This letter transmits comments from the City of Novato regarding Plan Bay Area (March, 2013) and Draft EIR. On May 14, 2013 the Novato City Council held a hearing on the Draft Plan Bay Area and its associated Draft Environmental Impact Report.

     Attached is the full letter written by Mayor Pat Eklund, in response to the request for comments on Plan Bay Area and its effects on local jurisdictions. The very first comment seeks to define the meaning of "Local Control"

1. Local Control: "Much of the public input received regarding Plan Bay Area has focused on a perceived loss of local control in future planning and development decisions. The Draft EIR states in several places that implementation of the Plan will depend upon the voluntary decisions of local agencies and that the Plan forecasts are advisory and not mandatory. ABAG staff members have expressed the same sentiments. We respectfully request that ABAG and MTC provide affirmative confirmation that the foregoing is accurate."


     It's important to note that while ABAG and MTC say that local control is part of the plan, in many respects the determination of the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, RHNA, compels jurisdictions to zone for additional low income housing and the density with which it must be built. What this means is if ABAG's numbers are flawed and they determine Novato needs to build thousands of additional homes, many without a tax base, and they decide those homes start with a base density of 30 units per acre, with developer bonuses, based on the kind of housing being built, then those assumptions must be carried out by local jurisdictions or they risk being out of compliance with their housing element.


     The housing element and the general plan are the basis for all development in Novato. Local Control according to ABAG and MTC appears to be a "relative concept" meaning, if I had complete control then I could decide where, how many, and how dense development of housing would be. In the case of ABAG's definition of control, there are factors that are givens.


     For example, Novato as been designated a metropolitan community based on its proximity to San Francisco and its population total. All metropolitan communities start with a base density of 30 units per acre. When Novato staff in its current Housing Element sought to show that Novato is more suburban than metropolitan and that a base density of 20 units per acre, like Petaluma, would be more realistic they had to rewrite the Housing Element and include an Environmental Impact Report that guarantees the lower density will not interfere with the development of the assigned properties. You can see "local control" is relative to assumptions that contradict practical matters associated with new development.


     In Novato, where are property taxes are insufficient to cover the costs of public education, we already have a wide range of affordable housing and yet we are compelled to add additional housing without a tax base which will increase the percentage of children attending local public schools that qualify as socioeconomically disadvantaged. This population relative to the total population of children in Novato Unified (NUSD) public schools is currently 34%. Out of total of 8000 students, 2720 students meet the federal guidelines to qualify for title I funding. This number was 16% in 2003. So between 2003 and 2012 we have more than doubled the number of students that live in Novato and receive federal funding as a result of poverty.


     If ABAG requires Novato to increase the percentage of low income family housing then this number will also increase. Currently our district is in Program Improvement, a category of No Child Left Behind that says that we were not able to adequately improve the test scores of students from socioeconomically disadvantaged families and so we must either change the curriculum, or the skill set of the teachers, or the ways in which curriculum is taught while doing so with the extreme budget restrictions associated with being a Low Wealth District.


     What that means in Novato is that as we are required, by law, to abide by ABAG's numbers, we are not given the needed tax revenues to support the amount of people who now live in Novato and qualify for these services. In public schools what we are seeing is more and more families choosing private and charter schools to insure that their children get sufficient attention and have a curriculum that is equally challenging and supportive of their growth.


     When we talk about local control we are not just talking about what we build but the long term costs associated with building homes without a tax base. Our sales tax revenues which support city services are also significantly below what is needed to maintain city services and infrastructure. Mayor Ecklund is right to ask ABAG and MTC to define what control we do retain when so much is at stake.