A 17-story tower in San Rafael? Seriously?

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle / 3-25-26

A long-vacant office building in San Rafael tucked between Highway 101 and a Kentucky Fried Chicken is slated to transform into a 17-story tower of steel and glass.

If built as planned, the project at 700 Irwin St. would replace a dilapidated four-story building in Marin County’s largest city with a residential high rise featuring 200 apartments, floor-to-ceiling windows and a new waterfront promenade.

A 17-story apartment building would not stand out in downtown San Francisco, but the tower would be a radical departure for Marin County, where cities hew closely to valleys and hillsides, and it would become the tallest building in the North Bay — by a large margin. It’s just one in a wave of high-rise proposals that could reshape San Rafael.

SNIP

Currently, the tallest existing building is an eight-story commercial tower at 1000 Fourth Street, anchored by a bank, and it easily outflanks the rest of downtown, which is mostly two, three and four stories high.

Link (paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/san-rafael-apartment-building-tower-22073361.php

According to the link, Marin County must plan for more than 14,000 new residential units by 2031, including about 3,200 units in San Rafael. State law.

[quaint]

1. Is the last hippie dead? Last nature lover?

[CoopersDad]

2. We need to build more housing, affordable housing. This won't be that.

The "Builders Remedy" is triggered when local agencies fail to provide enough builder-friendly zoning options.
Opponents to any development often fight builders so effectively as to trigger the Builders Remedy, resulting in potentially more objectionable construction projects.

This state needs more housing, but not more luxury housing.
I could handle apartment towers if they were for teachers and retired folks and the rest of us earning less that middle incomes.