Adopt Interim Regulations for Lot Splits - YES

When Senate Bill 9 passed the state legislature, owners of single family properties throughout California were suddenly allowed to split their lots in two and build multiple new units on them—a sea change in state housing policy, and a stark roll-back of local control over land use with the goal of building more housing stock.

But critical details were left out of the law, making it unclear to local planning departments and city attorneys statewide how many units of what types could actually be built on these lots. To protect Corte Madera homeowners and taxpayers from lawsuits arising from the vagueness of the new law, I voted to adopted a set of interim regulations on these lot-split projects that would provide a legal framework for their development consistent with the current understanding of the state law.

My hope is that the actual details of the law will be clarified in the coming months, at which time we will replace our interim regulations with permanent ones, to provide residents with clarity while ensuring continued compliance with state law.