Ross fine-tunes housing plan for final submittal to state

Ross is making some revisions to its housing element after the state said it needs more detail.

One of the biggest changes is that the post office at 1 Ross Common will likely be removed from the list of potential housing sites.

The Town Council majority said Thursday it would prefer to add more apartments to a plan to build at the civic campus, rather than redevelop the post office with housing.

In a letter received in March, the Department of Housing and Community Development said it wanted the town to describe how the post office plan would come to fruition. The question of whether to include the post office site had become a linchpin when the council approved sending the plan to the state in December.

“The farther we go in this process, the harder it might be to not build there,” Councilmember Elizabeth Robbins said, arguing her case to remove the site.

Robbins said the council was conflicted about adding the post office property in the first place because town residents weren’t interested in seeing housing there.

“If the community doesn’t want it, I don’t think that we should commit to it in this document,” Robbins said.

Six apartments were planned for the post office site. Six apartments were also planned for the civic campus on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.

The likely outcome would be that nine apartments would become part of the civic campus redevelopment plan, and the town would have to figure out how to make up the remaining three that would be lost.

“I think we should explore moving as many units as we can to the civic center,” Councilmember Julie McMillan said. “And then, I still think we have an ample buffer, and I think that is the way we should go.”

Councilmember Elizabeth Brekhus cautioned that it is a risky move because it could result in a high-rise complex next to Town Hall.

“Are you really signing on to four or five stories? Because that’s a big structure,” Brekhus said. “And it’s one everyone is going to pass.”

Brekhus said the idea wasn’t publicly discussed previously and she thinks residents won’t be happy.

“I have confidence that the layout of the nine units at the civic center can be figured out so we’re not looking at a four-story building,” McMillan said.

The council agreed that staff should ask the state housing department whether it would be amenable to that move. At the same time, the council asked that the plan show that town officials are providing incentives and pushing for production of low-income, deed-restricted accessory dwelling units.

“It appears to me that part of what HCD is doing is making us put down on paper an actual plan of action to accommodate what they want,” Mayor Beach Kuhl said. “And that of course makes it easier for them to hold our feet to the fire if we don’t comply precisely with what we said we’re going to.”

The town does not have to build the housing, but it must lay down the zoning and policy framework to reach its quota, known as the Regional Housing Needs Allocation. Ross has been assigned 111 new dwellings in the 2023-2031 housing cycle.

With few vacant lots, Ross, one of the smaller municipalities in Marin, is relying heavily on the creation of in-law apartments, or accessory dwelling units, to meet the state housing mandate.

The housing element proposes an average of 10 new ADUs a year. That would give the town 80 new residences toward its target.

In addition to the civic campus, planners have identified seven other lots for potential development. The list includes Branson School at 39 Fernhill Ave., where 10 residences could be built.

Overall, the town has to plan for 34 very-low-income households and 20 low-income households, as well as 16 moderate-income and 41 above-moderate-income households, according to the mandate.

In its letter, the state housing department requested more detail about programs to affirmatively further fair housing. It also asked for evidence that ADUs will be produced at the rate projected in the document.

Andrew Hill, a planning consultant developing the housing element, said he’s working with staff to spell out those specifics.

After initial adjustments, the revised housing element presented to the council on Thursday showed a buildout capacity of 140 residences, a buffer of 29 homes over the mandate.

That number will likely be adjusted again when the final draft is presented to the council at a special meeting on May 31.