The Town of Tiburon has received a preliminary application from Russell Square Consulting for the development of 120 housing units across 4 parcels located in downtown Tiburon. The parcels and proposed development densities are listed below:
- 1525 Tiburon Boulevard (the parking lot next to Town Hall): 26 units
- 1600 Tiburon Boulevard (the site of the former Shark's Deli): 12 units
- 1601 Tiburon Boulevard & 4 Beach Road (the site of the former Bank of America and adjacent parking lot): 82 units
Overall, the proposal includes 112 market-rate units and 8 very low-income units, including 163 parking spaces. The preliminary application is available for review here.
The applicant has submitted the preliminary application pursuant to Senate Bill 330, also known as the Housing Crisis Act of 2019 ("the Act"). The Act amended the Permit Streamlining Act and the Housing Accountability Act, with the broad goals of facilitating increased production of new residential units and providing for an expedited review and approval process for housing development projects, with minimized oversight by the Town.
The Act allows the applicant to submit a "preliminary application" with a specific subset of information on the proposed development in order to "freeze" any applicable fees and development standards that may apply to their project while they assemble the rest of the material necessary for a full application submittal. Preliminary applications are not required for housing development projects and expire 180 days after submittal.
The preliminary application only serves to freeze fees and development standards; it does not change the Town's review process of a proposed housing development. Pursuant to the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, any application for a housing development project, regardless of whether it is submitted with or without the preliminary application mechanism, will be subject to:
- The application will receive no more than 5 public hearings, whether the item is heard by the Design Review Board, Planning Commission, or Town Council, including any community meetings or appeals.
- The Town may only apply objective development standards in its review of the project.
- A project that complies with the objective standards of the general plan and zoning ordinance must be approved, unless the Town is able to make significant, written findings that there would be a specific, adverse impact to the public health or safety and this impact cannot be mitigated.
This preliminary application submittal essentially informs the Town that the applicant may intend to develop these parcels with housing. The preliminary application will expire this summer, but a complete application for development may be submitted at any time.
Stay tuned to the Town's website and social media (IG: @townoftiburon) for further updates on this project. For more information, please contact Director of Community Development Dina Tasini at (415)435-7393 or dtasini@townoftiburon.org and refer to Senate Bill 330 Preliminary Application #PR2024-001.
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