3 days Ago
The California Coastal Commission has rejected a challenge against temporary housing for about 60 people living on a Bolinas ranch. A group calling itself Bolinas for Compassionate Land Use appealed the granting of a coastal development permit by Marin County, which authorized the creation of the housing on Tacherra ranch by the Bolinas Community Land Trust. On Thursday, the commission held a “substantial issue” hearing, a brief appraisal to determine if the situation on the ranch at 130 Mesa Road merited a more comprehensive review at a future meeting.
Marin County Supervisor Katie Rice, Marin’s representative on the commission, made a motion to reject the appeal, which was approved unanimously by the commission. “I do think this is an elegant solution that certainly doesn’t rise to the level of a substantial issue,” Rice said. Marin County supervisors allocated $622,000 last year to help finance the creation of the housing, which has been dubbed Bo-Linda Vista.
The land trust initially raised about $3.7 million in grants and donations to create the temporary housing: 27 leased recreational vehicles with utility connections and a new mound septic system. The land trust acquired the 20-acre section of the 66-acre ranch in 2018 and has contracted to purchase the remainder of the ranch.
The organizations’s ultimate goal is to create permanent affordable housing for the people in the RVs. In April, the land trust received a $8.67 million state Encampment Resolution Fund grant to help fund the project.
The people occupying the housing, who include 16 children, were displaced when Marin County red-tagged substandard trailers and other structures they were renting from the Tacherra family in 2022. At that time, the Marin County Community Development Agency documented unpermitted trailers, mobile homes and detached accessory structures that were being used for residences without an approved means of sewage disposal or access to drinking water. The county report noted that the residents were being provided water through garden hoses, and that bathing facilities were provided in portable toilets dispersed throughout the property.
Testing at the site detected sewage surfacing onto the ground at four locations. Nevertheless, in its appeal of the coastal development permit, Bolinas for Compassionate Land Use asserted that Marin County had falsely identified the project as an “RV campground” when it issued the permit. The group said the housing violates the rules of both the county’s local coastal program and the 1965 Williamson Act, which protects farm and ranch land.
In addition, it stated that the project is located too close to a wetland and an environmentally sensitive habitat area. “This is a big project,” Edward Yates, the lawyer representing Bolinas for Compassionate Land Use, told the commission. “It involves grading, paving, infrastructure and installment of 27 huge RVs in an area that is sensitive habitat.
” Yates said that under the county’s local coastal program, development is prohibited within 100 feet of wetland areas. He noted that on the morning of the hearing, the county had closed Bolinas Beach because wastewater containing human excrement was cascading down from the Big Mesa cliffs. “But county staff and the staff of this commission have decided to do no environmental review,” Yates said, “even though this project obviously has impacts on sediment.
” Leslie Velasquez, a commission planner, said the housing is located as close as 50 feet from wetland areas on its southeastern side and about 10 feet from such areas on its northwestern side. “Although not technically LCP-consistent on these points,” Velasquez said, referring to the local coastal program, “it is recognized that the area that is delineated as a wetland appears to lack hydrology, and it does not appear that the temporary emergency affordable housing should significantly impact any such areas.” “While it is true that the project does not appear to be a campground,” Velasquez added, “it is also not obviously a mobile home park and is more aptly considered to be temporary emergency farm worker and affordable housing, as most of the residents are farm workers and their families, according to the applicant.
” Dan Carl, the commission’s deputy director, agreed with Velasquez’s assessment that the appeal failed to pose a significant issue. “The outcome in our view furthers LCP farm worker and related affordable housing objectives,” Carl said. “We actually believe that this should be applauded as a success story of coastal zone compassion.
” Yates, however, challenged both the notion that the housing primarily benefits farmworkers and that it is necessarily “affordable housing.” Yates said that under the Williamson Act and the Coastal Act, for a project to qualify as farmworker housing, it must include at least one agricultural worker per household. “This project has at most two or three agricultural workers there,” he said.
As for it being affordable housing, Yates said, “there has been no documentation or data provided reflecting income-related set-asides, deed restrictions or permit requirements. This clearly violates Coastal Act Section 30607.2, which requires an executed and recorded agreement regarding low-income housing.
” Asked about the points Yates raised following the hearing, Annie O’Connor, executive director of the Bolinas Community Land Trust, said, “We have workers from several local farms and ranches and their families who are part of this population. However, very few people are able to make a living in agriculture and farm work alone. Therefore, it is difficult to quantify in absolute terms what sector any one individual or household belongs to.
” Sarah Jones, director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, said, “What we permitted at Bo-Linda Vista was a campground. It’s not ag worker housing, so whether they’re employed in agriculture or not is irrelevant.” “The requirements in the Coastal Act or elsewhere for affordable housing don’t apply to the campground,” she said.
Jones also said that she doesn’t believe the RVs at 130 Mesa Road are contributing to the pollution that has forced the closure of Bolinas Beach. Ingres Lopez, who lives in the temporary housing, spoke during Thursday’s hearing. “I would like to take this opportunity to politely ask the people opposing this project not to spend their energy opposing, because we just want to live in peace,” she said.
Magdalena Garcia, who also lives at the site, said that “Bolinas is the only place I have lived for over 17 years since I have been living in this country.” “I would not like to move to another place because the people in this community are very special to me and my family,” Garcia said..
