traffic which failed to examine the cumulative effects of the development on traffic at critical downtown intersections.

Quarry Review Moving Slowly

Environmental review on the San Rafael Rock Quarry’s applications for an Amended Reclamation Plan (ARP) and a new operating permit are underway but moving slowly. Two associated applications are being reviewed:

• The Amended Reclamation Plan, which describes how the site would be mined, including a conceptual plan for its reuse at the conclusion of mining. The quarry is currently operating under a reclamation plan approved in 1982, and has long since exceeded the extraction limits described in that plan.
  
  The ARP proposed by Dutra describes mining the site for another 17 years to an ultimate depth of 400 feet. Its proposed mining plan would involve a massive, continuous – and unnecessary – earthmoving program that would intensify impacts on the community and the environment. Some two million tons of dirt would be moved closer to adjacent properties and noise and dust would increase well above their present levels. The ARP also proposes the same future reuse as the 1982 plan: 350 residential units, two commercial/mixed use areas and a marina lagoon to be constructed by flooding the bowl from the bay, with a 600-slip marina.

• A Mining and Quarrying Permit, akin to a business use permit, which describes or limits, for example, hours of operation, truck traffic on public roads, barge and loading operations, maximum vibration from blasting, etc. Dutra Group proposes the same operating conditions that it now practices.

Work on the EIR for the new reclamation plan is underway and the Mining and Quarrying Permit is undergoing preliminary analysis by county EIR consultants now. It may be available for public comment in early summer.

At the conclusion of the comment period preparation of the dual EIRs will take several months. Final action on the applications by the County Board of Supervisors isn’t likely until early 2007.

IMPORTANT: It is crucial that members of the public continue to inform the county about quarry activities that disrupt their lives; these include blasting, vibration, truck traffic and debris. Write or email your complaints, questions or comments to Eric Steger. Email ESteger@co.marin.ca.us, or mail to: Eric Steger, Marin County Dept of Public Works, Marin Civic Center, 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael CA 94903. Letters can also be faxed to Eric at 499-3799.

Good Work by Coastal Conservancy
Clearing Non-Native Plants from Marsh

Thanks to the Coastal Conservancy for their work this winter clearing our marshes of the non-native Spartina, a plant which threatens to destroy the Bay’s natural hydrology if left unchecked. The Conservancy has been hand digging and destroying the aggressive exotics in Marin County sites as part of their Invasive Spartina Project (ISP).

The ISP is a three-year effort to completely eradicate the non-native forms of Spartina from the entire estuary – before beginning restoration of the Cargill salt ponds in the South Bay. The project was developed in 2000 in response to an influx in the Bay of four species of non-native cordgrass (Spartina) that began hybridizing with natives and that have now created a hybrid swarm. The exotics colonize mudflats farther out into the Bay than native Spartina, choking out the natives, threatening native and endangered species and the entire health of the Bay.

The ISP mapped 16 sites with 15.6 acres of Spartina in 613 acres of marsh in Marin County: part of a total 1,500 net acres of non-native Spartina around the estuary. The 4.2 acres of marsh at Beach Drive and Loch Lomond accounted for only a small patch of the invader but it is important to eradicate every last plant or risk resurgence.

The exotic Spartina was first introduced to Marin County in Kentfield’s Creekside Park in the 1970s by a botanist who misidentified it as a native species.

City Manager Hunt