Becoming a town
What a town gets to decide for itself
Residents asked us to set out what becoming a town would let Marin City decide for itself. This is that page. It is the case for, on purpose. What the process involves, and the numbers nobody has published yet, are on What it would take.
The decisions
Who decides today, who would decide, and what it has to do with the water
Today
- Residents of Marin Cityvote for one of the county's five supervisors
- Board of Supervisorsfive members, meeting at the Civic Center in San Rafael
- Decisions for all of unincorporated Marinthe plan, the zoning, the rules and the money, with Marin City one neighborhood in one of five districts
As a town
- Residents of Marin Cityelect a council of five
- Town councilmeeting in Marin City
- Decisions for Marin City aloneits own plan, zoning and rules, its share of the taxes, and a seat where the transport money is decided
| The decision | Today | As a town | And the water |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01Who sits at the tableCited, not read in full Government Code §36501 — a general law city is governed by a city council of five members ↗ | The Marin County Board of Supervisors — five people, each elected by one district of the county. Marin City is one neighborhood in one of the five districts. | A town council of five, elected by the town's residents and meeting in the town. Every decision below is made by that council. | The people deciding what to do about the water would be people who have stood in it. |
| 02What gets built, and whereCited, not read in full Government Code §65300 (general plan) and §65850 (zoning) ↗ | The county's general plan and the county's zoning code, decided at the Civic Center in San Rafael. | Its own general plan and its own zoning. State law requires every city to adopt a general plan and lets its council regulate by ordinance how land and buildings are used. | The rules for how much of a lot may be paved, what has to soak up rain, and what may be built on the low ground would be written here. That is the sponge idea, made law. |
| 03Its own rulesCited, not read in full Government Code §37100 — a city may make and enforce ordinances on municipal affairs ↗ | County ordinances, written for all of unincorporated Marin — West Marin ranches and Marin City alike. | Ordinances of its own on any municipal affair, so long as they do not conflict with state law: a stormwater ordinance written for one bowl, not a whole county. | Downspout disconnection, permeable paving, maintenance of private drains — the small rules that add up to a sponge could be Marin City's rules. |
| 04Buying land — including pond landCited, not read in full Government Code §37350 (acquiring property) and §37350.5 (eminent domain) ↗ | The pond is on private property, the Gateway Shopping Center, as the county's stormwater plan states. Any purchase would be the county's or the flood district's to make, or not. | A town may purchase, lease, hold and use real property in its own name, and may acquire land for a public purpose by eminent domain, with compensation. | The land that half the bowl drains to could be negotiated for by Marin City, for Marin City. Whether the owner would sell, and at what price, nobody has published — but the town would be the one asking. |
| 05Where the sales tax goesCited, not read in full Revenue and Taxation Code §7202 — the Bradley–Burns local sales and use tax ↗ | The one-percent local share of sales tax on every purchase at the Gateway center goes to the county, because the center stands in unincorporated territory. | The same one percent is the town's. Under the Bradley–Burns law the local sales and use tax is levied by the city for sales made within it. | The Marin IJ named this money in 2012 as what might run a city. A town with its own revenue chooses its own first project (a pump, a wetland, a parking-lot retrofit) instead of waiting its turn on a county-wide list. |
| 06A share of the property taxCited, not read in full Government Code §56810 — property tax exchange on incorporation ↗ | Property tax raised in Marin City is divided among the county, the schools and the districts by a formula the county administers. | A share of the property tax generated inside the boundary transfers to the new town, under an exchange worked out with the county during incorporation. | The only published figure is old: a 2004 study, reported in 2012, put combined property and sales taxes raised in Marin City at $7.6 million a year, “some of which could be used to run a city”. What share the town would keep is what the incorporation process settles. |
| 07A vote where the transport money is decidedCited, not read in full Transportation Authority of Marin — Board of Commissioners ↗ | The Transportation Authority of Marin's board is the five county supervisors and one council member from each of Marin's eleven cities and towns. Marin City has no seat of its own. | A council member of the Town of Marin City would sit on that board, with a vote. | The Transportation Authority is reported to be administering the federal infrastructure money for Marin City's flooding, and Highway 101 is what the water is stuck behind. A vote on that board is a vote on the road. |
| 08Small is not the barCited, not read in full US Census Bureau — QuickFacts, Belvedere city, California ↗ | Every city and town around Marin City was once unincorporated too, and one of them has fewer people than Marin City. | Belvedere, across Richardson Bay, has been a California city since 1896 and counted about 2,100 residents in the 2020 Census — fewer than the Army Corps gives for Marin City. | A town does not have to be big to be a town. It has to be able to pay for what it takes on, which is the question the incorporation process exists to answer. |
What it would take
The other page
Becoming a town runs through a county commission called , a fiscal analysis, and a vote of the people inside the boundary. The elected body Marin City already has, the , is the local sponsor of the study today. The six steps and what each involves, what other communities found, and what nobody has published yet (the running cost, the tax base, the pond's price) are on What it would take.
Nothing on this site is a recommendation. Whether to become a town is a decision for the people who live in Marin City. This page is what a town could decide. The other is what deciding it would involve. Read both.