Marin County Supervisor Judy Arnold is recommending the county cease negotiations to buy a Novato hotel to convert to homeless housing following strong pushback from city residents this week.
“A common concern has been the fast timeline for moving forward and a concern about a lack of transparency,” Arnold wrote in a letter to the Novato City Council and county Board of Supervisors on Wednesday.
“I made the motion at the Board of Supervisors meeting to continue the due diligence efforts on this project to provide more time for public meetings and input, but it has become clear to me that we just don’t have enough time to do the due diligence needed,” she wrote. “As a result, I do not support moving forward with the purchase of Inn Marin.”
The county proposed buying the 70-room hotel through the state’s new Homekey program, which is providing $800 million in grants for cities and counties to buy hotels and motels to convert into permanent supportive housing for the homeless affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the inn being located within the city limits, the county would be able to skip normal city review processes entirely because of a recently approved state law, AB 83, which created the Homekey program.
The board plans to discuss the proposed purchase of the Inn Marin and Suites located at 250 Entrada Drive during a closed-door session on Tuesday.
In a statement on Thursday, Novato Mayor Denise Athas said she is glad Arnold has had a change of heart after hearing hours of public testimony opposing the project. Athas said she hopes Arnold can convince the rest of the board to support the withdrawal as well.
“There are many reasons including loss of revenue to the city of Novato and Rickey’s Restaurant to not see this project go forward,” Athas said. “We are sensitive to the homeless community, as we have always been, and it is our hope that we can come up with better avenues of helping the most vulnerable communities.”
If the county ends up purchasing the inn, it proposes to use it for transitional housing for homeless families for one year before converting it to permanent housing with on-site services. The inn’s owning company, 250 Entrada Drive LLC, is asking $18 million for the property but an ongoing appraisal may change the price.
The county was informed on Oct. 10 that it was eligible for state grant funds to buy the Novato hotel. While county staff acknowledged the timeline was not ideal, the grant funds, which would cover about two-thirds of the purchase price, would have to be used before the end of the year. The county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on a potential purchase agreement on Nov. 17.
For more than three hours at the Novato City Council on Tuesday, council members and many Novato residents lambasted the project’s expedited timeline, the lack of city vetting and the location. Some residents created an online petition to recall Arnold, whose district represents the Novato area, after learning of the proposal last week with nearly 600 people signing. Other residents urged the project to move forward as it would provide vital housing to address chronic homelessness amid a deadly pandemic.
The city estimates it would lose about $310,000 in hotel use tax revenue and $11,000 in property tax revenue if the sale is approved. City council members expressed alarm at this prospect given Novato already faces a $2.5 million deficit and had to cut 17 positions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and revenue shortfalls.
Many speakers also raised concerns about Rickey’s Restaurant, which abuts the inn and leases its building from the inn. If the sale is approved, the county would take control of the restaurant’s lease.
Restaurant owner and head chef Munther Massarweh said he was unaware that the inn owners had proposed to sell their property until he read an article in the Independent Journal last week.
The restaurant had recently reopened after renovations in late 2019 but has experienced several setbacks from ongoing wildfires to power outages and the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s been incredibly challenging,” Massarweh said Thursday. “So as far as the (hotel) sale is concerned, we’re obviously disappointed. We don’t know how we’re going to make it if that happens. We’re just trying to go day by day and get more information like everyone else in the neighborhood.”
Arnold was present during the council meeting on Tuesday. In her letter, Arnold referenced one public speaker at the meeting who mentioned being worried about the homeless individuals who would be affected if this project did not proceed but recognized the strong opposition.
“Had there been the time to follow the usual procedures when considering a new project, we may have seen a different outcome,” Arnold wrote. “I agree with the speaker I heard last night — it is time to withdraw and say: ‘Sometimes we just have to give up a good thing.'”
