Corte Madera pond saved - for now
The Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to uphold an appeal by the Marin Audubon Society to overturn the Planning Commission's recommendation to fill the pond. Reneson Hotel Group, owners of the Corte Madera Inn, wants to fill and pave over the pond to create more parking for its patrons and nearby Max's Restaurant. Councilman John Dupar, who made the motion, said that since a proper environmental impact report had not been done on the project, the application should be denied without prejudice. The applicants can reapply within the next 12 months. The council will formalize the decision March 7. Town manager Jay Tashiro said an environmental report, at the applicant's expense, could cost between $75,000 and $100,000. The San Francisco-based hotel group wants to fill the half-acre pond with 9,000 cubic yards of fill to build 23 new parking places, some additional lighting and 4,000 square feet of new landscaping. In return, the hotel group offered to preserve .065 acres of wetlands in Novato. Several environmental groups - including the Marin Audubon Society, Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed and Sierra Club Marin Group - opposed the plan. It was approved by the Planning Commission in September. The environmentalists say the pond, known as Edgewater Lagoon, provides critical habitat for plant and animal species, including at least 30 different species of birds and should be classified a "wetlands." The Marin Audubon Society hired Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, a San Francisco environmental law firm, and San Rafael-based Wetlands and Water Resources, to study the issue. "The prudent thing would be to deny the permit and save yourselves some money," said Dr. Stuart Siegal, a wetlands scientist with Wetlands and Water Resources in San Rafael. "The pond at issue is a wetlands." According to the town's general plan, a wetland "includes the environments of subtidal mudflats, mudflats, tidal salt marsh, periodically inundated or brackish marsh, dike marshland, associated upland, and freshwater marsh." The pond, 300 feet long and 160 feet wide, is part of an old series of lagoons used for more than 50 years for flood control and storm water runoff. The town hired its own biologist, Jim Martin, to study a 23-page document submitted by Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger on the eve of the council hearing the issue. The Town Council asked that the hearing be held later. Then, the next time the council was to hear the pond issue, the hotel group asked for it be to moved to another date. Marin Audubon Society President Barbara Salzman thanked the staff for its "thoughtful and careful recommendation." A spokesman for Reneson Hotel Group said it will follow the recommendation of the staff and bring the project back before the council. Not everyone agreed on the pond's aesthetic beauty. "The place should be condemned. It's gross," Corte Madera resident Jane Levinsohn said. "I don't see how anyone can call it a wetlands or pond. It's a garbage dump. I've never seen any birds flying or eating there. What's disturbing to me is that no one is taking care of it. It's a real shame we've allowed this to go on like this for so long." |