Marin Co. Redefines Coastal Development

The Marin, Calif. Planning Commission is reportedly ready to approve new coastal development initiatives.

Over the last three years, Marin County has labored over new coastal development policies . . . some 19 workshops, nine formal hearings, plus many county planning staff sessions and untold meetings.

The day has just about arrived when the work of this intensive and exhausting effort (www.marinlcp.org) bears fruition, as the Marin Planning Commission is reportedly about to approve those new policies.

The new plan recognizes runoff pollution as a significant issue, an area that has previously been ignored.

The Marin papers report there are no major changes in new residential or commercial development, but note some of the proposals are controversial, including:

• Ease development rules to let farm families build housing on their land for relatives and workers.
• Allow well-designed development closer to sensitive habitats than the 100-foot buffer policy now in place

• Bar ''major'' industrial, desalination, oil and gas development along the coast.
• Confine most new development to existing village regions.
• Recognize global warming and rising sea levels as pertinent planning issues that require longer building setbacks on coastal bluffs.
• Restrict future wind turbines and windmills (limited number) to agriculturally zoned properties. Turbines west of Highway 1 can be no more than 40 feet high; those east of the highway no higher than 100 feet. Roof-mounted structures are limited to 10 feet above the roofline.

Note of interest: The Marin County Planning Commission is now hearing arguments regarding filmmaker George Lucas' planned 270,000-square-foot digital media production compound on ''historic farmland'' known as Grady Ranch. The three-story digital technology edifice, flanked by two towers, would cover an area the size of two football fields, within a spacious 187 acres.