Looking back: 2022 a year of big change in Marin

The year marked a new chapter in the COVID-19 pandemic, as public health leaders dropped mandates and urged community members to choose their paths. Uncertainty about the drought led to new board leadership at the county’s largest water district. In the quest to end homelessness, some cities closed authorized camps and looked ahead to longer-term housing strategies. The county, cities and towns dug in on plans to create new homes under the watchful eye of the state as the housing crisis continued to unfold.

Here’s a look at Marin’s top stories for 2022.

HEALTH

• COVID-19: Omicron ripped through the county in January, making its presence known in congregate settings such as Marin’s senior homes, the jail, San Quentin State Prison and the schools. The virus variant hit close to home and many knew someone infected. The variant, while mild for most, caused plenty of disruption as institutions scrambled to shore up staffing. The county extended the mask mandate through Feb. 15 to help ride out the wave. A grim milestone was reached — the 200th death. First responders were required to get shots, but the mandate was later dropped. Most mask mandates came to an end. The year concluded with a wallop as respiratory syncytial virus, flu, COVID-19 and other viral infections took hold, taxing the county’s health care system.
• FENTANYL: The synthetic opioid’s dramatic rise in California has shown up in Marin’s school community, prompting educators to begin stocking the prescription overdose reversal drug Narcan and warning parents and students to be cautious about buying drugs on the internet. In November, more than 250 Marin County activists, health officials, addiction counselors and people in recovery joined forces to reduce the number of overdose deaths in 2023, particularly deaths involving fentanyl. According to the California Overdose Surveillance Database, Marin had 62 overdose deaths in 2021, up from 30 deaths in 2018. At least half involved fentanyl, officials said.

ENVIRONMENT

• DROUGHT: January’s most notable feature might have been the lack of rain. After a robust start to the wet weather season late in 2021, the tap abruptly turned off. Water managers, still hoping a dry January was part of a typical pattern for the Bay Area, rolled back restrictions and continued talk of pushing off future water supply planning. But by the end of the month, forecasters echoed a familiar refrain: No rain in sight. Marin Municipal Water District directors voted in May to make drought restrictions permanent. Rain picked up again in September, and December had wet days, raising hopes that reservoirs would not drop dramatically as winter waned.
• RANCHING AND THE ELK: Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in January alleging the Point Reyes National Seashore’s land management plan violates federal law. The suit was expected, as groups delivered on a promise to challenge the plan after years of protest. The groups are seeking a court order to rescind the approval of the plan as well as to prohibit the park from extending ranch leases and shooting elk — all part of a yearslong effort to get the park to remove private ranching altogether. The California Coastal Commission threatened to pull its endorsement of the plan over frustration with the National Park Service’s delays in detailing a management plan for water quality and ranching impacts, and rejected a mitigation strategy submitted by the park service.
• HIGHWAY 37: State officials unveiled new details of a plan to upgrade and eventually rebuild one of the Bay Area’s most vulnerable and traffic-plagued commuter arteries. After years of discussion, the state is beginning to study several options to rebuild or reroute the highway, including raising the road. By 2040, sea-level rise threatens to regularly inundate the 21-mile highway used by tens of thousands of commuters daily, according to Caltrans.

POLITICS

• ELECTION 2022: Marin weighed in at the ballot box in June and November, electing a new representative in the state Assembly, booting incumbents on the Marin Municipal Water District board, affirming or rejecting a number of ballot measures and replacing a longtime local councilmember. In the fall, county Supervisor Damon Connolly beat challenger Sara Aminzadeh, a coastal commissioner. On the Marin Municipal Water District board, challengers Matt Samson and Ranjiv Khush unseated incumbents Jack Gibson and Larry Bragman, and Jed Smith replaced longtime director Cynthia Koehler, who did not seek reelection, bringing fresh faces to the table. In San Anselmo, four-term council incumbent Ford Greene lost his seat after finishing third, behind newcomer Tarrell Kullaway. John Carroll, former superintendent for the Lagunitas and Bolinas-Stinson Union school districts, won the election to succeed Mary Jane Burke, the longtime Marin County superintendent of schools who did not seek reelection. Throughout the county, candidates endorsed by Marin Freedom Rising, which emerged in response to dissatisfaction with vaccine mandates, competed for seats on school boards and councils. None were elected.
• MEASURE A PARKS TAX: In June, a revised plan for Marin’s Measure A sales tax was embraced, which set aside 20% for agriculture, but reduces funding for agricultural easements. Agriculture supporters were upset when money earmarked for agriculture was proposed to be cut, with no provision for easements, in favor of wildfire prevention.
• MEASURE M: In Tiburon and Belvedere, voters agreed to tax themselves to help pay to preserve the Martha Co. property, 110 ridgetop acres at the southern tip of the Tiburon Peninsula. Local conservationists have long sought to protect the property from development. Efforts by the Martha Co. to get development plans approved have been blocked for years by court challenges.

HOUSING/HOMELESSNESS

• CITY SITES: San Rafael officials closed the city-sanctioned homeless encampment under Highway 101 in September, saying they would refocus efforts on ensuring that remaining campers are assigned case managers, while the city seeks funding to build a new interim housing site that will offer greater shelter, safety and security. Initially, Caltrans had plans to clear the camp in mid-August but the moved was delayed several weeks after camp residents filed for a temporary restraining order, saying they were given scant notice of the closure and were not offered storage for their belongings or provided an option for alternative housing. The city received mixed reviews over its strategy to address homelessness. Residents at times were critical of the conditions, and one camper sued the city over freeway noise and pollution that he alleged led to hearing loss and risk of illness. But the site had some success. Since its inception, 21 people transitioned into housing. In Sausalito, the city also shut down its city-sponsored site at Marinship Park. The closure resulted from an approximately $500,000 settlement between Sausalito and the California Homeless Union. The settlement in the civil rights lawsuit was distributed as direct housing assistance for current and former campers at the park.
• PROJECT HOMEKEY: Larkspur neighbors pushed back on plans to bring a Project Homekey site to the city. A neighborhood group, the South Eliseo Neighborhood Alliance, filed legal action against the county, alleging that officials failed to meet all of the requirements for deciding that the site is statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. The project, which is moving forward, will house 43 chronically homeless people in a renovated former skilled nursing center at 1251 S. Eliseo Drive.
• NEW HOUSING: A list of 79 sites where 3,929 new residences could be constructed in Marin was advanced by the Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission. Officials are contending with a mandate by the California Department of Housing and Community Development to zone for 3,569 residences in the county’s unincorporated area over eight years beginning in 2023. Marin municipalities are also struggling to bring their housing plans into compliance with the state. The county’s cities and towns have been instructed to zone for an additional 10,641 homes over the same time period.
• GOLDEN GATE VILLAGE REHAB: Marin Housing Authority commissioners voted to proceed with a “rehabilitation-only” option to repair the county’s largest public housing complex. The neighborhood’s resident council fought against a previous plan in which 300 apartments would have been rehabilitated and 156 new affordable residences would have been built. The resident council objected to new construction. The housing authority plan moving forward means a limited partnership will be formed to purchase the buildings and land from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Residents had pushed for a program to allow them to own a share, to no avail.

RACIAL JUSTICE

• BLOODY ARREST: The Latino community and supporters packed San Rafael City Hall in September to call for justice after a man was bloodied by police officers in a violent arrest over an open alcohol container. Officers Daisy Mazariegos and Brandon Nail were placed on paid administrative leave while an outside investigator brought in by the city conducts a probe. The conflict happened while the man was drinking beer with associates in the Canal area. A video shows Mazariegos and Nail approaching a group on Windward Way on July 27. Some initial questioning from police officers quickly escalated into a violent encounter, according to police body camera footage.
• YEMA: The Black owners of a business in Tiburon settled a claim with the town for $150,000 and the establishment of a police advisory council after an alleged racial profiling incident by police at their downtown shop called YEMA. The panel is intended to provide recommendations to the police chief, receive citizen complaints and participate in the hiring and interview process for police officers.
• RACIAL COVENANTS: A new state law mandating the removal of language banning people of color from buying residences that took effect in July drew special attention in Marin, which is known for a history of racial housing discrimination. AB 1466 requires state recorders, real estate brokers, agents and insurance companies to modify property records by redacting those racial restrictions. The county recorder’s office also has taken a proactive approach to locating and reviewing CC&Rs — covenants, conditions and restrictions — and striking the discriminatory language. In October, the county said it identified and modified illegal restrictive covenants affecting 55 historic subdivisions that contain more than 800 parcels.