Sausalito’s Housing Mandate: What to Know & Do for Positive, Solutions-Oriented Results

Sausalito’s Housing Mandate

As you may know, Sausalito has a state mandate to create 724 units of new housing. To comply, the city has created a Housing Element with sites across Sausalito where housing can be built. This was a multi-year process that was led by city and community volunteers and included many opportunities for community input.If we don’t build the 724 units, then “Builders Remedy” takes effect and we lose all local control so developers can build wherever they like without regard to zoning. 

What’s Happening Now

To ensure that our Housing Element stays in compliance, this Tuesday, the City Council will be voting to put a number of our housing element sites before Sausalito voters in June. 

Recent changes to sites like the Alta Mira, MLK Park, City Hall, Spencer Ave. Firehouse, and on Bridgeway have encountered opposition from neighbors, often pushing to put the numbers somewhere else without offering alternatives. So it’s like a balloon -- you squeeze one area of the balloon to stop housing in your neighborhood, then the housing pops up in a different area of town, where neighbors there also oppose it. 

Outdated Restrictions and Their Impact

When the sites were chosen it seems like the goal was to get enough numbers on a map to satisfy the state mandates. Much less thought was given to what the impact of actually building on some of these sites would be. Due to our outdated and self-imposed restrictions, some obviously suitable sites were left out entirely. This has led to lopsided allocations in other areas. 

We are very late in the process now, and there are severe consequences -- Builders Remedy -- for failing to complete the process. We strongly encourage you to support the necessary City Council actions, even though the outcome is less than ideal, but ask them to open up other sites in Sausalito. 

A Window of Opportunity

Being listed in the Housing Element does not mean a site will be developed immediately. High construction costs, rising interest rates, and market uncertainties (including potential tariffs on steel and other materials) mean there is no rush to build. This gives us a chance to advocate for better site selection now.

So, in parallel, we MUST ask the City Council to start opening up other more suitable sites for housing. This includes negotiating with owners of currently vacant or underutilized sites where we can accommodate housing using a tools called a “Community Development Agreement” (CDA). A CDA enables us to control the look and feel, the size and views. 

This will help us relieve the pressure of building housing in the hills, our historic district and MLK Park. 

Reform Outdated Laws That Are Hurting Us

In particular, it’s time to update or repeal outdated laws that prevent reasonable housing and multi-use development in the Marinship and along Bridgeway. 

There is a law called Ordinance 1022 that was put in place in the 1980s (yes, the 1980s! Regan, feathered hair, shoulder pads…)  called the "Fair Traffic Initiative," which was designed to stop development in the Marinship (and some other commercial areas). This made sense then but not now. This outdated law is now hurting us. 

By locking in land use and restricting economic activity, we are frozen in time.  Some believe this is a good thing, that we are “saving” the Marinship. We don’t agree. Many properties are crumbling, flooding, sinking, and vacant. There are many sites that are crying out for sensible development. Meanwhile, we are being asked to choose between building in our parks, or putting a tower at Alta Mira or on Bridgeway.  To see what we’re talking about,  we encourage you to take a walk through the Marinship. Here's an example of what you will see: 

There are plenty of examples of other small, working waterfront towns like ours that have multi-use working waterfronts where housing, retail and waterfront businesses exist together, and actually created an ecosystem that supports one another. 

Your Voice Matters

The City Council is asking us to vote on rezoning specific sites. We also call on them to allow us to vote to repeal Ordinance 1022. Only then can we start having sensible conversations about distributing our housing in a way that makes sense for all of Sausalito.

If you agree, please do these two things:

1. SEND A LETTER TO THE CITY COUNCIL

2. ATTEND THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING

• Attend in person (most impactful): Join us at 4 p.m. at the City Hall; Email us at contact@positivepeopleforsausalito.com if you want to go with us)

• Attend via zoom(also good but in person is better :) Join Zoom Meeting; Webinar ID: 852 7589 4165  | Passcode: 123456