The owner of one of the last open lots in Mill Valley is making his fourth attempt to develop the site.
The latest proposal by Tiburon developer Philip Richardson calls for 25 homes on the 1.2-acre tract near the corner of Camino Alto and East Blithedale Avenue.
The project would include 13 market-rate homes, six market-rate homes for seniors, six homes for low-income residents, 2,000 square feet of office space and 52 parking spots, Richardson said.
“It’s a new version of an old project I’ve worked on in the past,” he said.
The proposal was submitted to the city on July 8 and could take months for the city staff to review, said Patrick Kelly, the planning director.
“Public hearings will be scheduled to consider the mixed-use project once the application materials are determined to be complete and environmental review has been conducted,” Kelly said.
Richardson has owned the property in the Kite Hill neighborhood since 2004 and submitted his first development proposal then. The most recent application was withdrawn in 2017.
Richardson said the project — now called Richardson Terrace, replacing Blithedale Terrace — has smaller homes compared to the last version. Instead of 20 homes of 1,100 or 2,000 square feet, the project proposes a dozen 800-square-foot homes, five 1,100-square-foot homes and eight 2,000-square-foot units.
The frontage office buildings would 25 feet tall, while the housing units in the back of the property would be 35 feet tall.
Despite the redesign, the group that opposed the project each time is reforming its committee of eight neighborhood homeowner associations. John Palmer, president of Friends of Kite Hill, said the group objects to the potential traffic congestion and the lack of emergency routes.
“The neighboring homeowner associations opposed the project, as did the Planning Commission the last time it was proposed,” Palmer said. “They said the plan was terrible for the site. It’s too dense and now it’s come back even larger. We are even more opposed to it than we were before, if that’s possible.”
He said he is not against Richardson developing on the property, but he is concerned that because the project is 25% larger it will cause congestion.
“The problem is that it is situated near the worst traffic intersection in all of Southern Marin,” he said.
He added that Mill Valley is also more susceptible to fire risk because many homes are near the wildland, there are limited egress routes and the roads are narrow.
Susan Kirsch, a member of the Friends of Kite Hill and a resident near the site, said if the project meets SB 35 regulations then it could be developed quickly through ministerial review. The criteria include affordable homes, proximity to transit options, and conformity to local planning and zoning codes.
“This project, in being bigger, is following the same trajectory as the Novato project is,” said Kirsch, referring to a proposed six-story affordable housing and business complex seeking streamlined review under the law.
“They are both efforts related to the work I’ve been doing lately, ‘Nix the Nine‘,” to defeat a series of housing-focused bills in the Legislature, Kirsch said.
“It addresses how our state legislation is responding to the housing crisis in a frenzy, and is doing an incredible job cutting back on local preferences and giving power to developers to come in and do ‘by-right’ building,” she said.
About 25% of the building will be used for affordable housing, which barely meets the minimum state requirement, she said.
Richardson said making some of the homes affordable will attract more people to live and work in the city.
“We hope the affordable units will be taken over by the city or school district so the local employees will have a chance to live in Mill Valley,” he said. “I’m a member of the Mill Valley Affordable Housing Committee and 95% of employees don’t live in Mill Valley.”
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Mill Valley housing project resurfaces, along with opposition - Marin Independent Journal
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