Attention PRSVA Gas Station Appeal  Supporters

We will meet this Thursday morning at 7:15 at the Dance Palace to carpool to the Coastal Commission hearing at the Hyatt Regency on 5 Embarcadero in the city. Your presence at the meeting will be noticed!

And, sign the petition here.

Notes for Viewing or Speaking 

We encourage supporters of the appeal to attend the hearing in person.  Registering to attend is unnecessary, but advance sign-in is necessary if you want to speak.  It is strategic to demonstrate during the public hearing how broad and energetic this support is, but also to respect the demands on the Commissioners’ attention in what will likely be a long day of hearings and reports.  

The PRSVA will designate one speaker to represent the petitioners.  This person will use their speaker’s time (2 min maximum) to read the petition into the record, announce the number of signers, and then ask supporters of the appeal in the room to stand.  It would be best to have only a few others speak individually so as to not wear on the Commissioners’ patience.

If you cannot attend in person, we encourage you to register your support by signing up to speak remotely.  However, think carefully about your impression on a very busy meeting.  Registered attendees are called upon by the moderator and given 2, or often just 1, minute to speak.  Rather than take time to hear from attendees individually, the moderator may ask remote supporters to use the “raise hand” button to indicate their support of the appeal and thus add to the number of in-person supporters in the hearing room.

1. To View the hearing via a web browser https://www.coastal.ca.gov/meetings/agenda/#/2024/11

• Click Thursday

•  Click Live Stream

• Alternately, the live-stream link is: https://cal-span.org/meetings/CCC/

2. To Speak in Person By 5 pm Wednesday, go to https://www.coastal.ca.gov/meetings/agenda/#/2024/11

• Click “Thursday”

• Click: “Submit Speaker Request Here”

• Complete a Speaker Request Form online

• Check that you will attend in person on Thursday, check in at the front desk at the hearing location before entering the hearing room or:  fill out a Speaker Slip at the hearing location form before the item is called.

3. To Speak Remotely via Zoom conference: 

• Review the instructions at: https://documents.coastal.ca.gov/assets/virtual-hearing/VIRTUAL-HEARING-PROCEDURES.pdf

• Before 5 pm Wednesday, if possible, or somewhat before the hearing, check that your agenda item has been opened https://www.coastal.ca.gov/meetings/agenda/#/2024/11

• Click “Thursday”

• Click: “Submit Speaker Request Here”

• Complete a Speaker Request Form online

Help Us Protect Our Community

We have one last chance to stop a large chain-owned convenience store from coming to Point Reyes Station and disrupting local businesses and traffic. The Appeal is now before the Coastal Commission.  The Commissioners will hear it on November 14th in San Francisco. Those of us opposed may be given only 3 minutes to speak, although at the Chair’s discretion, others may be permitted to speak.  

Which means we need you to help make the community’s voice heard.

In April, the Planning Commission listened to us. In July, the Board of Supervisors turned their back on us. Now, the Coastal Commission will decide. We actually have one more hurdle to overcome before it gives us the chance to be heard.  They first must decide that our appeal raises “substantial” issues.  And that’s what the hearing on the 14th is about.

The legal issues are complicated, but in essence, it all comes down to how we define “community character.”  County Coastal Act imposes a maximum size limit on convenience stores at gas stations and explicitly “discourages” chain stores.  

Redwood Oil has argued that building a couple of units of affordable housing can allow it to violate these restrictions with impunity. (To be clear, it is actually renovating two existing affordable housing units). In any event, the Coastal Act allows it to exceed the size and chain restrictions only if “The size, extent, and operation of retail sales shall not conflict with the predominant character of the area surrounding the service station.” 

Last April, the Planning Commission concluded, “An oversized convenience store at this location is inconsistent with the special character and visitor appeal of downtown Point Reyes Station. These findings are based on substantial evidence, including significant public comment.”  In July, the Supervisors found that the increase in size is “consistent with the Coastal Act because it “would further the goals and intent of the visitor destination area by providing additional visitor serving areas, including a mini-mart.” 

It is a slap in the face to the community, which spent thousands of hours fashioning a community plan that makes clear that while tourism helps local businesses and that our location and large diversity of stores will attract tourists, we strive to have an economy oriented to serving the community and creating a rooted, self-conscious and cooperative community. 

At the end of October, the Coastal Commission staff recommended to the Commissioners that they not give us the opportunity for a full hearing in part because “the store appears to be consistent with community character.” At the November 14th hearing the Commissioners will decide whether to listen to the staff or to our community.

More than 95 percent of our local, independently owned businesses formally signed a petition declaring that a large convenience store at that location threatened to undermine our sense of community. More than 150 people submitted comments in opposition. One might say that out of the village residents’ and businesses’ rootedness and a sense of community have come many innovative institutions, such as the Dance Palace, Walnut Place, and the Coastal Health Medical Clinic. And, of course, CLAM, an organization that has already created some 50 units of affordable housing, is overseeing the creation of 50 more at the former Coast Guard facility, some 50 times the number Redwood offers in return for imposing its will on the community. 

You can read our full appeal to the Coastal Commission here. The Coastal Commission’s staff report on our appeal, issued on October 25, 2024, can be found here. Our response to the staff report, sent on November 5, 2024, can be found here.

Here’s what you can do.

• Sign the petition on Change.org. Here’s the link.  

• Send a comment to the Coastal Commission. To do so, send an email to NorthCentralCoast@coastal.ca.gov. Insert in the subject line: Public Comment on November 2024 Agenda Item Thursday 9c-Appeal No. A-2-MAR-24- 0036 (Svdriel LP Mixed Use Project. Point Reyes Station). The comments to the Coastal Commission need to say while your priority is protecting our village, you also want to protect other villages that will be threatened by the precedent created if the Coastal Commission gives in to Redwood’s blackmail. 

• For those who can, show up at the hearing on Thursday, November 14th at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, 5 Embarcadero Center.  We appellants collectively will be given 3 minutes to speak.  The Chair has the authority to allow others to speak for two minutes, although we cannot count on that.  Showing up makes visible your support.

Background:
On July 30th, the Board of Supervisors approved Redwood Oil’s application to build a large convenience store at the current gas station.  At the Planning Commission, the Village Association had gained significant victories:  the elimination of the 1000-gallon propane tank that would have been used to refuel large vehicles;  the acceptance of the legal requirement to maintain both existing units as affordable housing;  the retention of significant historical characteristics of the building. The Planning Commission also unanimously approved the Association’s proposal to reduce the size of the proposed convenience store by more than half in keeping with the maximum size allowed by the Coastal Commission code, but the Supervisors approved Redwood Oil’s outsized store. 

• Link to Project Plan
  

• Link to the Planning Commission Appeal , March 26, 2024
  

• Link to Dewey Livingston’s Historic Evaluation