New housing plan worries Marin residents
As many traditional Bay Area shopping malls struggle amid changing consumer trends, more local jurisdictions are considering turning dead or underperforming shopping centers into new neighborhoods complete with housing, modernized retail and entertainment options.
It’s happening at San Bruno’s Tanforan mall, San Francisco’s Stonestown Galleria and Richmond’s Hilltop Mall. But in the affluent Bay Area county of Marin, a similar plan to reimagine an ailing, nearly 800,000square-foot mall as an “open air main street experience,” along with high-density housing, has left community members feeling uneasy.
The chamber of San Rafael’s Planning Commission was packed on Feb. 13, when members of the public were invited to comment on an ongoing, state-required environmental study that is currently in draft form and aims to evaluate the impacts of redeveloping the 44-acre Northgate Mall at 5800 Northgate Drive, along with proposed mitigation measures.
While the listening session represented a milestone for the project, most attendees were less than thrilled about the proposal, which calls for an openair concept with just 225,100 square feet of commercial space and up to 1,442 new homes.
A multitude of oral and written comments that were submitted to the city echoed that sentiment. SFGate first reported on the contention last week.
Some commenters supported more housing being built in the area, like Housing Crisis Action — a network of Marin County housing advocates and organizations which requested that the city study the impacts of adding “at least” 10% more units to the project than are currently proposed, as well as alternative project “with at least 10% of the units being designated as affordable.”
But others expressed concern that the type of housing being proposed would lead to an increase in crime in San Rafael, where single-family homes are the predominant housing type.
“NO NO NO this is way too dense. If you must put housing like that in Northgate at least cut it down to a third of what you’re proposing,” wrote commenter Cherie Herzog. “Pretty soon we’re going to have rental housing in all of Marin and they will outnumber those of us who own homes. This will end Marin being the county that’s peaceful bucolic and fairly crime free.”
Commenter Sophie Shehi described the number of proposed housing units as “excessive.”
“The number of units in
The Millennium Tower in San Francisco is around 600. The proposed number for the Northgate Mall is more than double that. Again — it does not fit into the surrounding neighborhood,” Shehi said in a written comment.
“Density = traffic in an area already very busy, especially during the early morning and around 3 pm due to the high school and Kaiser traffic patterns,” wrote commenter Candiece Milford. “This area is one of the oldest demographics in the entire Bay Area and walking will be severely impacted in order to negotiate hundreds of additional cars.”
Merlone Geier Partners purchased Northgate, along with another mall property, the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Wash., for $170 million in
2017. The former Macerich Co. shopping centers were already underperforming — Northgate was generating sales per square foot of $421, compared to Macerich portfolio averages of $626 per square foot in sales, the Santa Monicabased company said at the time.
The redevelopment plan that’s been proposed in subsequent years is broken up into two phases: the first phase involves razing over 300,000 square feet of the existing retail on the Northgate site and proposes the construction of roughly 44,000 square feet of new retail there, along with 922 residential units, of which 96 would be designated as affordable multifamily housing.
The initial phase also calls for the construction of a town square stretching over an acre in size at the center of the project, including about 13,000 square feet of adjacent amenities, including a bike hub.
Among the buildings that are earmarked for demolition in order to make room for new housing are RH Outlet, HomeGoods and Mall Shops East.
The project’s second phase involves the demolition of 340,000 square feet of existing retail, including buildings that house a Macy’s store and Kohl’s, and a 25,000-square-foot open space area. This phase would add 55,440 square feet of new retail and 500 residential units, of which 51 would be designated as affordable housing.
The environmental review process for the sweeping redevelopment plan launched in 2021 and is expected to culminate with public hearings in front of the San Rafael City Council this summer, along with the project’s entitlements.
The draft report shows that the project’s construction would lead to two “significant and unavoidable” environmental impacts: greenhouse gas emissions and noise, which would require mitigation measures.
The city has also studied two project alternatives, one that reduces the overall planned development and another that reduces the project’s residential component, but determined that both alternatives would require the same mitigation measures as the current proposal.
“Density = traffic in an area already very busy, especially during the early morning and around 3 pm ...” Candiece Milford, commenter