The Town of Fairfax reluctantly greenlit a controversial apartment project after months of procedural reversals, political backlash and an election-season messaging war.
Fairfax officials granted conditional approval to Mill Creek Residential’s proposed six-story, 243-unit building at 95 Broadway, the Marin Independent Journal reported. The 1.9-acre site, known as School Street Plaza, will feature 41 income-restricted units for households earning up to 80 percent of Marin County’s area median income.
The conditional go-ahead was characterized by resident opposition and even a recall election targeting Mayor Lisel Blash and Vice Mayor Stephanie Hellman. Locals derided the project for its height, density and potential wildfire-evacuation implications. Blash and Hellman faced criticism for purportedly not doing enough to stop the project from moving forward.
The long road to approval came after a legal back and forth between town planning director Jeffrey Beiswenger and Mill Creek attorney Riley Hurd. Beiswenger initially told Mill Creek in July that the project didn’t qualify for ministerial processing because it sat in a high-fire-severity zone and would displace tenants. He reversed course in September, though that didn’t last long, as he issued a letter the following month listing 25 deficiencies with the project that brought it out of compliance. Mill Creek argued that the Town of Fairfax had passed its statutory deadline to act and that the development was already approved by operation of law.
Blash and Hellman fired back, weeks before the recall election against them. “Let’s be crystal clear: Fairfax followed the law, and this project was not approved,” Blash said. Hellman stated that “Fairfax has values, and we intend to uphold them.”
The timing was convenient, and now Blash and Hellman have seemingly thrown their arms up, saying that denying the project could lead to bigger problems for the town down the line.
“California law imposes significant risk on local jurisdictions that deny housing projects. The Department of Housing and Community Development has issued a warning of revoking the town’s housing element compliance related to this application. The risk of the unthinkable builder’s remedy is very high should we lose our housing element certification,” Hellman told the Independent Journal.
Under its approved housing element, the Town of Fairfax must zone for 490 new units of housing by 2031.
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