Why do we need so much affordable housing? Two words—illegal aliens. We need to house 2-3 million illegal aliens in California. Instead of obeying the law and deporting the illegal aliens, we are creating slums via affordable housing, high housing costs, crime and squeezing Americans out of housing.
“Building a six-story apartment complex at Corte Madera’s busy corner of Tamal Vista Boulevard and Fifer Avenue may not be a vision shared by every local resident, but there should be little debate that it will help meet a community need.
A San Mateo developer has won the Planning Commission’s OK toward the town’s approval to tear down a vacant 50-year-old, two-story office building and replace it with a 98-apartment affordable housing complex.
It may be taller and larger than what some locals would prefer, but it certainly meets a need.
It also boosts the town’s compliance in meeting the state mandate that it build 725 new units by 2031”.
This is another California town destroyed by illegal aliens. Ready to call U-Haul?
Editorial: Affordable housing plan for Corte Madera reflects new reality across Marin
By Marin IJ Editorial Board, 5/4/25 https://www.marinij.com/2025/05/04/editorial-affordable-housing-plan-for-corte-madera-reflects-new-reality-across-marin/
Building a six-story apartment complex at Corte Madera’s busy corner of Tamal Vista Boulevard and Fifer Avenue may not be a vision shared by every local resident, but there should be little debate that it will help meet a community need.
A San Mateo developer has won the Planning Commission’s OK toward the town’s approval to tear down a vacant 50-year-old, two-story office building and replace it with a 98-apartment affordable housing complex.
It may be taller and larger than what some locals would prefer, but it certainly meets a need.
It also boosts the town’s compliance in meeting the state mandate that it build 725 new units by 2031.
Toward meeting that ambitious quota, the town had designated the property as a site for multi-unit housing.
Unlike many tall and large projects moving forward in the new state-paved housing approval process, the Corte Madera plan doesn’t call for constructing a large number of market-rate housing units while providing a slice of those apartments to be lower-income housing in order to qualify for the state’s density bonuses — and expedited and limited local deliberation.
Skip AdContinue watchingWhat’s in Trump’s big bill? Money for migrant clampdown but tax breaks and program cuts hit ‘bumps’after the ad
The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard
The days of months of public hearings and time-consuming, costly traffic and environmental reports are gone, replaced by state laws aimed at addressing California’s housing shortage. Instead of prolonged public deliberations and restrictive zoning, developers are riding the new state law to expedited planning approvals and dramatically limited local influence.
State legislators are essentially redesigning suburban communities.
The laws intentionally limit local municipalities’ ability to reject the proposal and require it to be reduced in size and scope. Because the apartments would be affordable, the state law also provides developers with a bonus in the number of units and height of the buildings.
White Corte Madera has zoned the site for 55 units, the state bonus enables the builder to grow the size of the development to 98 units.
This project may be a better fit than other similar examples around the county.
In addition to being 100% affordable, the complex is located in an area that’s close to Redwood High School, public transit, Highway 101, jobs and shopping. There are also several multi-story buildings nearby.
The developer has made changes to the design in an attempt to lessen the visual impact of its six stories. Maybe the developer and the town can come up with other architectural measures.
The town Planning Commission approved the design on a 3-2 vote, with dissenting commissioners voicing concern about the large size of the proposed building and possible traffic problems.
The area does get congested before and after school hours. But there were previous worries that the nearby Bell Mt. Tam apartments, an even larger development, would gridlock traffic in the area.
It’s also important to note that local response to the development has been mixed, with some opposing its size and others supporting the plan as a way to meet the local need for affordable family housing.
Local residents need to be aware that the town is limited these days in how much power it wields in limiting the size and design of housing proposals. The longstanding planning processes have been overhauled by Sacramento, increasing state housing quotas while limiting local control over large housing proposals.
This is a scenario that’s being played out across our county.
At least, this proposal is 100% affordable family housing, meeting a longstanding local need.
