Corte Madera Evaluating FAR: Why You Need To Care About This
I wrote a few months back about the need for an FAR law in Corte Madera. FAR stands for floor area ratio, and is the ratio of floor area of a residence to the lot size. So if the FAR is 40 %, and the lot size is 7000 feet, the largest allowable home would be 2800 square feet without a variance.
Every town around Corte Madera has this law, with most limiting the FAR to 40%. It basically prevents oversized homes, out of character with the neighborhood, from being built on small lots. There are a number of examples in Corte Madera recently where homes with FAR’s as high as 63% have been allowed.
On January 23 at 7 pm, there will be a Study Session by the Planning Department given to the Planning Commission about this issue at the Town Hall Council Chambers. Anyone interested in this should come, listen, and give your opinion on this. I’ve already registered my point of view as a member of the Board of Directors of the Corte Madera Community Foundation. The Foundation is strongly in favor of this, and you should be to. Here’s why:
- Fairness to all property owners. With nothing governing the size of the house other than setbacks, property owners often get into long, very difficult arguments with their neighbors over the size of a house. The person who wants to build is within the law; but the property owners nearby are concerned about the quality of life in their neighborhood, sunlight, views, etc. The Planning Commission has to make a subjective decision as to who wins. It can, and does, get ugly. This law benefits both the owner who wants to build because they now have clarity, and the neighbors, who now have some protection from a monster home going in next door to their 1920’s cottage.
- McMansions. I hate them, quite frankly, and I’m a realtor! Corte Madera is a small town, with lots of character. Because no other town around us allows this - they all have this law in place - developers from all over Marin County flock here. Homes as large as 3900 square feet on 6000 square foot lots have been approved. They’re often ugly, they’re out of character, and long term, they’re going to erode property values. Which leads to my next point….
- Property values. We’re already being besieged by expansion of the Town Center shopping center, and the much-rumored expansion of the Village. Corte Madera is fundamentally, a small town. That is what makes it a great place to live, and has kept property values high. The simple answer seems to be bigger better houses means higher values, right? Not necessarily. Tiburon, Mill Valley, and Larkspur all have FAR laws - it hasn’t hurt values in those towns one bit, and one could certainly argue that it helped. Corte Madera is what it is - we don’t want it to look like Walnut Creek, or Sacramento. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as they said on Seinfeld - but the small town character of this town is what makes it valuable.
Please attend this meeting. There are several new commissioners, and they need to hear your opinion.
If you want more information, or to discuss, please, leave a comment or email me!
