A new 74-unit, 73,793-square-foot multifamily housing apartment building on Drake Avenue in Marin City, currently the site of Village Baptist Church, was approved by the Marin County Community Development Agency last November. The units, ranging in size from 592 to 1,128 square feet, would all be designated for households that qualify as very low or extremely low income and construction is expected to start this year and take 21 months.
The project, headed by developer AMG & Associates LLC of Encino, is the first in Marin to take advantage of Senate Bill 35, which streamlines the approval process for housing developments that address California’s severe housing shortage and affordability crisis. The developer has proposed a similar project in Novato that is still being reviewed.
“While there are critics of the streamlined process that we are required to follow, county staff planners have applied the utmost rigor in reviewing this application to confirm it met all requirements under state law as well as the county’s well-established zoning and development standards,” says Tom Lai, the CDA’s interim director.
