Fact: Measure X keeps residents involved and brings waterfront decisions back into Sausalito’s regular public planning process.

MISLEADING CLAIMS: “Measure X hands power to three Council members to make deals with developers without voter approval.”

Measure X does not hand the waterfront to anyone. It allows proposals to come forward and be considered through Sausalito’s regular public planning process, with the applicable environmental review, planning and design review, public hearings, community input, Planning Commission consideration and City Council oversight.

Residents keep their voice. The safeguards we use in Sausalito stay in place. What changes is that our waterfront and industrial areas can use the regular public planning process rather than requiring a citywide election for certain zoning changes.

That means proposals can finally see the light of day and be discussed publicly, with today’s residents having a voice in them to help shape the future of our waterfront, rather than having key zoning limits remain locked in by rules adopted in 1985 that no longer work for our needs today.

While “No on X” advocates to “keep the vote” for all zoning changes in the Marinship, the reality is that you do keep your vote.  First, this is the first time in 40 years there has actually been a vote to make reasonable zoning changes in this area.  And, the requirement for a vote to change the zoning in the Marinship has meant that all the good plans developed through various public efforts are still sitting on the shelf - leading to real harm for local business, our infrastructure, and our economy.  Plain and simple - the status quo of requiring a vote is not typical or best practice for long-term land use planning in an area this large.  Second, in addition to participating in the process when projects come up for approval, the reality is you can still vote.  You can vote for your City Council members and, while we don’t think our City Council will make bad decisions, if you think they do, any citizen can gather signatures for their own initiative or un-do a zoning change (called a referendum). Measure X specifically makes that clear—you keep your right to vote.

See for yourself in the text of Measure X on pages 3-4 that you do not lose your vote.  The normal planning process applies, and, in the worst-case scenario, you still get a vote.  Section 10.200.2(d):  “Except in the State approved Downtown Historic District …, future changes in zoning, permitted uses and land use regulations may be made in compliance with the administrative and legislative hearing procedures in the Sausalito Municipal Code, the California Brown Act open meetings law, the California Environmental Quality Act and State law regarding adoption of general plans. Nothing herein shall abrogate the power of the voters found in Article XI of the California Constitution to adopt laws by Initiative or repeal changes in local law by Referendum.

Requiring a vote for every zoning change in the Marinship has hampered our local businesses and discouraged new businesses from moving to the Marinship.  Measure X simply brings the laws governing our waterfront and industrial zone back to the normal planning and public input process used throughout Sausalito.  This process is the norm in Sausalito and the majority of California towns.  These 40-year-old laws that Measure X updates are not normal.  No business has ever put anything on the ballot in 40 years.

For example, these are the type of zoning changes that could require a business putting it on the ballot: 

• Heath Ceramics has a 70-year-old building and wants to cover its outdoor yard because it makes their building more efficient and is better for the environment but it would increase its floor area ratio beyond what is allowed by current code. But don’t just take our word, watch this video of the owner of Heath explaining this issue.

• A commercial bakery wants to open a retail counter to regularly sell bread to residents

• A garment manufacturer wants to open a small retail front in their workshop so people can buy directly from the people who make their clothes

• Someone wants to open a cafe or coffee shop in the Marinship

Many of these examples are not allowed on our waterfront and industrial zone. Yes, there are a few exceptions but for the most part, this is true.

By bringing Measure X forward to you, the voters, we are taking the first step to solving this dilemma for local businesses and our residents who want to see them thrive. Measure X is a citywide vote to remove the burdensome requirement of a citywide vote on many land-use decisions going forward, Measure X restores the normal process and checks and balances used everywhere else in Sausalito: environmental review, design review with 13 findings that control for character, views, neighborhood compatibility, and more by the Planning Commission, public input, and the ability to appeal decisions to City Council (and even after to the courts).

As anyone who has tried to add an addition to their house knows, our regular process has many checks and balances and is not easy. Measure X makes it possible for waterfront businesses and new proposals to go through the same process, which has protected Sausalito for years.

With Measure X, new proposals and creative ideas will have a better chance of seeing the light of day. Sausalitans will be able to make public comment just like with other projects to decide what we want, what we don't want, and start to mold a more vibrant future for our waterfront and town.

And, you can read for yourself in the text of Measure X on pages 3-4.  that you do not lose your vote.  It states that the normal planning process applies and, in the worst-case scenario, you still get a vote:  Section 10.200.2(d): 

“Except in the State approved Downtown Historic District …, future changes in zoning, permitted uses and land use regulations may be made in compliance with the administrative and legislative hearing procedures in the Sausalito Municipal Code, the California Brown Act open meetings law, the California Environmental Quality Act and State law regarding adoption of general plans. Nothing herein shall abrogate the power of the voters found in Article XI of the California Constitution to adopt laws by Initiative or repeal changes in local law by Referendum.

And, you can see that Measure X’s amends Sausalito Municipal Code Tables 10.24-1 and Table 10.26-1 to allow ancillary retail uses with a minor use permit.  There is also a clear comparison of uses allowed under the current rules and those allowed by Measure X in the City’s staff report on pages 9-11 (Table 1) and whether Measure X increases or decreases the level of permit required.  You can read for yourself to see all of the arts, industrial and maritime uses that are now more easily permitted.  And some of the things like warehousing and dry cleaning that, unless they exist now, would not be allowed going forward. 

With Measure X, any new commercial or industrial project proposed in the Marinship would still have to go through the City’s normal entitlement and approval process. Projects remain subject to applicable local ordinances, state law, environmental requirements, and project-specific conditions of approval.

As part of that process, the City can require appropriate infrastructure improvements, fees and other conditions related to the impacts of a project. California law specifically provides mechanisms for communities to require new development to contribute its fair share toward infrastructure needed because of that development.

The City can also work through the approval process to pursue public benefits associated with a project—such as improved public access, walking paths, public docks or open space—when legally appropriate.

That is how development normally works in California: a proposal comes forward, the City reviews it, the public has an opportunity to participate, impacts are addressed, and conditions can be imposed before a project is approved.

There is nothing unusual or mysterious about that process. It is the standard way cities evaluate development proposals and address their impacts.

MEASURE X keeps Sausalito’s normal safeguards in place. It does not open the door to “unbridled development” as opponent groups say. This is fearmongering. 

Measure X brings the laws that govern our waterfront and industrial zone back to the same public planning process used throughout Sausalito. 

Projects will still go through Sausalito’s normal public planning process — including environmental review, public notice and input, Planning Commission review, and City Council review or appeal when needed. This is the normal process used throughout Sausalito and in the majority of California towns. 

The Planning Commission must also make required findings on issues such as neighborhood character, scale, design and view protection — the same rules and difficult process that residents face when seeking approval to add, for example, an addition onto their home. 

Measure X changes outdated 1985 restrictions. It does not remove public review or development safeguards. It takes laws from 1985 that often serve as a default no so that many new proposals never see the light of day back to the regular process that’s still very difficult so that we can review, weigh in and push back on proposals through our normal public input and planning process. 

FALSE CLAIM: “Measure X makes every building in Sausalito nonconforming on day one." Measure X classifies most homes and businesses as non-conforming.

This is not true. City staff concludes that Measure X “does not alter the lawful status of existing legal non-conforming uses.” Groups opposing Measure X fail to apply the entire sentence of Section 10.200.2(a) of Measure X.  They want you to only read a portion of the sentence in isolation and reach an absurd conclusion. Measure X specifically cites Sausalito Municipal Code 10.62 as applicable, and you must read the entire sentence. Legally existing uses and structures do not become nonconforming.

You can read City staff’s conclusion that Measure X doesn’t change the status of nonconforming uses for yourself at page 10 of the report. It stats that Measure X “Does not alter the lawful status of existing legal non-conforming uses.”

False Claim: Opponents to Measure X state that “Measure X is… not needed for makers to sell goods. Today’s rules already allow retail in 15% of their floorspace.”

This is untrue. In fact, one of our beloved local businesses recently tried to move her business to the Marinship and was denied by the City because the Marinship does not allow retail.

Again, the opposition is misleading you by telling you just one thing – that our code permits 15% retail. But what they didn’t tell you is that there is another part of our code that trumps that provision, prohibits retail, and effectively cancels out the 15% allowance in the Marinship.

For most businesses in the Marinship, retail sales are not allowed. There are some exceptions, like Heath Ceramics, which has been here since the 1950s. It is grandfathered in and can have its factory store. There is also a plant nursery that is on a lot that’s designed for retail. But for most other businesses, retail sales are prohibited.

That means that they cannot sell their products from the workspaces where they make them. Measure X changes this so our makers and creators can sell their products right where they make them. This lets residents shop local and support our local businesses.

This is the kind of claim with pictures of large waterfront condos designed to create fear and doubt, not inform. Read the actual initiative. Measure X does not rezone for housing. It does not permit hotels. While zoning can be a little complicated, just like Sausalito’s current zoning, Measure X includes Tables of uses that are allowed in the two main zones in the Marinship – the Waterfront of “W” zone and the Industrial or “I” zone.  Measure X does not permit new housing, new office buildings, data centers [You can find Table 10.26-1 starting on page 24 of the initiative.

What it does is the opposite: it finally gives our industrial and maritime roots room to grow and thrive. Measure X removes the restrictions that have made it economically impossible to build workshops, boat repair facilities, fabrication spaces, and maritime workspaces. It allows fishermen to sell their catch on shore, artists to sell their work, and makers to sell what they make — directly to the public. 

For 40 years, outdated laws have made it unviable to build the very spaces a working waterfront needs. For example, this 40-year-old law prevents a boat repair business from building a big enough building to fit a gantry crane to be able to lift boats up to do repairs.  Measure X fixes that. 

A thriving local working waterfront with active maritime businesses, busy artist and maker studios, a fish market is not Miami Beach. There are a lot of examples of how other small waterfront towns have successful working waterfronts like Port Townsend, Washington or Newport, Oregon without becoming Miami Beach – and we can do it too, in our own salty, unique way. 

Measure X expressly protects Arques shipyards and the ICB artist building against displacement. It states: “No new or additional use may displace the uses at ICB Building or shipways at the historic Arques Shipyard.” You can find this in the initiative on pages 5 and 215: sausalitothrive.org/initiative.

FACT: The claim that the Marinship is a major contributor to our tax revenue ignores the size of the Marinship — more than 200 acres — and how little revenue it generates per acre compared to downtown Bridgeway, which is a fraction of the size. We don’t want the Marinship to become downtown. We want it to remain a working waterfront while doing more to support the community.

When the Marinship underperforms, the City has less revenue to fix our roads, repair storm drains, address aging infrastructure and provide more City services. If we keep doing the same thing, those costs don’t disappear. Eventually, more of the burden falls on residents through higher taxes.

A stronger working waterfront means a stronger tax base — and less pressure on residents to foot the bill.

And, you can read for yourself what City staff and an outside economic report says about these increased revenue sources.  City staff notes all of the potential revenue streams on page 12 of their report.  The outside economic consultant (“bae urban economics) in the Executive Summary on page v and in the report on pages 23-38 analyzes the fiscal impacts.  The top line of the fiscal report says:

Fiscal Impacts - The Initiative could generate net General Fund benefits if it stimulates new non-residential development and business activity. New or expanded development could increase assessed value and property-related tax revenues, sales and use tax, business license tax, franchise tax, transient occupancy tax associated with business travel, and other revenues…

FACT: The 650% number is mathematically correct. But without context, it sounds far more dramatic than it is.

Here’s a simple example: if one penny increased by 650%, it would become 7.5 cents. The percentage sounds enormous because the starting point is so small.

The same is true here.

Under the 1985 rules, the maximum Floor Area Ratio, or FAR, in the Industrial zone is 0.4. Measure X increases it to 3.0. That is a 650% increase.

But what does that actually mean?

FAR measures the amount of floor area permitted in relation to the size of a property. A 0.4 FAR means that on a 1,000-square-foot parcel, only about 400 square feet of total floor area is permitted.

Such a low FAR is one reason so little has been built or reinvested in over the past 40 years. When so little can be built relative to the size and cost of a property, many projects simply are not economically viable.

Measure X creates greater flexibility for reinvestment in viable working-waterfront uses such as boat-repair facilities, maritime workshops, fabrication spaces and artist studios.

But a 3.0 FAR does not mean a property automatically gets a massive building. FAR is only one of many development standards that determine what can actually be built.

There are also height limits. In the Industrial zone, the maximum height under Measure X is 47 feet. For comparison, the new building on Caledonia Street where the theater used to be reaches about 46 feet at its peak, and the Victorian building at the corner of Caledonia and Turney, catty-corner from Driver’s Market, is about 41 feet tall.

That puts 47 feet in perspective: it is comparable in height to buildings Sausalito residents already know and see today.

And 47 feet is a maximum, not what every project would automatically be built to. Actual building size and height would still be shaped by requirements including parking, setbacks, lot coverage, fire and building codes, and the City’s project-review process.

In practical terms, that generally means a building in the range of three to four stories, with a 47-foot maximum in the Industrial zone and 32 feet in the Waterfront zone.

So yes, 650% sounds big. But the starting point is extraordinarily low. Buildings that might someday be proposed under Measure X could be similar in height to buildings that already exist on Caledonia Street today.

Measure X creates enough flexibility to make economically viable working-waterfront buildings possible. It does not mean every parcel will—or even physically can—build out to the theoretical maximum.

In the Industrial zone, the 47-foot limit is a maximum envelope — not a guaranteed building size. Any actual project would still have to comply with setbacks, parking requirements, lot coverage, fire and building codes, design review and other development standards. Those requirements can significantly affect the size and shape of a building — and can result in a lower height than the maximum 47 feet.

But let’s put 47 feet in perspective. Is it really as scary as it sounds?

The new building at the former movie theater at 101 Caledonia Street is approximately 46 feet at its peak, and the Victorian building near Bridgeway and Turney is approximately 41 feet. The Marinship itself also already contains taller buildings that were here before the current laws were passed 40 years ago, including the ICB Building at approximately 63 feet and 30 Liberty Ship Way at approximately 50 feet.

The Waterfront zone is different. Measure X keeps its existing 32-foot height limit.

For maritime uses only, Measure X includes one limited exception allowing a building of up to 47 feet in the Waterfront zone. The reason is practical: some maritime businesses need enough interior height to accommodate a gantry crane capable of lifting today’s larger boats.

Ordinance 1022 served an important purpose in 1985. Thankfully,  it stopped the waterfront from becoming an office park. But the world has changed. In 1985, there was no robust CEQA environmental review, no Bay Conservation and Development Commission oversight at its current strength, no modern design standards, and no community input requirements as we know them today. Those protections now exist and are strong. Building anything in California is already extremely difficult. Ordinance 1022 makes it functionally impossible. AIM does not remove oversight — it simply returns us to ‘extremely difficult,’ the same standard every other California city lives by.

The opposite is true. Industrial rents in the Marinship are among the highest in the Bay Area — over $3/sq ft — compared to roughly $0.75/sq ft in Alameda for comparable space. Rents are high because supply is so constrained. More buildable space means more supply, which moderates rents. Cafés and small retail are complementary uses that support — not replace — working artists and maritime businesses.

We thought long and hard about Measure X and stood on the shoulders of all the members of the public, Marinship workers, business and property owners, city staff, consultants and former City elected officials who have put countless hours of time and thought into what needs to change to allow the Marinship to thrive but protect what we all love about it. 

We think we got it mostly right, but we know this is a complicated and technical subject.  That’s why we specifically drafted the Measure to allow the City Council – after environmental review, input from the public, Planning Commission review, etc. – to modify it.  So, if there’s one or two things you don’t like about Measure X, don’t throw it out.  Vote yes and then bring your good ideas about what needs to change forward. 

We know that when Measure X passes, the City Council will want to do a thorough review and make sure everything is consistent throughout the Code so that will be a great time to identify anything we missed or didn’t get right.