General Consultation with Marin County Planning

Yesterday we had a consultation with our assigned county planner. Larry, Stephen and I spent an hour discussing what would be required of us in order to get permits from the county.  This meeting is a more in-depth discussion where the planner spends a little time familiarizing themselves with your parcel and answers your questions in greater detail than would the over-the-counter planners.

In our meeting we discovered that one of the neighbors strongly opposed the land owner's 1997 proposal to originally subdivide his land.  As a result, there will be some extra hurdles we may encounter that were written into the subdivision approval. Also we learned about a resident in the neighboring town of  Inverness who tends to "become very involved" in any new development in the area. As a result we intend on both being thorough with studying, documenting, and mitigating the potential impact to the area and reaching out to groups and individuals who might object to our proposal. In fact, Marin County Planning Department strongly recommends talking with your future neighbors and local community groups about your project.

I should stop here and mention the Planning Application Guide that Marin County publishes that helps understand the process. I'm sure most counties will have a similar guide to help residents through the planning process.

Marin County Planning Application Guide

The good news is that many of the initial studies and surveys have been done already by the land owner in the process of subdividing the land. That's one of the things that made the land so attractive to us initially.

We will have to update the Biological Survey which involves contracting a biologist to visit the site and evaluate the local plant and animal species that might be impacted by development.  In our case, we know that the property is Spotted Owl habitat, and so the Douglas fir and live oak trees are off limits. We will probably also be restricted to performing any construction outside of the owl nesting season to further minimize any impact.

Who wouldn't love a face like this?

Because the land borders a stream there is a 100-foot setback that we must preserve, but this has already been factored into the predetermined building envelopes for the parcel, and unless there are some protected species discovered living in the ravine our build-able space should be unchanged.

There are a number of studies that thankfully will not be required for this project either because they are no deemed necessary or one is already on file with the county from the previous subdivision project. They include: photometric study (evaluating the impact of any emitted light from a residence), hydrologic report (I think this relates to storm water drainage, but I'm not entirely sure), constraints map (again, not sure), photo-simulations (I believe this is just a 3D photo-realistic rendering of the project), acoustical study (an evaluation of the noise impact of construction on neighbors and wildlife), an arborist report (impact on/removal of any "substantive" trees on the property), archaeological survey (a study of the indigenous communities that may have lived on the land and potential impact to any artifacts), and an initial study (I think this is a catch-all for CEQA which evaluates any possible impact to the community and environment).

We are going to need a coastal permit because the land is in the coastal zone.  I'm not familiar with what is involved there, but I think those requirements are reflected in what the planner told us. We will also need to erect storey poles which roughly identify the roof line of your proposed house so that neighbors can pre-visualize the visual impact and make comments before the permit is approved.  This is despite the building envelope not being visible from any public roadway.

Storey poles

Our project is subject to Design Review which means there's a person or commission of people who determine that the project is attractive and located in an appropriate place on the lot. There may be additional visual renderings that are required for this part of the process.

One of the significant problems we confirmed today was the height limit.  Marin county has a strict (we learned) 25-foot height limit.  The prefab model we were considering is about 26', and so we will have to reconsider since modifying the prefab's height is probably not worth the additional cost. Our planner confirmed that variances were only granted in very rare circumstances and ours did not qualify.

Blu Homes' Sidebreeze model

Another problem is coming from the office of the Marin County Fire Marshal. He requires, among other things, a supply of water for fire suppression of 500 gallons-per-minute for 2 hours within 350 feet of the house.  This seems fairly reasonable considering the risk of wildfire in the area, but the estimate to connect a private fire hydrant to the county main (about 1,000-1,500 feet) would cost between $75,000-$150,000. Ouch!

I also learned that while there is no square footage limit on a primary residence, a secondary building is strictly limited to 750 square feet.  This might be a problem for us since we had envisioned a separate artist studio with a gallery space, storage, one bedroom, and one bathroom. It might be difficult to fit that all into 750 square feet. We may have to downsize.

While we are exploring other options for satisfying these permitting requirements we will be meeting with an architect from Blu Homes next week and discuss what design options we have for the parcel.