Two large development proposals in Sausalito are heading toward the City Council at key decision points.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 20, the council will hear an appeal by Linda Fotsch of prior city decisions to reject a 49-residence project at 605-613 Bridgeway. The hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday, but the council granted Fotsch a two-week continuance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project you see today is substantially different from the original proposal,\u201d Fotsch said in a letter to the council. \u201cAt the city\u2019s request, we increased setbacks, refined the building\u2019s relationship to Bridgeway and Princess Street, and redesigned its architectural style.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city initially worked constructively with me,\u201d she said. \u201cCalifornia housing law provides significant remedies when a city unlawfully denies or obstructs qualifying housing, including applicants attorney\u2019s fees, costs and substantial financial penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fotsch contends the project is allowed under the city\u2019s 2023 housing element, a state-mandated plan that identifies housing sites and densities. Sausalito updated its plan in January 2025.<\/p>\n
However, the city concluded Fotsch can only build an 11-residence structure because the property is in a historic district, and thus shielded from state \u201cdensity bonus\u201d awards authorized by state law.<\/p>\n
The council did not discuss the merits of her appeals but took public comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI support the continuance,\u201d said Sandra Bushmaker, a former councilmember. \u201cIt is clear to me that the applicant is exhausting her administrative remedies prior to litigation, and I want to make sure the city is dotting its i\u2019s and crossing its t\u2019s, so to speak, in order to avoid any kind of problem with procedural issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also on Oct. 20, the council expects to receive a report from City Attorney Sergio Rudin about whether a proposed 294-apartment complex across from Mollie Stone\u2019s Market in the Marinship district can be evaluated under the California Environmental Quality Act. That review could take a year or longer.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Save Our Sausalito, a community group, gathered more than 900 signatures on a petition calling for the environmental impacts of the six-story, 350,000-square-foot project to be assessed under CEQA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city does have the authority to pursue a CEQA analysis,\u201d said Sophia Collier, the group\u2019s chair. The group\u2019s attorney said developer requests for discretionary permits and waivers trigger the review.<\/p>\n
Dave Rand, a lawyer for the Bayspring Development Partners, wrote to the city in August and contended the project is exempt and entitled to administrative approval under state housing laws.<\/p>\n
Mayor Steven Woodside, a former county government lawyer, said housing and environmental laws clash on whether the city could require a CEQA review.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever is on the other side of how we harmonize is likely to sue,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to get a clear definitive answer on what our authority is so we can proceed in accordance with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rudin is expected to report on whether the city can file a suit that raises the issues and gets a court ruling to clarify if it can seek a CEQA review for the complex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two large development proposals in Sausalito are heading toward the City Council at key decision points. On Oct.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,1011,181,23,992,100,180,993,266,101,103,102,3624,3625,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-491401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-california","tag-housing","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-marin-county","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sausalito","tag-sausalito-city-council","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}