Preliminary election results released Tuesday night showed Sausalito voters leaning hard against the Arts, Industrial & Maritime Preservation and Improvement Initiative, or Measure X.
Sixty-one percent of voters chose no on the measure, which requires a simple majority to pass.
The citizen initiative would loosen development restrictions in the city’s historic Marinship industrial district and give the City Council greater authority over future land-use and zoning changes.
The Marinship has been home to maritime businesses and artists for decades. It was a major shipbuilding center during World War II, when Liberty Ships were manufactured along the waterfront.
The measure revises a 1985 ordinance governing the waterfront district. It allows the City Council to make future changes to land-use standards and zoning. Changes must be in compliance with state and local law but would not need voter approval. Changes affecting the downtown historic district would still require a public vote.
If passed, the initiative would increase maximum building lot coverage from 30% to 70% on waterfront properties and from 50% to 70% on industrial properties. It also would raise height limits from 32 feet to 47 feet and reduce some required setbacks to 15 feet.
The measure also would allow additional uses in Marinship, including certain manufacturing, public utility and safety facilities, bakeries, fitness centers, financial services and medical clinics. Some accessory commercial uses, including offices and retail, would be permitted in industrial and waterfront zones.
City regulations on the number of liveaboard slips in marinas would be repealed and instead governed by state law and permits through the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, a state agency.
Supporters argued the changes would attract investment, create jobs and generate revenue for infrastructure repairs and sea-level rise adaptation in the flood-prone district.
Opponents, including Councilmember Joan Cox, incumbent Jill James Hoffman and Planning Commissioner Nastassya Saad, argued the measure allows substantially more development without adequate master planning, community input or environmental review.
Sophia Collier, president of Save Our Sausalito, warned that the changes could open the district to higher-paying tenants without guaranteeing affordable rents or continued space for artists and maritime businesses.
