Tiburon council candidates detail priorities for town

Jan. 25--Revitalizing Tiburon's downtown, managing open space and emergency preparedness are the main priorities for three candidates running for a seat on the Town Council on March 3.

Jack Ryan, program manager for the Tiburon Peninsula Traffic Relief Joint Powers Agency, said the downtown has been described as moribund and decrepit ever since he moved to the town about 10 years ago.

Ryan said the recent purchase of the old Guaymas restaurant on Main Street by restaurateur Michael Mina and the restoration of the Caprice restaurant on Paradise Drive are good steps toward restoring downtown.

"We as a town should think about making sure that they are well attended to and that the entire business community can leverage off their success," he said.

Daniel Amir, chairman of the Planning Commission, agrees with Ryan, but he said it is still unclear if either restaurant will be completed this year. He said long-term plans to bolster businesses in downtown could include mixed-use buildings.

Amir said because most of the downtown buildings are owned by three or four landlords there is a need support projects that would fill these spaces.

"I think there is a thought process here that with the new five-year general plan that is going to start next year about thinking of creative ways to help support the business in the downtown district," Amir said.

Kathleen Devefer, vice chair of the Planning Commission, said that while they sound good on paper, implementing these kinds of projects could prove to be difficult because the city does not own these properties.

"I think our challenge is going to be coming up with initiatives that would somehow be attractive to the property owners and drive them to want to fill the spaces," Devefer said. "It's my understanding that at least two thirds of those spaces are owned by persons who don't live in Tiburon. So it's really not on their agenda."

Open space in Tiburon has been a point of contention, especially the 101-acre parcel owned by the Martha Co. and known as Easton Point.

While the parcel is not within Tiburon, the open space looms above the town and the Martha Co. has wanted to develop housing there for decades. Several lawsuits have prevented the company, owned by heirs of the John Reed family, from building a 43-home development.

The most recent lawsuit was filed against Marin County by Tiburon Open Space Committee and the town of Tiburon in 2017 in lieu of the board approving the master plan to develop the area.

Amir does not think that this development would provide affordable housing, and the town's decision to side with the Tiburon Open Space Committee is the right approach. But the decision comes down to the court, he said.

"When you talk about a 43-unit, a vast amount of land, it would have a huge impact on the whole town," he said. "I mean how can you build something at 43 units and not have a huge impact for many, many years?"

Ryan and Devefer were concerned that if the property is developed it would impact emergency preparedness and clog egress routes. Ryan said the development of that property on such a scale would take years and could have adverse effects. He said the lawsuit was a good move because heavy trucks could erode the hillsides.

"We have to protect ourselves against that," he said. "I think that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do."

Devefer partially agrees, but does not think it's right to strip the private company's right to develop on property it owns.

"What I would prefer is that some kind of settlement is created between the parties, where either they build a few houses and sell most of them or they sell it all to the private person to raise the money," she said. "But it has to be a balance or where we're going have some real problems with too many cars on the road and too much congestion and not enough emergency egress."

Ryan suggested another approach to prepare the town for an emergency. He said he has been working to move power lines underground, eliminating the risk of a potential fire such as the one that started in Paradise.

Devefer agreed, and suggested the idea be expanded to protect open space.

"There are these giant power lines even on the other side of the peninsula that nobody is paying attention to and they run through the open space," she said. "No one has trimmed around those, probably ever since they've been put in. And we're very susceptible to the same fires that have happened in Sonoma or Paradise. This is a real, real concern."

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THE CANDIDATES

Daniel Amir

Age: 47

Occupation: Senior director for investor relations for HP Inc. and an adjunct finance professor at San Francisco State University and Golden Gate University

Education: Bachelor's degree in economic and international relations from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a master's degree in finance from UCLA

Experience: Chairman of the Tiburon Planning Commission, president of the Belveron East Neighborhood Association, chairman of the Heritage and Arts Commission in Tiburon and former member of the farmers market committee.

Kathleen Defever

Age: 42

Occupation: Lawyer

Education: Bachelor's degree in international law from DePaul University and a master's degree in law from the University of Connecticut with an emphasis in insurance law

Experience: Vice chair of Tiburon Planning Commission, co-creator of Opera Night and insurance law researcher and writer.

Jack Ryan

Age: 52

Occupation: Program manager for Tiburon Peninsula Traffic Relief Joint Powers Agency

Education: Bachelor of science and aerospace engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Experience: Former managing director and head of equity derivatives trading for Wells Fargo, program manager for yellow school bus program, founder of utility undergrounding district group in Hawthorne Terrace and president of Belvedere Tennis Club.

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