The County of Marin has scheduled a community open house to review plans for the Auburn Grove townhouse development in unincorporated San Rafael. The event will be hosted by the developer, City Ventures, and provide the public with an opportunity to discuss the plans with the project team. The event will be held in person tomorrow evening at the Marin County Health and Wellness Center.
Auburn Grove Townhomes, rendering by Fournier Design Studio and Hunt Hale Jones Architects
Auburn Grove Townhomes, map via C2 Collaborative
Construction will feature 16 three-story structures across the 3.37-acre property. The structures will yield a combined 124,600 square feet. For all 79 condominiums, residents will get a two-car garage and three bedrooms. Unit sizes will vary from 1,500 to 1,665 square feet. Parking will be included for 158 cars, well above the 1.2 cars per unit city requirements.
Hunt Hale Jones Architects is responsible for the design and works with Fournier Design Studio. Illustrations show the craftsman-style buildings imbued with residential vernacular features. The facade material will include stucco, brick veneer, faux wood shingle siding, and composite shingle roofing.
Of the 79 units, 16 will be designated as affordable to a range of households, including four units for low-income households, eight units for moderate-income households, and four units for moderate-income households.
Auburn Grove Townhomes, rendering by Fournier Design Studio and Hunt Hale Jones Architects
Auburn Grove Townhomes, rendering by Fournier Design Studio and Hunt Hale Jones Architects
The application seeks to utilize the state density bonus law for waivers related to the county-wide plan and form-based code, though not to increase residential capacity. Marin County’s housing element anticipated around 110 units to be constructed on the site, with zoning allowing up to 144 units, and a 5% density bonus could easily allow the developer to build 152 units. However, City Ventures’ proposal seeks to construct slightly over half the allowed capacity.
The northern edge of the project site will abut a section of Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit train tracks running along Andersen Drive. The project will preserve a few acres of local wetlands. Residents will be a half-hour walk from downtown San Rafael SMART station or seven minutes by bicycle.
Auburn Grove Townhomes site existing condition, image via Google Satellite outlined approximately by YIMBY
The community open house event is scheduled to start tomorrow, Thursday, December 5th, between 5-7:30 PM. The event will be held in person at the Marin County Health and Wellness Center at 3240 Kerner Boulevard in San Rafael. For more information about how to attend and participate, visit the city website here.
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Build it. This is a great location for development and the units are the right size for the needs of the community. It checks all the boxes and will not impact traffic significantly for the surrounding neighborhood of single family homes on large lots.
Thank you for pointing out the high level of parking. With so much parking being proposed, this development, like countless others before it, misses an opportunity to be transit oriented and instead will worsen congestion and air pollution and further the sprawl of our automobile oriented infrastructure.
San Rafael and the rest of Marin doesn’t have the transit infrastructure to get around within the county like San Francisco does. Marin does have good commute transit to San Francisco. It still is predominantly a bedroom community. People will take the boat or bus into the City but will need their cars or bikes outside of work.