Opposition To Local Control Resolution
Dear Madam Mayor and City Council,
We are writing on behalf of the Mill Valley Task Force on Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI Task Force) to oppose the Resolution proposed in Item 4 of the January 21 City Council agenda.
Mill Valley’s sky-high housing costs—and the racial segregation that they perpetuate—reflect California’s acute housing crisis at its worst. Providing equitable and affordable housing within the City will be a critical step to help alleviate Mill Valley’s racial inequities. See MV DEI Task Force, Report & Recommendations, pp. 35-41. This is a moment when the City should be utilizing every available ally and tool at its disposal to overcome the local impediments to fair and affordable housing. This should include collaborating with State legislators and following and supporting any proposals that would advance affordable housing in a fair and equitable way across the State.
The proposed Resolution would instead place the City in opposition to any and all State legislative efforts to expand affordable housing. The purported rationale—that the City can do it better on its own—has been amply disproven by decades of local inaction and policies hostile to affordable housing (e.g., Mill Valley restricts 93% of all residential zoning to single family homes.) We have seen local officials abandon even the most modest proposals in the face of NIMBY opposition. The County of Marin has recently acknowledged that such opposition is the “number one reason for the lack of affordable housing development in the County.” Marin County Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing (2020) p. 60. State officials, though not immune to these forces, operate with larger constituencies that leave them less susceptible to parochial interests.
We urge the Council to reject this Resolution and its blanket opposition to State affordable housing efforts.
Sincerely,
Mill Valley DEI Task Force
Leadership Group
Naima Dean
Elspeth Mathau
Celimene Pastor
Hilary Heaven
Amber Allen-Peirson [with her approval]
Tammy Herndon
Sacha Bunge
Tammy Edmonson