ABAG, Smoking Could Heat Up Town Hall

Corte Madera has been hailed by many for its decision to leave the Association of Bay Area Governments. Others say it was a pointless move that, at best is only ceremonial, and at worst could backfire on the town.

Well, there's still a chance for the Town to change its mind and stay with ABAG since it will take nearly another 15 months for the move to take effect.

"We're using that time to try to come up with a  better way to do this," Corte Madera vice-Mayor Diane Furst said in a meeting with members of the Marin Communities Coalition for Local Control. "Almost immediately after we withdrew, our One Bay Area Plan numbers came in at about half what they were bandying about, which makes it seem these numbers are random. They're not taking into account our constraints or our opportunities."

The Corte Madera Town Council meets Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. to re-examine its decision to withdraw. The Council isn't defending its decision, but rather looking to join with neighboring communities for more local control over its housing mandates. Councilwoman Carla Condon is trying to rally support among Marin County cities for a joint powers authority that could replace ABAG.

"Corte Madera has been struggling with the housing mandates. It's been an issue for a long time," Furst said. "Corte Madera is three square miles with a population of about 9,200 people. We're a tiny town. We're built out. We have only a handful of vacant parcels in our town and they are almost all exclusively in the hills in very difficult to reach locations, oftentimes there is no street access or access to utilities, sewer lines and are very difficult to build on."

Corte Madera solved some of its housing problems with the move to turn the former WinCup property into a residential complex.

"That was the only place we could put 180 units, that was our only option," Furst said. "We didn't have the option to keep it industrial and bring in a new business to create jobs. We need jobs as well.

"We wiped out a facility that employed over hundred people and now we have housing. It could have been a biotech firm, it could have been assisted living. But assisted living doesn't count in the RHNA numbers."

The Council will also follow up on the May 1 introduction of an amendment to the town's smoking ordinance to ban smoking within town parks. The Council could adopt the ordinance, which Councilman Michael Lappert called "a stupid, stupid law."

The amendment was introduced to combat reports of cigarette butts littering parks and the potential for second-hand smoke to impact children's play areas.