Residents in Cotati, California have been fighting sprawl development on one parcel in town for the past six years. Local activists sent the following update to Sprawl-Busters: “In 1996-7 residents fought a huge Luckys regional superstore and introduced a ballot initiative (Measure F) in 1997 to limit the size of any single retail building in Cotati to 43,000 sq.ft. Later Marin developer Monahan Pacific proposed building a huge business park on a 35 acre wetland site with vernal pools and threatened species, on the edge of Cotati – a small town of less than 7,000 residents. Local residents, Citizens for a Sustainable Cotati, resisted. The City Council voted 5-0 in favor of the business park despite many unmitigable impacts revealed by the Environmental Impact Report. The economy nose-dived and a business park no longer looks financially feasible, but the site has been graded and the housing component that was required for the business park is currently under construction. Now the owner of the site, Monahan Pacific, is proposing a regional super mall with Lowes home improvement as their anchor tenant, and has persuaded the Cotati City Council to introduce another ballot measure, Measure B, to overturn the voter-approved limits of Measure F for this specific site. A special election will be held on November 4. We are trying to raise awareness and educate the electorate to “Vote No on Measure B”.
For more background on Cotati’s fight against Lowe’s, and their cap on the size of buildings, go to www.NoOnB.info.
