Bay Area

County prepares to update long-term plans to meet needs and state mandates

Marin must plan for future population growth by state law, right along with the other 57 counties in California and all the state’s cities and towns. As part of the next required planning cycle, the County is eager to increase fair housing opportunities for people of all income levels, races and backgrounds.

Published

3 years ago

January 26, 2022

Oakland Post

The Housing Element update is intended to help the County achieve an adequate supply of decent, safe, and affordable housing for residents living in unincorporated areas.

Marin County is in the midst of updating its Housing and Safety Elements, plans to accommodate future housing needs and address climate change. Starting this month, staff from the Marin County Community Development Agency (CDA) is seeking input on sites to accommodate the growing housing need in the unincorporated areas of the County. An online public meeting is set for Jan. 20 to go over the process and gather feedback.

The Housing Element update gives the County a chance to make marked progress with racial and social equity. Lower-income residents in the local workforce struggle to find suitable affordable housing close to their Marin jobs. Almost two-thirds of Marin workers commute in from other counties because of local high housing costs, and that takes a toll on traffic, the environment, and quality of life for everyone.

A master list of all potential new housing locations under consideration in unincorporated Marin was released during the online public meeting Jan. 20.

In spring 2021, the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) set by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) directed Marin to plan for 3,569 new housing units in unincorporated areas during the eight-year cycle that begins in 2023. Those must be distributed among all income categories, from very low to above moderate.

Parcels have been identified as potential housing sites in all areas of the unincorporated County. Land owned by schools, houses of worship, businesses, nonprofits, and the county government is all open for consideration. While housing is allowed in almost all local zoning districts, including commercial, the update to the Housing Element does not exclude potential changes to the maximum density under the existing zoning.

“Public feedback will be a key component of the plan’s development,” said Jillian Nameth Zeiger, a CDA senior planner. “We are introducing the full range of possibilities and asking people their thoughts about meeting the RHNA goal by using these properties. No major decisions have been made at this point. It will be a challenge to meet the allocation, and we want to collect as much public feedback as possible.”

CDA plans to document the feedback and summarize it when the Housing Element update is brought back to the Marin County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commissioners in early March. The Housing Element, along with the accompanying Safety Element, needs to be completed by the end of 2022 so it can be submitted to the State of California for approval.

Zeiger said the shortage of affordable housing has grown more pronounced since the state approved Marin’s last Housing Element update in January 2014. The local median home price has risen from approximately $1.2 million in 2017 to more than $1.6 million in 2021. During the same span, few housing units for the lowest income levels have been constructed.

With the Housing Element update, the intent is to achieve an adequate supply of decent, safe, and affordable housing for residents in unincorporated areas, including individuals, families, retirees, and special-needs populations. One of the major changes to the new Housing Element requirement includes meeting new steps to ensure fair housing and address historical patterns of segregation. Accordingly, the next Housing Element will include an assessment of fair housing to address barriers to fair housing choice and will identify sites and programs that provide housing opportunity for lower-income families and individuals near high quality schools, employment opportunities, and public transportation.

The consequences of noncompliance with housing requirements could be stiff. If a jurisdiction does not meet its 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. California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has a new division that is designed to enforce accountability with plans to meet housing needs.

Related initiatives under the fair housing program include the Restrictive Covenants Project, which aims to inform and educate Marin residents of the history and significance of government policies and programs that were intentionally discriminatory and helped create segregated areas.

CDA staff is engaging in community discussions, speaking at local homeowners associations meetings and design review boards. Trusted community-based organizations, elected officials, and other advocates will help convey messaging about the Housing Element update during the engagement process. 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.

Many residents live near town limits or city limits and might be interested in plans brewing across the nearby border. For that reason, there is a new website that includes news about Housing Element updates in all of Marin’s municipalities.

Check out housingelementsmarin.org to learn more.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

3 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.