An illustration of the First Street Napa project, featuring 78 condominiums and a hotel.
as a volunteer for YIMBY Action. Silva says that even though the state has eased housing laws, it’s difficult to get a project in the pipeline in Marin. Fees, labor and land are expensive, and some communities are adamantly resistant to multifamily dwellings, often forcing developers to deal with lawsuits before they can begin. Mill Valley’s 1 Hamilton Drive, an affordable housing project with 45 units in a four-story building on 1.75 acres on the city’s east side, is one such case. “Mill Valley doesn’t have any affordable housing, and opponents said it was segregation,” she says, explaining that opposition through legal action is a particular problem, because so many people in affluent communities have the resources to fight new housing. In addition, “NIMBY is so entrenched, it’s much harder to change things,” she says. Nevertheless, the Marin County Office of Education and the County of Marin are developing Oak Hill Apartments, a workforce-housing project on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard near the Larkspur Ferry terminal, with governance by the Marin County Public Financing Authority. It will be composed of two residential communities on 8 acres: one with 115 units of affordable rental housing and the other with 135 units of workforce rental housing to accommodate income- qualifying teachers, staff and county employees. “It’s the most significant development we have that will really have an impact on our housing supply,” says Silva. Its neighbor, the Drake’s Landing Homeowners Association, opposed it, as did the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers, who believed it would be unwise for school districts to support housing while
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