Judge Delays Tentative Ruling in Tiburon Ridge Development Suit
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Local gift guide Family-friendly events special | pullout November 20, 2019 $1.50 special pullout section section TIBURON • BELVEDERE • STRAWBERRY Named the nation’s best also inside small community weekly 2018 & 2019 winner, 2014-2017 fi nalist POLICE FINISH INVESTIGATION INTO General Excellence, National Newspaper Association BELVEDERE BOY’S BOATING DEATH HOLIDAY GUIDE Volume 47, Issue 47 | thearknewspaper.com Page 5 FALL/WINTER 2019 pg&e power shutoff Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is warning Marin residents of a public-safety power shutoff set Judge delays tentative ruling in to go into effect beginning about 4 today, Nov. 20 — but as of The Ark’s press deadline Nov. 18, no part of the gr eater Tiburon Peninsula was expected to be part of the outage. Tiburon Ridge development suit Look up your address at psps.ss.pge.com. To stay updated, register your contact information at alertmarin.org, nixle.com, and at arkn.ws/ Town and citizen group are pgezipalert. For Ark updates, visit thearknews- paper.com, facebook.com/thearknewspaper suing county to invalidate and @thearknewspaper on Twitter and Insta- gram. environmental impact report By DEIRDRE McCROHAN [email protected] Filing period for ——— Marin County Superior Court Judge James Chou has delayed a tentative ruling in favor Town Council, of the county in a dispute over the Martha Co.’s proposed 43-home development on the Southern Marin Tiburon Ridge, giving both the county and plaintif s Tiburon Open Space and the town supervisor runs of Tiburon time to prepare in-depth written briefs expanding on their oral arguments. Tiburon Open Space f led suit against the through Dec. 6 JASON WELLS 2018 county of Marin in 2017 after the county The Martha Co. wants to create a 43-lot subdivision on a 110-acre parcel on the southern Tiburon Board of Supervisors approved the master By DEIRDRE McCROHAN Ridge. Its environmental impact report was certifi ed by the county in 2017, but grassroots group Tiburon Open Space fi led a lawsuit to challenge the certifi cation and was joined by the town of Tiburon. plan for the subdivision, which is proposed [email protected] for 110 acres of private property at the ——— southern tip of the Tiburon Peninsula. The Residents interested in running for lawsuit sought to invalidate the developer’s the Tiburon Town Council, the District 3 environmental impact report, which the supervisor representing Southern Marin Residents blast mooring-fi eld ——— and a host of other seats in the March See LAWSUIT, PAGE 21 2020 election can continue to f le for can- didacy through Dec. 6 plan; bay agency delays decision Local ballots for the March 3 Presiden- nounce the idea at the agency board’s Nov. tial Primary Election will include a race By GRETCHEN LANG Water polo, earlier [email protected] 14 meeting in Tiburon, where the board for the Tiburon council seat vacated by ——— ultimately decided to hold of on a vote on Jim Fraser, who resigned in October. fi tness-center hours whether — and where — to establish per- Also up for grabs on the ballot will Belvedere residents spoke out against manent moorings on the bay. be the four-year seat of Southern Marin the idea of creating a mooring f eld of restored at Tiburon Jim Robertson, president of the West Supervisor Kate Sears, who announced West Shore Road, telling the Richardson Shore association, is among residents who earlier this year she would not run again Bay Regional Agency board last week it say the agency should enforce its existing Peninsula Club when her current term expires in January was a “shocking” idea that could endanger rules and not create a new f eld at all. 2021. the whole of Belvedere Island. Neighbors push back, say In addition, the seats of U.S. Rep. Jared Members of the West Shore Homeown- ——— Huf man, D-San Rafael, and state As- ers Association lined up to publicly de- See ANCHORAGE, PAGE 20 they’re worried about noise semblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, A mooring-fi eld By DEIRDRE McCROHAN are up for election, as are the six-year study provided by [email protected] seats of Marin Superior Court Judges Merkel Merkel & ——— Verna Adams, Mark Talamantes and Associates Inc. The Tiburon Peninsula Club can once Beverly Wood. for the Richard- again hold weekday-evening water polo The nomination period ends at 5 p.m. son Bay Regional Agency suggests practice and expand the weekday hours of Dec. 6, with an extension to Dec. 11 for the best ecologi- its f tness center after the Tiburon Planning races in which the incumbent does not cal locations for Commission approved updates to the club’s f le. That extension does not apply to the a mooring fi eld conditional use permit. Town Council race. are closer to After conducting a six-month review of In the Tiburon council race, Hawthorne Belvedere. the permit at its Nov. 13 meeting, the com- Terrace resident Jack Ryan has taken out MERKEL MERKEL & mission voted 3-0 to allow the club to host ASSOCIATES INC. ——— ——— See CANDIDATES, PAGE 21 See CLUB, PAGE 21 Tiburon 6 | Belvedere 7 | Strawberry 8 | Education 9 | Sports 9 | Police Logs 10 | ArkBeat 15 | Classifi eds 17 Weekend Weather | H Friday 60° 47° | H Saturday 62° 45° | H Sunday 60° 20 ARKBEAT | THE ARK • NOVEMBER 20, 2019 thearknewspaper.com Travel, continued from page 19 Anchorage, from page 1 here on a boat.” bay f oor, he said. Private moorings should ——— ——— Anchor-out Sunny Yow agreed. be banned, he said. “It’s totally unrealistic to have to row He suggested f ve potential mooring own barley and 13 varieties of hops directly He brought photos of boats that had that far,” she told directors. f elds. The primary f eld would be in wa- on property. The Pour House of ers local washed up onto West Shore docks and Richardson Bay Regional Agency Exec- ters of Belvedere Island and moving south and traveling musical acts from bluegrass to said he had retrieved gas canisters from utive Director Beth Pollard said Sausalito into the center of the bay, with smaller blues, and the tiny Silva Brewing Co. sits next boats and from under his dock. of cials have urged the agency to look f elds possible of Sausalito and in Belve- door in the same building. “If one of these boats hits the shoreline elsewhere for shore access for vessels in dere Cove. and starts a f re in a 40-knot wind, they agency waters, for instance in Belvedere Merkel, however, admitted to the board Paso Robles perfected will not be able to stop it,” Robertson said. and Tiburon. of directors at last week’s meeting that in a new luxury hotel “It could take the entire island out. This Pollard noted the yacht clubs in Belve- many of the current crop of vessels on the The Hotel Piccolo opened in mid-October isn’t going to go away with a mooring dere and Tiburon do of er some short-term anchorage were not seaworthy enough to to much fanfare as an upscale sister prop- f eld.” accommodations for cruising sailors, but relocate to Belvedere waters, with their erty of the well-known Paso Robles Inn and The agency, charged with managing there are no public or private tie-up facili- stronger tides and winds. Steakhouse. The boutique hotel, with 23 Richardson Bay anchorage, recently com- ties. In putting of its decision on the moor- luxury king rooms and a two-room suite, missioned a study that concluded the most “RBRA doesn’t own any shore-access ing f eld last week, the agency board said was designed with the discerning traveler ecologically friendly place to moor boats in points,” Pollard said. “Sausalito has the it needed more time to assess its options. in mind. Every detail and amenity has been the bay would be in two zones starting 600 only publicly owned land. The (agency) In her staf report, Pollard outlined sev- thoughtfully created to pamper guests. A bell- feet of of Belvedere Island and moving to- doesn’t own any land.” eral options for the board’s consideration, man greets you at the curb and of ers valet ward the center of the bay. The agency has struggled for years to including declining to pursue a mooring parking and concierge services. Fire pits and The board must now decide whether to manage the bay’s anchorage, home to a f eld entirely or pursuing a “pilot proj- comfy couches beckon you to relax in the open move forward with a mooring f eld or look community of ragtag liveaboards, some ect” with just a few moorings for a trial courtyard, while the Piper Wine Lounge of ers for other options, which will include con- of whom struggle with substance abuse, period. The agency could also establish sideration of the socioeconomics of anchor- wine tasting and the elegant open-air Rooftop mental illness and poverty. Over the years an eelgrass protection zone in which no outs and how to provide shore services for the bay has become choked with derelict Bar serves creative cocktails with a view of boats could moor, although such an option them, as well as how to fund construction vessels that often sink or slip anchor in the setting sun over the undulating hills. If it’s would not solve the problem of unregulat- cool, snuggle by the f re in the library or take of the f eld and increased enforcement. storms and wash up on Belvedere and ed boats, she said.