While much of the housing conversation has been dominated by the City of Mill Valley’s efforts to build workforce housing on city-owned land and create the conditions to support a massive uptick in local housing units, a significant housing proposal outside city limits garnered support from the Marin County Board of Supervisors earlier this week, according to the Marin IJ.
The project calls for the construction of a two-story building with 10 studio apartments and 11 studio extended-stay hotel rooms at 150 Shoreline Hwy., near the flood-prone Manzanita Park & Ride lot within the flood zone. The supervisors’ approval came on the heels of a recommendation from the county Planning Commission to deny the approval, citing concerns about flooding but also the possibility that the project applicant, the O’Donnell Financial Group, might later convert the residential units into hotel rooms. To remove that possibility, supervisors plan to add a provision requiring that the 10 studio apartments remain residential in perpetuity, according to the IJ.
Daniel Chador, O’Donnell’s project manager, told supervisors, “150 Shoreline fills a need for short-term transitional housing and affordable workforce housing. The location is well suited next to public transportation, bike paths, and the Manzanita parking lot with the Airporter and the technology bus hub,” according to the IJ.