Can TAM and Corte Madera Find Common Ground?

There seems to be a major collision coming over a stretch of Highway 101.

The Transportation Authority of Marin is appealing a plan by the Town of Corte Madera to develop the former WinCup property into a mixed-use housing and business center.

The Town's plan for the Tamal Vista Boulevard property seems to interfere with TAM's proposal for a fly-over on a stretch of southbound Highway 101 that connects to Wornum Drive.

"We hope TAM will work this out with the developer. … I know they are trying to resolve it," Corte Madera Mayor Bob Ravasio said.

TAM claims there was an inadequate environmental review during the planning process and that designs don't take into account the Greenbrae/Twin Cities Corridor Improvement Project. There will be a special public hearing before the Town Council to consider the case on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m.

The Town Council may suggest at the meeting that changes should be made to the designs for the WinCup property, or suggest that no changes should be made.

The original plans for the housing development drew criticism from neighbors who felt that it would worsen an already congested roadway. Now those neighbors are facing two different projects that could greatly affect traffic on their streets.

"(TAM has) a plan that may or may not go forward and, if so, we don't know exactly when. Their plan takes part of the WinCup property, but we don't know how much," Ravasio said, explaining that TAM claims it could need to take over 20-30 feet of the former WinCup property for its fly-over.

"They didn't tell us that until Nov. 3. That was the first time we heard they needed the land," Ravasio said. "The horse was already out of the barn in April when the Planning Commission approved the housing element. … If there was a time to do anything, that was it."

The fly-over, originally expected by Corte Madera officials to stand 30 feet high, is now expected to tower 50 feet high. The project is intended to solve a hazardous stretch of the highway, northbound and southbound. TAM has stated that the southbound corridor has an unusually high number of exits and entrances within a small stretch, making it dangerous. Anyone who has driven on southbound Highway 101 from Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to the Tamalpais Drive exit knows how harrowing it can be, especially in bad weather.

The space TAM is asking for is the same 20-30 feet the property owners, MacFarlane Partners, had planned for parking in the housing project.

The Planning Commission made the Finding that the proposed mixed-use project is covered by the prior environmental analysis included in the 2009 General Plan Program Environmental Impact Report.

Vice-Mayor Diane Furst represents Corte Madera on TAM's board.

"Corte Madera is extremely surprised at the incompatibility of these two projects as well, especially since Caltrans and/or TAM knew on or before January 2011 of the proposed condemnation of up to 30 feet of the WinCup property and yet failed to notify the Town of any planned taking of private property until November 3, 2011, exactly 5 days before a planned design review hearing on the MacFarlane project. To date, TAM has not notified owners of numerous properties in Town of the extent and magnitude of planned condemnations," Furst wrote.

"TAM knew or should have known since at least 2009 that the WinCup property was identified in the Town’s General Plan for potential high-density residential development, which would mean up to 180 units in 4.5 acres. TAM reviewed and commented on our Draft General Plan and never once expressed reservations about the potential density of housing on this site. The site was officially zoned for 180 units on April 19, 2011 in one of many public hearings in which this project was discussed."

TAM's Executive Director Dianne Steinhauser stated in December that TAM has known for the past five years that its plans would affect the former WinCup property and others along the corridor.

The corridor project will also likely affect businesses on Fifer Avenue, including the Active Auto Sales property owned by Thomas Jackovics, who has expressed some support for the highway improvement. Other business owners on both sides of the highway would have shown concern over the scale of the project.

"The Town of Corte Madera believed the affects would be limited to access, visual, noise, parking and traffic impacts. We never dreamed there was a planned eminent domain taking of part of the WinCup property until we received a right of way plan from TAM on November 3, 2011, and that plan was marked 'confidential,' Furst wrote. "Until we received that right of way plan, Corte Madera had been working off a project diagram that clearly shows enough room on the side of the offramp adjacent to the WinCup site for cars to park, and plainly showed no incursion onto private property at that location."

Corte Madera has the support of its neighbors in its stance regarding the project.

"I am absolutely in favor of the entire project — on both the northbound and southbound sides of 101. It will make the entire interchange and traffic congestion in the area infinitely more efficient and most importantly safer. I will continue to reach out to our Corte Madera friends to see how various issues can be resolved that will meet the needs of Corte Madera," wrote Larkspur Mayor Len Rifkind. "Specifically, I understand that Corte Madera has drawn a line in the sand about not closing Madera Boulevard. My view is that should be accepted and the design southbound revised to accept Corte Madera’s needs in that regard."