Editorial: Transparent public dialogue key as Marin targets areas for new housing

The county and Marin municipalities are busy identifying potential housing sites, including some that have been considered politically off limits for years.

This is more than a planning exercise. The county and Marin cities are facing a rewrite of the state’s longstanding land-use rules and a mandate to build hundreds of new homes to meet their share of meeting the state-defined regional need.

The new rules are a game changer. If Marin doesn’t relax its restrictive zoning rules, state lawmakers have provided builders with opportunities to bypass them.

That is why it is important for local planning guidelines to be clear and realistic. Housing plans can no longer include sites where chances of development are remote. The state-mandated quotas – for the county, 19 times more units than its previous quota – demand a re-evaluation of the landscape, physically and politically.

The state is requiring local zoning laws to be enabling rather than restrictive. They must make meeting the quotas possible, rather than impossible.

While the goal has been increasing affordable housing, the quotas also count market-rate housing. The state’s quotas show little regard for water supplies, local school facilities or traffic congestion. They also don’t take into account Marin’s growing need for senior housing.

Any changes are likely going to require state legislation.

The county’s first step in navigating this change is a list of sights in county-governed unincorporated areas that include 150 sites for an estimated 6,332 units.

That’s a lot more than the county’s quota of 3,569 new residences, but planners are inviting Marin residents to use the online tool and decide for themselves where the housing should be built.

It is a way of informing local residents and including them in a process that is changing the way land-use planning has taken place for decades in our county. It is a starting point for what should be a transparent public dialogue and decision-making process.

This time, allowing second units – a strategy used to help meet previous quotas – will not be enough to reach the quotas.