A DEBATE OVER how to meet state mandated housing goals in small-town Fairfax has boiled into a battle for political control.
In a campaign to recall Mayor Lisel Blash and Councilmember Stephanie Hellman in a Nov. 4 special election, local recall proponents have rallied their neighbors against a proposed high-density, high-rise apartment building that would forever change the character of a town with only a few stop lights.
“The reasons for recalling us have shifted over and over again,” said Blash about the recall supporters. She said they were hoping to get a council majority in the last election but did not.
“They are trying to find another way to get that council majority, which would be to start a recall effort and hopefully knock one or two council members off in a low turnout special election and then get some people that are more to their liking appointed by the remaining council members,” she said.
The recall group has a list of conflicts with the city over its management decisions, but it is the strong arm of state housing requirements that has left a portion of its 7,200 residents feeling disempowered.
Under the state’s new eight-year housing cycle that began in 2023, Fairfax must plan for at least 490 new residences by 2031, with a buffer of extra zoned sites bringing the total to 583.
A developer has proposed a 243-unit apartment building for 95 Broadway that would include 202 market rate units and 41 units at the low-income affordability level. The deed restriction for the low-income units would be defined as households earning no more than 80% of Marin County’s area median income, and the housing authority for the county lists the low-income threshold for a family of four at $154,700.
The property at School Street and Broadway is within walking distance from grocery stores and other conveniences. It is currently owned by a local resident who wants to sell the one-story row of office spaces, which includes 11 live-work housing units. The project is currently under review and has not yet been approved.
The base number of units allowable under the town’s zoning is 162. According to Fairfax Planning and Building Services director Jeffrey Beiswenger, under the state density bonus law, the applicant can request a 50% bonus.
“That’s 162+81 = 243,” he said in an email. “State density bonus allows for the developer to propose a project that exceeds the town’s density limit and request waivers to development regulations (such as height) in order to achieve the densities.”
Towering above affordability, critics say
City standards include a 28.5-foot building height limit, but the proposed six-story building is about 65-feet tall.
Recall committee secretary Mark Bell said the low-income workforce units will still be unaffordable to most of the low-wage service industry workers.
“Aside from people working for the town, the median income of the people who work in Fairfax is at most $55,000,” said Bell.
“Where’s the workforce in Fairfax?” said recall committee treasurer Sean Fitzgerald. “What is the industry here where workforce folks need housing from? This is pretty far out from the freeway. It takes 35 to 40 minutes in rush hour to get to the freeway. We don’t have an industry here. It’s like retail mom and pop, with dining and music and comedy and things like that. It’s totally funky, fun and small.”
The California Department of Housing and Community Development has dramatically raised the number of dwellings that regional governments must allow. The consequences of falling out of compliance include hefty fines of $10,000 to $100,000 a month, state takeover of permitting power and possible litigation. According to the office of state Attorney General Rob Bonta, there have been two cities, both in Southern California, that unsuccessfully sued the state to reduce their regional housing need allocations — Coronado and Irvine.
The School Street developer applicant, Mill Creek Residential, is based in Boca Raton, Florida. The company’s website features a large investment portfolio of multifamily properties across the country with a total market value of $16 billion.
“Rents will be $2,700 for a studio, $3,200 for a one-bedroom, $3,500 for a two-bedroom and $3,900 for a three-bedroom,” said Candace Neal-Ricker, with the Committee to Recall Hellman and Blash.
“The attorney of Mill Creek advised us that those prices could go up,” she said.
They’re ‘the only ones left’
The recall group enlisted outside organizers Chris Moore and Edward Escobar, who were publicly involved in the successful recalls of two other Bay Area politicians — former Alameda County district attorney Pamela Price and Oakland’s former mayor, Sheng Thao.
The town councilmembers earn about $300 a month, according to Blash, and they share equal power in hiring and decision making. Each member takes a turn serving as mayor and it rotates every year. Blash describes the job as an additional load of administration, chairing meetings and serving on committees. She said the recall group is interested in changing the governing structure to a strong mayor model, where the mayor holds more executive power over city management and is elected separately from councilmembers.
Why is the recall focused only on the two councilmembers?
“Because they are the only ones left,” said Fitzgerald.
“We got rid of the other two in the last election,” said Bell. “There’s a third one who won the election because we didn’t have a strong enough candidate for the third position to overtake her. So, she’s still on there but she’s one of them. They have their little clique.”
Bell blamed the longer-term members of the town council for adopting rent control ordinances that he said hurt local landlords.
“But they cow-tow and bend over backwards for out-of-state multi-million-dollar corporations,” he said.
Fire safety concerns
The town of Fairfax sits three and a half miles uphill from San Rafael, with just two roads connecting it to U.S. Highway 101. Like other small mountain towns in Marin County, Fairfax is having to find room for more people and more cars in a rocky landscape of switchback roads and little open space.
According to the real estate website Zillow, the median home price in Fairfax is $1.2 million.
“Fairfax has a long history of fighting development, usually successfully,” said Blash. “We’re facing the same issue as Mill Valley, San Anselmo, and all of the surrounding communities are facing. They have to facilitate a great deal more housing. In fact, we’re pretty low in terms of our numbers. Neighboring San Anselmo is 833 units. I don’t blame people for being concerned. I think everybody in the state of California is concerned right now.”
Blash said the new building is in a high fire severity zone, according to CalFire’s new fire hazard maps. In June, the city informed HCD that the School Street project was ineligible for approval because it was in a high fire severity zone and would displace tenants. Blash said the developer’s lawyer complained to HCD. Then HCD told the city in July that the project did qualify for ministerial approval.
“Show me where in the California Constitution the legislature has the right to basically put the general population of a town at risk of death,” said Bell.” You can’t get out now. If you add any cars to what we already have, especially on our roads, forget it. Their plan is that if you live in the flats, you’re going to wait for everyone in the hills to leave before you evacuate. Dream on.”
Blash said that the new building, because it will be constructed according to modern codes and standards, will be safer from fire than surrounding structures. The Ross Valley Fire Department is part of a mutual aid network of emergency responders in all the surrounding cities, and the nearby town of Kentfield has a ladder truck capable of reaching over the six-story building, Blash said. She added that Fairfax has made investments in emergency preparedness, including maintaining a shaded fuel break and increasing the number of fire response staff.
“Show me where in the California Constitution the Legislature has the right to basically put the general population of a town at risk of death. … Their plan is that if you live in the flats, you’re going to wait for everyone in the hills to leave before you evacuate. Dream on.”
Mark Bell, recall committee secretary
“This is an argument people are making in every community,” Blash said. “Fairfax, like most of California, is in a fire-prone landscape.”
Fitzgerald said he just wants the city to go back and choose housing sites that are dispersed throughout the city.
“At this point, School Street might be forgotten,” said Fitzgerald. “But that’s one of six locations in downtown. A real estate developer from San Anselmo has come in and bought up a lot of the other opportunity sites to build up. That’s six other locations that can go seven stories. It’s not perfectly measurable, but it’s a feeling that you’re at the population correctness for a certain town. Once you go beyond it, you can’t go back.”