Developer of Point Reyes Station subdivision revises plan again

A developer seeking approvals for a subdivision adjacent to Point Reyes Station has submitted a third version of his proposal to Marin County planners.

Yan Cui, a San Diego businessman, initially filed a plan in April 2024 to divide the 82-acre property into 37 lots. His plan was for five of them to be “affordable” and the rest to be market rate.

A few months later, Cui submitted an expanded plan to divide the property into 69 parcels. Sixty-two would have market-rate houses, and four would have 22 affordable dwellings. Two lots would be preserved as wetlands. Cui proposed no use for the other parcel.

The latest iteration of the project is nearly the same, but with 67 parcels, including 61 for market-rate houses and three for the 22 affordable dwellings.

The proposal includes various site improvements, including roads to access the proposed lots; storm drains and bioretention facilities for runoff; and, in a change from the previous proposal, community wastewater treatment systems.

“Cui hasn’t changed his stance much at all,” said Steve Antonaros, president of the Point Reyes Station Village Association. “He is clearly stamping out a suburban tract that harkens back to the 1970s. It doesn’t show any respect for the area’s rural character.”

Point Reyes Station resident Christina Desser, a former member of the Marin County Planning Commission, said, “These guys are basically proposing what looks like a golf course community, which will at least double the population of Point Reyes Station.”

The latest proposal was submitted along with responses to 18 comments from Marin planners seeking information so they can deem the application complete.

Kathleen Kilgariff, the planner overseeing the project, said the responses are being reviewed by various government agencies.

“We’re hoping to hear back by the end of the week from all of the reviewing agencies,” Kilgariff said.

Desser said the proposals have not included sufficient information about the significant amount of grading that will be required, nor have they established that adequate water and septic services will be available.

In a letter in September, the North Marin Water District said it would assist the developer in locating and drilling a well to provide water, but estimated the work could cost $2.5 million.

Xiaoqing Zeng, an engineer representing Cui, sent the county a letter last month that said, “No units of market rate housing will be constructed until all 22 units of affordable housing have been constructed and granted certificates of occupancy.”

In an affordable housing plan submitted to the county on Dec. 16, the developer wrote: “After the tentative map is approved and before the final map is obtained, the Cui Family Trust plans to donate or otherwise transfer the rights of the three affordable housing parcels to the county or an affordable housing developer for the sole purpose of constructing and operating the affordable housing units.”

When asked about the details of the plan, however, Zeng said, “Based on Mr. Cui’s reaching out to several non-governmental organizations for affordable housing construction, they seem not interested in this relatively small affordable housing project. So, Mr. Cui is prepared to build the 22 affordable housing units by himself.”

According to Cui’s plan, the affordable dwellings could be as small as 800 square feet, with master bedrooms no bigger than 120 square feet and rooms measuring 70 square feet.

Don Dickenson, a former planner and Marin County planning commissioner, said that “800 square feet is the size of a small second unit.” He added that the minimum sizes required for the main bedroom and other rooms are building code requirements.

Cui’s affordable housing plan states that to the extent that county code requires larger dwellings, the “development standard must be waived pursuant to State Density Bonus law as it would physically preclude the development of the proposed density with the requested concessions.”

Cui asserts that because he proposed to price 26.5% of the residences to be affordable to low-income households, he is eligible for waivers and concessions from county requirements under the density bonus law. In fact, he states that the law would let him build an additional 42 dwellings on the site for a total of 125, if he chose.

There is also an issue regarding whether the affordable dwellings meet the county’s local coastal program requirement to be dispersed throughout the project, and to be comparable in exterior appearance, design and construction quality with market-rate residences.

Critics of Cui’s plan question its financial feasibility, noting he will be required to spend millions on infrastructure and to build the affordable housing before he can recoup any his investment by selling lots.

“If these lots sell for $1 million apiece, then these are going to be $5 million to $10 million houses that get built there,” Desser said.

Antonaros said, “The state housing laws were not intended to build as many second homes as possible.”