Also on Monday, the City Council will consider a proposal involving a new 45-unit townhome development at 350 Merrydale Road / 3833 Redwood Hwy. The project proposes a creative redevelopment of an underutilized infill site with much-needed housing, on a site that is located near major employment and services and with a variety of transportation … Continued
On Monday evening, the City Council will also consider amending the 19-20 budget based on a mid-year budget report. This report presents the City’s financial condition in the current fiscal year (2019-2020) based on actual revenue and expenditure performance for the period July 1 through December 31, 2019, as well as budget actions taken through … Continued
Over the past year and a half, a court case called Martin v. Boise has been significantly impacted cities’ abilities to respond to street homelessness. In a nutshell, the 9th Circuit Court ruling essentially says that imposition of criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping, or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obtain shelter is unconstitutional. In … Continued
The San Rafael Police Department spends a considerable amount of staff time and resources responding to false alarms at residences and businesses throughout the City of San Rafael. To date this year, the Police Department has received 2,216 alarm calls; of those, 2,198 were false alarms. Currently, there is no comprehensive database of active alarm … Continued
The Falkirk Cultural Center (and its grounds) is one of my favorite places in San Rafael. But did you know bees also love it? Volunteers from the Marin Master Gardeners are busy making the grounds at the Falkirk Cultural Center a beautiful and educational attraction. One small change so far is the transition of the … Continued
As you may know, Costco is proposing to build a new, approximately 147,000 square-foot warehouse center, including a warehouse, tire center, and fueling station to replace the Sears building at Northgate Mall. Costco is at a “Pre-Application” stage. The purpose of the Pre-Application is for an applicant to receive: 1) preliminary feedback from the City, … Continued
Currently, 19 local fire agencies provide fire protection and emergency response services to communities in Marin County, but there is no single coordinating agency for wildfire prevention. The Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority (MWPA) initiative, which was conceived by a collaborative countywide effort among jurisdictions across Marin County, would allow local fire agencies and emergency service providers, … Continued
We’re continuously on the move to modernize City services, and at Monday’s meeting, the City Council will consider approving an agreement with Xantrion, Inc. for information technology services. Our existing model for providing municipal information technology services (such as helpdesk and network support) relies on five separate vendors which has led to structural problems, inefficient … Continued
Did you know that the original Downtown Library opened at its current location in January 1909? In the late 1950s, local architect Gordon A. Phillips was hired to design a 6,000 square-foot addition that would more than double the Library’s size. San Rafael quickly outgrew the first library expansion and the next step was to … Continued
Crews will begin work this week to install a moveable concrete barrier (similar to the barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge) that will separate the two westbound traffic lanes on the upper deck of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge from a new bicycle/pedestrian path that is expected to open later this fall. Installation work began earlier … Continued
