County authorizes more bonds for Marin City housing project

Marin County supervisors have voted a second time to authorize bonds for a controversial housing development in Marin City.

The proposed project at 825 Drake Ave. initially involved 74 apartments in a five-story building. Neighborhood opponents said the project would have adverse effects on traffic, parking and the quality of life at Village Oduduwa, a nearby complex for low-income seniors.

In 2023, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to authorize up to $40 million in bonds to underwrite the development. But later, to satisfy the project opponents, the county persuaded the developer to shift 32 of the apartments to a separate project at 156 Shoreline Highway in Mill Valley.

That set up the second vote on Tuesday. The supervisors authorized up to $60 million in bonds, including $39 million for the Marin City building and $21 million for the Mill Valley building.

The bonds are being issued by the California Municipal Finance Authority, a joint powers agency of some 350 California counties, cities and special districts. The authority assists local governments, nonprofits and businesses to issue taxable and tax-exempt financing. Marin County is one of its members.

Under federal law on tax-exempt financing, a government whose jurisdiction includes the project site has to approve the issuance of such bonds. The county bears no responsibility for their repayment.

Opponents of the project were dumbfounded.

Save Our City, a Marin City community group, successfully sued to invalidate the supervisors’ initial approval of the $40 million in bonds. A Marin County Superior Court judge ruled that the supervisors’ decision was invalid because some of them wrongly believed they lacked authority to say no.

The judge said he couldn’t enforce the ruling, however, because the bonds had already been purchased by investors by the time he issued his decision.

During the public comment period of the supervisors’ meeting Tuesday, Marilyn Mackel, a Save Our City leader, said, “We were told directly by the developer that the proceeds were not only issued but that they were being used at 825 Drake Ave. Now you’re looking to issue an additional $60 million more. I question the fiscal responsibility of the board.”

But project developer Caleb Roope, chief executive officer of the Pacific Companies, said that while he was seeking the authority to issue up to $60 million in bonds, he didn’t intend to issue anything close to that amount.

Travis Cooper, a financial adviser at the California Municipal Finance Authority, said $30 million in tax-exempt bonds have already been issued for the two buildings.

“The only additional bonds that will be issued are $3 million of supplemental bonds,” Cooper said. “On the supervisors’ resolution, it’s $60 million because it’s a not-to-exceed amount. Over the years, as the project is developed, if additional bonds need to be issued, the developer can apply to the state for an additional allocation. We don’t want to have to come back and go through the whole process again.”

County planner Immanuel Bereket said construction at 825 Drake Ave. is underway and expected to be completed by late summer or fall of this year. Modular, prefabricated apartments are being transported to the site by truck, and a crane will be used to assemble them.

Bereket said the project on Shoreline Highway is under review for building permits.

“We anticipate construction to begin sometime mid-spring, early summer,” Bereket said.

Anne Devero-Rosenfeld of Mill Valley questioned the wisdom of locating housing at 156 Shoreline Highway, an area that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has designated as a flood zone.

“Who is going to pay for all the issues that happen as a result of this new development flooding?” Devero-Rosenfeld said. “This is crazy.”

Sarah Jones, director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, said, “The site is indeed subject to flooding during king tides and due to sea-level rise. Like all housing sites in the county, it is subject to various climate vulnerabilities. We are addressing the issue of the elevation of living areas in the structure through the review process on the building permits for the site.”

Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters said it has been “an extraordinary effort” to forge a deal with Roope to relocate half the Marin City apartments to the Mill Valley site.

She said Roope agreed to make the change after receiving encouragement from state Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Damon Connolly.

“I realize it may not satisfy everyone,” Moulton-Peters said, “but it is a much better outcome than we originally started with.”