A plan for 250 new homes next to San Quentin State Prison will not cause unacceptably high traffic, according to the project’s developers.
Developers discussed traffic and density issues Wednesday during a second public meeting about the project. It was organized by state Sen. Mike McGuire, Marin County Supervisor Damon Connolly and Mary Jane Burke, the county’s superintendent of schools.
About 80 people participated in the online meeting. The public was allowed to submit questions by email but not given the chance to speak.
“Based off of what we heard at our last meeting and what we’ve heard from many of you over the last few months, there are concerns about the development,” McGuire said at the beginning of the meeting. “Concerns about potential increases in traffic, the density of the development. We’ve also heard concerns about the overall look of the development.”
The plan calls for 115 residences for low-income renters and 135 for local school and county government employees. Eden Housing of Hayward is developing the low-income homes. The others are being developed by Thompson Dorfman Partners of Mill Valley through Education Housing Partners, a nonprofit it formed in 2004.
The state, which owns the 5-acre site, is making it available at a nominal cost. It is handling all of the entitlements and permitting for the project, including analysis required under the California Environmental Quality Act. Neither Marin County nor Larkspur, which includes the area within its sphere of influence, will have any say in the approval process.
Under county zoning, no more than 21 detached homes could be built on the site. However, the state is exempt from the county’s zoning regulations.
Teddy Newmyer, a project developer at Eden Housing, told the audience Wednesday that the developers hired an independent traffic consultant. He said the consultant estimated the project would generate an average of 1,360 trips per day. That would include 90 trips during the morning peak traffic period and 110 trips during the evening traffic peak.
“They studied the four biggest intersections on either side of the site and concluded that the project would not have a significant negative impact on those intersections,” Newmyer said.
Newmyer said it will be necessary to install a traffic light and crosswalk near the entrance to the project. He said the traffic consultant concluded that the best place for the light would be at Drakes Cove Road, which leads to homes, but he said no decision regarding placement of the light has been made. The plan is for the project to have 354 parking spaces.
Traffic on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard between Interstate 580 and Highway 101 is often very congested during morning and evening commute hours. The route is one of few entrances to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
Regarding the project’s density, Joanna Julian, a manager at Thompson Dorfman, said the development would include three-, four- and five-story buildings that would be 30 feet to 60 feet tall.
“The building colors will primarily be earth tones with a dark blue accent, which we think nicely complements the surrounding environment and also visually breaks up the building,” Julian said.
Members of the public asked if there are plans for Larkspur to annex the property. The property is in unincorporated Marin, but since it is within Larkspur’s sphere of influence, the city could apply to the Marin Local Agency Formation Commission for permission to annex it.
Julian said there are ongoing discussions between Larkspur and the county regarding that issue.
The portion of the project being developed by Thompson Dorfman Partners through Education Housing Partners would reserve 101 of the residences for teachers and other school employees. The remaining 34 would go to county employees.
John Carroll, who was elected in June to succeed Burke as superintendent of schools, said there were 397 unfilled openings in schools across Marin at the beginning of the school year.
“We still have 339 openings in schools in Marin for a variety of positions,” Carroll said. “What we keep hearing is that housing makes it very hard to be a teacher or school employee in Marin.”
A draft environmental impact report on the project is expected to be released to the public in the next few months.
