The Marin County Board of Supervisors took several positive steps last month to make it easier to build affordable housing in Marin! With their votes, they changed County policy in the following ways:
- Affordable housing developments will no longer have to secure a use permit—with extra add-on conditions—to build to the maximum densities allowed by the General Plan.
- Affordable housing will be allowed to build to higher densities (up to 30 units per acre) in four types of mixed-use zones.
- Affordable housing will be exempted from master plan requirements except where local community plans (or Board-endorsed “community visions”) specifically require a master plan for a given parcel.
There was some disappointment that the board didn’t pass everything we were pushing for—we would have liked to have seen a universal exemption to master plan requirements for affordable housing to fully eliminate this barrier. However, the new policy improvements are real steps forward, and worth celebrating. Together, these changes will help make it easier to build affordable housing in Marin.
