Bay Area
Environmental Review of Housing Plan to Begin
The Marin County Board of Supervisors held a joint session with two agenda items with the Marin County Planning Commission on April 12, one focused on programs and policies related to the mandated update of the Countywide Plan and one specifically about parcels of land where new housing could be created. It’s all part of the Housing Element update of the Countywide Plan for the years 2023-2030. The State of California requires every municipality to update its Housing Element every eight years.

Marin working to meet needs and state mandates with Housing Element update
Courtesy of Marin County
After accepting more input about long-term housing plans for Marin County’s unincorporated areas, the Marin County Community Development Agency (CDA) is submitting a list of properties to a consulting firm to begin environmental analysis to identify the best places for future housing.
The Marin County Board of Supervisors held a joint session with two agenda items with the Marin County Planning Commission on April 12, one focused on programs and policies related to the mandated update of the Countywide Plan and one specifically about parcels of land where new housing could be created. It’s all part of the Housing Element update of the Countywide Plan for the years 2023-2030. The State of California requires every municipality to update its Housing Element every eight years.
The session about programs and policies centered on the preservation of existing housing, including short-term rental properties and accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. Another cited goal was to take steps to address longstanding vacant homes and maximize the use of all homes for longer-term residents rather than temporary vacationers. In rural and coastal West Marin, a popular vacation spot, about 10% of all properties are used as short-term rentals, eliminating their possible use as much-needed living spaces for the local workforce.
The Housing Element update, which needs to be completed by January 2023, will explore ways to achieve goals to expand housing options and address the need for more affordable housing. Marin County is among the most expensive counties in the country in which to live.
The second session about specific housing sites resulted in a list that will be submitted for environmental review. As it works to comply with the Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA), planners worked with residents and elected officials to identify parcels throughout all five supervisorial districts that could serve as housing locations. The County has been directed to plan for at least 3,569 new units in unincorporated areas during the eight-year cycle that begins in 2023.
Two larger properties on the list have been designated as regional housing sites that could handle comparably large numbers of RHNA units and lessen the overall number of properties that could be converted to housing:
- the undeveloped area just north of Novato city limits on the west side of Highway 101 near Mount Burdell, loosely called the Buck Center property, and;
- the undeveloped flatlands east of 101 and the Marinwood neighborhood called the St. Vincent property.
Otherwise, the County is focusing on infill — vacant properties adjacent to developed ones — rather than creating homes on parcels that have never been developed. Choosing sites near existing developments, business districts, and transportation hubs aligns with longstanding goals in adapting for gradual population growth.
Land owned by schools, houses of worship, businesses, nonprofits, private owners, and the county government is open for consideration as part of the County’s update. RHNA units must be distributed among all income categories, from extremely low to above moderate.
The environmental review, set to take place this spring and summer, will examine how any proposed housing development might affect nearby traffic, schools, quality of life, and be vulnerable when faced with environmental hazards. A joint session of the Board and Planning Commission is tentatively set for June 14 for a public review of the programs and policies portion of the Housing Element update. In August, a draft of the environmental impact report (EIR) will be made public and open for comment.
CDA staff has mentioned at previous meetings that defying the RHNA mandate and planning for little or no growth of housing choices will result in less local control in project reviews and more streamlined project approvals. The consequences of noncompliance with housing requirements could be stiff. If a jurisdiction does not meet its housing goals, it becomes ineligible for state funding to serve local transportation needs and may be subject to statewide streamlining rules, which allow for housing development with limited public review process. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has a new division that is designed to enforce accountability with plans to meet housing needs.
Questions and comments can be emailed to staff and phone inquiries can be made to (415) 473-6269. Regular updates can be found on the Housing and Safety Elements update webpage.
Art
Wonder Woman (or at Least Her Artist) Visits Cartoon Art Museum
Cartoon enthusiasts, graphic novelists and folks from all over the Bay Area braved the rain to meet Wonder Woman – or at least the first woman to draw her – at the Cartoon Art Museum Saturday and Sunday. The occasion was a pop-up Women’s Comic Marketplace, and Trina Robbins, the first female illustrator of the feminist icon, was on hand along with 20 or so exhibitors whose work reflected the rich variety of styles and subject matter in women’s comics today.

By Janis Mara
Bay City News Service
Cartoon enthusiasts, graphic novelists and folks from all over the Bay Area braved the rain to meet Wonder Woman – or at least the first woman to draw her – at the Cartoon Art Museum Saturday and Sunday.
The occasion was a pop-up Women’s Comic Marketplace, and Trina Robbins, the first female illustrator of the feminist icon, was on hand along with 20 or so exhibitors whose work reflected the rich variety of styles and subject matter in women’s comics today.
“We love comic books. We are vibing out,” said Valaree Garcia of San Francisco, who attended the event with her partner Sunday. “Every single booth is amazing, every woman is telling her story her own way.”
Exhibitor Avy Jetter of Oakland displayed her indie comic “Nuthin’ Good Ever Happens at 4 a.m.” which offers an Equal Opportunity look at the world of zombies, with an all-black cast of undead.
Around the corner at another table was cartoonist Jules Rivera, a surfer who detailed her dive into the largely male world of surfing in one of her first zines.
“I was already an aqua creature. I grew up in Orlando and had always lived on the beach,” Rivera said. When she moved to California, becoming a surfer came easily.
Rivera took over the decades-old Washington Post cartoon strip “Mark Trail” in 2020. The conservation-minded but rather conventional male character quickly got a makeover.
Rivera said, “I made him hot. They always intended him to be hot, they just went about it the wrong way.” In her zine, “Thirst Trapped in a Cave,” Rivera depicts Trail in a series of seductive poses she describes as “pinups.”
While many of the exhibitors create material intended for adults, Jen de Oliveira, a Livermore resident, is the co-creator of Sunday Haha, a free weekly comics newsletter for kids.
Children were much in evidence at the event, grouped around a table in the back industriously coloring and drawing, gathered in front of a big screen in another room watching (what else?) cartoons, sprawled on the floor reading (what else?) comic books.
At 4 p.m., the event adjourned to the library for tea with Robbins and Marrs.
Sitting at a round table sipping tea and eating gingersnaps, the two shared stories of their lives in the comics field.
Marrs, a Berkeley resident, created the comic book series, “The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp,” which was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2017, the highest honor bestowed in the comic book world.
In 1972, Robbins, a San Francisco resident, wrote and drew a short story called “Sandy Comes Out,” starring the first lesbian comic-book character outside of pornography. Shifting gears, she began drawing for DC Comics in the 1980s, and since then has authored several books and continues to write and draw comics.
“Lee Marrs and Trina Robbins talking about feminism, and the younger artists writing graphic novels about their lives – you don’t have to create a universe. You don’t have to make up a planet” the way traditional cartoonists have done, said Ron Evans, chair of the museum’s board of trustees, who was on hand for the event.
“It’s what you experience, and it’s much more relatable,” Evans said. Reading about common experiences in graphic novels and cartoons can make people, especially young people, feel less alone.
“In school you’re taught to write about what you know, and that’s what they’re doing. It’s cathartic, and who knows? Maybe it will help other people.”
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Bay Area
Holy Names University Hires Real Estate Firm to Sell Campus for High-End Housing
Leaving many students, faculty and Oakland residents feeling betrayed, Holy Names University’s leadership is aggressively moving ahead with plans to sell the 60-acre campus in the Oakland hills for high-end private residences and have not been willing to work with city leaders and other universities that are reaching out to save the site as a center for higher education.

By Ken Epstein
Leaving many students, faculty and Oakland residents feeling betrayed, Holy Names University’s leadership is aggressively moving ahead with plans to sell the 60-acre campus in the Oakland hills for high-end private residences and have not been willing to work with city leaders and other universities that are reaching out to save the site as a center for higher education.
In a reply to a recent letter to Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan, Jeanine Hawk, HNU’s vice president for finance and administration, wrote that HNU has already placed the property on the market through real estate broker, Mike Taquino at CBRE marketing, to market the property and is already distributing marketing materials offering the campus for sale.
Responding to Kaplan’s offer to collaborate with HNU to save the campus for educational purposes, Hawk replied, “At this point it is unclear to HNU how the City of Oakland can assist with the process of achieving the objectives of obtaining the highest and best use of the HNU property for public good.”.
“Nevertheless, if the city is aware of any interested acquirer or successor entity, please provide that information to Mike Taquino or to me,” she wrote.
She added that HNU had sent letters to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) so see if they might be interested in establishing a campus on the West Coast.
The CBRE Group, Inc. is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm. The term “highest and best use” is used in the real estate industry as expression of seeking to sell a property for its highest possible value.
Hawk did not mention the universities that have expressed interest in collaborating with Holy Names nor the university’s lender, Preston Hollow, which has also offered to find solutions other than selling the campus to a real estate developer.
Campus leaders at Holy Names and members of the Oakland community were stunned by the announcement of HNU’s latest moves to dispose of the campus,
“It’s too bad I don’t believe my own rhetoric sometimes,” said activist and scholar, Kitty Kelly Epstein. “I’ve been saying for some months that it seemed like the chair of the Holy Names Board was actually trying to sell the campus to real estate developers, and that’s why he refused to meet with any of the elected officials and city leaders who have offered help in keeping Holy Names open as a college campus.
“So – guess what? Now the marketing materials are out to sell the campus, while our trusting students, many from Oakland, are tossed out with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt and no college degree. It’s more evil than even a suspicious person like me can wrap my mind around.”
“I’m shocked,” said a HNU faculty member when hearing the news about the real estate developer.
A Holy Names student leader said, “Students are furious. They are afraid that Holy Names will be sold to a private developer.”
Said Councilmember Carroll Fife, “As an alumnus of Holy Names University, I am deeply disappointed the administration refuses to work with city leaders to ensure the campus can continue to be an important resource for Oakland but insists on selling the campus for maximum profit. I’m most concerned for students and faculty. I hope Oakland residents will make it clear that preserving this campus for generations of future students is more important than enriching a developer.”
Bay Area
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