Novato schools opt into new Marin workforce housing coalition

Marin Independent Journal
Keri Brenner
August 21, 2024

In its fifth try since 2008 to develop educator workforce housing, the Novato Unified School District is joining a regional initiative to create more housing.

The district has joined College of Marin and Marin County Office of Education to form the Marin County Housing Coalition, said Derek Knell, district director of staff housing.

“The Novato Unified School District is leading the way for other districts interested in developing surplus school property,” said Ken Lippi, senior deputy superintendent at the county education office.

“Their model of careful planning and study is laying a strong foundation for future decisions about their surplus school sites,” Lippi said. “They are taking the idea of workforce housing for school staff beyond discussion and elevating it to something tangible and real.”

Lippi is a point person on the 135-unit, $123 million Oak Hills Apartment workforce housing project underway near San Quentin.

“We know from past surveys that there are at least 1,400 school employees who would be interested in affordable housing options,” Lippi said. “That is why the Oak Hills Apartments project is so important to Marin. It will be the first project of its type in Marin in over 50 years, and hopefully it will be the catalyst for more projects in the future.”

At Tuesday’s Novato school board meeting, trustees voted unanimously to accept a feasibility study prepared by their consultant on the use of five district surplus sites for staff housing. The consultant, Chris White of Brookwood Partners, outlined possibilities for sites, along with suggestions for financing.

“This ends the stage of the feasibility study and moves us into the third stage, development,” Knell said of Tuesday’s actions by trustees.  “We’re hoping to do the development stage in one year, but it could take up to three years, with all the permits and entitlements.”

The sites being explored are: Meadow Annex, a 3.7-acre site at 5520 Nave Drive in southern Novato; Hill Education, a 5.6-acre site at 720 Diablo Ave.; Hamilton, an 8.8-acre at 1125 C. St. and 930-940 C St.

Also, San Andreas, a 26-acre site at 5 San Andreas Drive in the San Marin area in northern Novato; and the NUSD district office, two parcels of 1.5 acres and 0.4 acres at 1015 Seventh St. The larger parcel is district-owned; the smaller one is city-owned.

“For the development stage, we’re going to come back with a recommendation on which properties to develop and how to finance them,” Knell said. He said he expects to have a recommendation to present to Novato trustees in the first quarter of 2025.

Knell said the state Department of Education is also looking into a plan to develop education workforce housing at school districts across the state. Tony Thurmond, state superintendent of public instruction, said last week there could be up to 75,000 acres of unused surplus properties available for housing at school districts statewide.

Knell said the state is seeing the value of the Novato approach in hiring a full-time director of staff housing to manage the use of surplus properties. The approach works better than having an education administrator trying to navigate the intense complexities of housing development, as the Novato district did in the past unsuccessful four attempts, Knell said.

“The primary focus of educators is on education, not land use,” Knell said. Also, community members tend to trust that officials working for their local schools have the intention to serve the community and the schools, rather than making a profit.

“The community gets to negotiate with the school district — we’re not going to over-develop any site, for example,” Knell said. The schools are interested in housing for the purpose of attracting and retaining staff, he said.

“This effort isn’t just about building housing,” he said. “It’s about improving the consistency and quality of our community’s public education.”

At College of Marin, trustees were presented this week with a staff report on the new housing coalition from college President Jonathan Eldridge.

Eldridge, who is leading the formation of the coalition, told trustees he expects to send out a survey to all Marin school districts to see if others are interested in getting involved.

“Broadly speaking, College of Marin believes this is a more collective approach to what is a collective problem, and that we can be more effective in attempting to solve it if we join forces,” Nicole Cruz, COM’s communications director, said in an email.

“The thought is that by bringing a group together as a coalition we can better leverage properties across the county that are currently unused or underutilized to create educator housing,” she said.

A handful of local leaders voiced appreciation for Novato’s efforts at the meeting Tuesday.

“We are so excited to see that Novato Unified School District — the leadership, the board, the community — is rallying around,” said Mo de Nieva-Marsh, a San Rafael City Schools trustee.

“It’s really exciting to witness the momentum with the Novato schools workforce housing development and the Marin County Office of Education’s Oak Hills project,” she added.

“Hopefully the momentum and witnessing it will build momentum for other school districts,” de Nieva-Marsh said. “All eyes are on Novato.”