Body of News Release
Marin County, CA – When new housing is proposed, local governments must also consider how the development’s future will affect the rest of the neighborhood, including its costs.
Those considerations have become increasingly important in unincorporated Marin County. Since the County adopted its 2023–2031 Housing Element – the comprehensive guide for where potential housing development can take place during that time span — Marin has seen a significant increase in housing development proposals. That has led to a greater need for clear and consistent standards for the infrastructure that accompanies new housing development.
The Marin County Board of Supervisors received a staff presentation August 25 on proposed updates to the County’s Offsite Objective Design and Development Standards (ODDS), which would establish requirements for street and infrastructure improvements associated with new development.
The update was prompted in part by changes in state housing laws that require local governments to use clear, objective standards when reviewing housing projects. For the developers and the public, that means clearer expectations for how streets and other infrastructure should be designed as new development moves forward, while helping the County maintain safe and functional infrastructure for both existing and future residents.
During the workshop, Supervisors expressed support for an approach that allows flexible street standards where roads will remain privately maintained. Board members also emphasized the importance of creating safer, more comfortable conditions for people walking and bicycling and to coordinate closely with partner agencies such as Marin Transit. They also mentioned the need to collaborate with local utility districts and to carefully consider the long-term maintenance responsibilities of new infrastructure.
The Department of Public Works (DPW) collaborated with the Community Development Agency (CDA) to develop the proposed standards. The first phase focuses on street design standards for development in the city-centered and baylands corridors on the eastern side of the county where most housing opportunity sites are located.
The proposed roadway standards establish objective requirements for street classifications and features such as travel-lane widths, sidewalks, on-street parking, planting strips, bicycle facilities, and public frontages. Proposed configurations include residential roads, alleys, private minor residential roads, shared residential roads, main streets, collectors, arterials, and industrial/commercial streets.
For new collector and arterial streets, the proposed standards generally include a Class I shared-use pathway for bikes and pedestrians, separated from vehicle traffic, on one side of the street and a pedestrian sidewalk on the opposite side. Slower-speed residential and main streets would use Class III bicycle facilities, where bicyclists share the travel lane. The standards also include limited exceptions intended to address existing roadway conditions and site-specific circumstances while preserving the ability to construct future improvements.
The proposal also identifies minimum street standards that staff and the County's consultants consider necessary to avoid specific adverse health and safety impacts. These include minimum sidewalk widths, landscape buffers or street-tree planting areas, on-street parking on certain roadway types, minimum paved travel-lane widths, and bicycle facilities on collector and arterial streets.
The Offsite ODDS are being developed in phases because of the breadth of the County's public works standards. Later phases are expected to address rural roadway design and additional standards for intersections, crosswalks, landscaping, utilities, lighting, stormwater conveyance, and grading.
Development of the proposed standards has included coordination between DPW and CDA, an internal interdisciplinary working group, technical workshops with engineers, transportation consultants, developers and utility providers, and public workshops before the Marin County Planning Commission. The Planning Commission reviewed the proposed street standards in May and July 2026.
The August 25 Board workshop was for policy discussion and direction only. Board feedback will be incorporated, as appropriate, into the final ordinance and proposed amendments to Marin County Code Titles 22 and 24 before the standards return to the Board agenda for a hearing and potential adoption.