Eminent Do Nothing - How can this property have any value after government spends decades denying any use

Housing issue dominates discussion of new Novato development

By Rob Rogers
Marin Independent Journal
Posted: 07/18/2011 10:43:37 PM PDT

Plans for a vast new hotel, retail and restaurant complex at Novato's Hanna Ranch received a lukewarm welcome from Novato planners Monday. And the project received an even colder shoulder from neighborhood activists, who demanded that the proposal include affordable housing. "If you produce a project that has retail, restaurants and a hotel"...and there is no housing attached"...that has an environmental impact on us," said Leslie Schwarze, co-chairwoman of San Marin Compatible Housing Coalition, at Monday's meeting of the Novato Planning Commission. "Nothing going forward should be done that involves a project of this size without any development of housing." Novato officials had previously concluded that the 19.7-acre site at the intersection of highways 37 and 101 was too far from the city's residential core to be an appropriate location for affordable housing. But neighborhood activists said that's exactly the reason why the project's developer should add new homes to the site. "The developer wants to have a 116-room hotel, restaurants and office buildings — all of which will require service workers," said Toni Shroyer, a member of Citizens for Balanced Housing. "ABAG (the state Association of Bay Area Governments) will see this as growth, and increase our housing requirements," said Shroyer, who threatened to lead a boycott of the new development if no housing is provided. "That will put pressure on our Advertisement existing single-family neighborhoods to include high density affordable housing."

According to this article, since the 1960's government "planners" have blocked use of this property. Why does that property have any value at all? It seems that government, for many decades, has been entirely committed to denying the owners of this property any use at all of their property? How much money have the various owners of that property spent over the year on plans and reports, and begging of officials, to do something with their property? Instead of eminent domain, the city taking a property for its own use at less than fair value, the city government is forcing "eminent do nothing" upon the property owners by making every conceivable use disallowed. What has happened to the notions of private property, and freedom? And why must the property include even more housing, bringing even more people into the local area to compete for the few jobs that are available? How about allowing more jobs for the people who already live in Novato, to help lower our unemployment rate?

Activists pointed out that the project is expected to generate more than 4,000 vehicle trips per day — including the travels of those who will work at the new businesses. Adding housing, they said, would be both environmentally friendly and politically sensitive.

"I want to see this development, and I want to see more jobs for Novato," said resident Brent Reese. "But if you have all these new jobs, where are these people going to live?"

The developer, Los Angeles-based Urban One, plans to build a 116-room hotel of at least three stories, a one-story, 13,500-square-foot retail building and another 42,200-square-foot building that would include both office and retail space. The $30 million project would also include two 5,000-square-foot restaurant sites.

Members of Novato's planning staff suggested an alternative development — one that included 60 housing units and 50,000 square feet of office space, but did not include the hotel, restaurant or retail elements. That proposal drew rebukes from both neighborhood activists and commissioner Jay Strauss, who wondered aloud why the site could not accommodate retail, office space and housing.

"Anybody who has lived in this community during the last two years knows that the issue of affordable housing has really overwhelmed our city government in a profound way," Strauss said. "There will be tremendous opposition to this project if you don't have a more nuanced project alternative that incorporates some affordable housing."

In addition, both commissioners and members of the public questioned whether adding another major new shopping center outside of the central core would essentially sign the death warrant for downtown Novato.

"We're proposing to build another place in town"...where people who come to town can go instead of the downtown," said commissioner Dennis Cooper. "They'll go to Vintage Oaks, check into their hotel, check out the restaurants there and leave. I'd like to see included in their next report why this project would not fit in the North or South Redwood corridor."

Shroyer, for her part, doubted whether the project would succeed anywhere in Novato.

"Who is going to be staying in this hotel? What business in this dismal economy will be coming to Novato?" Shroyer asked. "I feel this project could be a failed one before it even started."

The Planning Commission won't take an official vote on the project until October, when Urban One will return with a revised version of its general plan.

Until last August, the Hanna Ranch site had become a graveyard of sorts for developers' dreams. Plans came — and went - for an industrial park in the 1960s, a golf course in the 1970s, and a 92-acre shopping center in the 1980s — a smaller version of which eventually became the Vintage Oaks Shopping Center.

In 1991, North Novato Development Inc. proposed a 300-room, four-star hotel and conference center for the property. That plan fell through, as did developer William Meany Sullivan's plans to build 95 townhouses there in 2004 and Home Depot's proposal to build a 128,000-square-foot complex on the site in 2007.

Pacific Star Capital LLC of Los Angeles purchased the property for an undisclosed sum in 2008, and Urban One introduced its current plan in 2009.

Should the project eventually receive the approval of the Planning Commission — and potentially, the Novato City Council — its developer will also have to win over the North Marin Water District, Novato Fire Department, Novato Sanitary District, California Department of Fish & Game, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several other local, state and federal agencies.

Contact Rob Rogers via email at rrogers@marinij.com. Source http://www.marinij.com/novato/ci_18504526

After Reviewing Hanna Ranch Development Plans, Novato Says 'Where's the Housing'? Large complex would be built just south of Costo in a rolling undeveloped property. Retail shops, restaurants and hotel have been proposed for several years now at the Novato property known as Hanna Ranch, just south of the Vintage Oaks shopping center and just north of the highways 101/37 junction. Novato’s interest in such developments has been honed quite a bit over those years, and the one thing the city wants to know now is how housing might be incorporated into the grand scheme. The environmental impact report for the Hanna Ranch development bounced around the Novato Planning Commission on Monday night, and several of the commissioners echoed the feelings of several audience members on the housing issue. Most parties speaking up Monday are fresh from actively participating in the emotional yearlong debate over mandated state housing quotas and where future Novato residents will live. Source: http://novato.patch.com/articles/after-reviewing-hanna-ranch-development-plans-novato-says-wheres-the-housing

A citizen, and fan of the constitution, asks: Where's the notion of private property? Why not let the owners of the property choose to do what their investors want to invest in? Why must we force them to do with their property what they dont see a commercial self interest in doing with their property? I sure hope the owners of this property pay almost no taxes for it. What an insult it would be to have to pay taxes, insurance, etc., on a property that city "planners" force to remain dormant year after year, decade after decade.