The Revenge of the Lucas

[Deleted]

George Lucas is out for some payback by building affordable housing.

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas could, indeed, make good on his idea of building affordable housing right next door to the high-income NIMBYs who blocked his plans for a production studio near his Lucas Valley ranch complex.

His Marin County neighbors and conservationists have dismissed Lucas' musings as sour grapes, and say low-income housing could never be built in such a remote and environmentally sensitive location.

But those in the know disagree.

There's a feeling on the Board of Supervisors, which has final say over the project, that it fits into the county's desire for more low-income housing - and by the way, the land is already zoned for residential use.

The real question may not be political approval - it's whether Lucas can raise the money to make the project work.

Building is something Lucas appears to be very fond of doing, according to officials in San Anselmo, who say he is constantly buying properties around his home there and fixing them up.

He even buys commercial properties, tears them down and replaces them with miniparks.

Read more: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/19/BALL1OKCG3.DTL#ixzz1vW7Q0dgJ

Filmmaker George Lucas is pushing forward with plans to build low-income housing at Marin County's picturesque Grady Ranch, a vow of his that was widely dismissed as an insincere attempt by the billionaire to thumb his nose at complaining neighbors.

The Marin Community Foundation announced Tuesday that it is working with Lucasfilm to "explore options" for building affordable housing in the location where the movie mogul wanted to build a film studio until residents in an adjacent subdivision protested.

"We don't know yet what might be able to be developed there, but the notion of being able to explore his property and see if some beautifully designed family or senior housing can be developed there is too wonderful to pass up," said Thomas Peters, president and CEO of the foundation. "One of the incredible offers that Mr. Lucas made is that he would make available the extensive technical studies that have been done on that land, including water, topography, creek access and other engineering data that would give us a head start and help us determine whether senior or affordable housing can be built there."

Lucas, whose "Star Wars" films ushered in the digital arts age, withdrew his plans last month to build a large mission-style movie-making studio on Grady Ranch, blaming the Lucas Valley Estates Homeowners Association for being Nimbys and torpedoing it.

Several Lucas Valley Estates homeowners had, in fact, said that they considered the historic Lucas-owned farmland their back yards. They claimed the proposed 263,701-square-foot digital technology production complex was too large, would displace too much dirt, would change the course of a creek going through the area, create too much traffic and hadn't been studied enough.

Read more: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/08/BAFP1OF38Q.DTL#ixzz1vW7idjxh

[Deleted]

Is low income there couples making under 200k?

[zibazinski]

How nice for him and how not so nice for his neighbors. I know I'd love a ghetto in my backyard.

[kittensaver]

Maybe now I can afford to move to Marin . . .

[zibazinski]

It's still California.

[wyouser]

maybe he can qualify for some of the billions the legislature wants to dirert from education to low income housing??

[Sum Dum Gai]

How nice for him and how not so nice for his neighbors. I know I'd love a ghetto in my backyard.

They should have thought of that before they voted against the studio complex. Empty land that's zoned for building won't stay empty forever, so sooner or later something is going to be built there. At least he's not being a total jerk and trying to build a little strip mall and fill it with a liquor store, porn shop, payday lender, and pawn shop. Although, maybe after he gets all the low income folks in, some other enterprising young upstart will see the need for those services.

[zibazinski]

If you want to live in an area like that, then You play by the rules. People who live there expect a certain behavior from their neighbors. I'm sure they are less than thrilled about having Lucas there to begin with and, now, for good reason. Next thing you know, itll be the Jolie-Pitts and their ilk.

[Deleted]

DH's cousin did something like that.

A neighbor complained about their pre-existing composting operation (keep in mind they handle the composting for the County). This is in a VERY wealthy section outside of Boston.

She told the neighbors (who by the way bought her mother's home from the estate and is next door to hers) that she believed strongly in the group home residency program because it helped her son recover from alcoholism. If she couldn't maintain their composting program to keep them in agricultural use, then she would donate a portion of her property to the County for that purpose.

Not a peep since!

ETA: Affordable housing can be done well. I've seen it in the SF Bay Area.

[Deleted]

The neighbors are suffering.

“It’s inciting class warfare,” said Carolyn Lenert, head of the North San Rafael Coalition of Residents.

Mr. Lucas said in an e-mail that he only wanted “to do something good for Marin,” waving away accusations of ulterior motives.

“I’ve been surprised to see some people characterize this as vindictive,” he said, adding that there was a “real need” for affordable housing here. “I wouldn’t waste my time or money just to try and upset the neighbors.”

Whatever Mr. Lucas’s intentions, his announcement has unsettled a county whose famously liberal politics often sits uncomfortably with the issue of low-cost housing and where battles have been fought over such construction before. His proposal has pitted neighbor against neighbor, who, after failed peacemaking efforts over local artisanal cheese and wine, traded accusations in the local newspaper.

The staunchest opponents of Lucasfilm’s expansion are now being accused of driving away the filmmaker and opening the door to a low-income housing development. That has created an atmosphere that one opponent, who asked not to be identified, saying she feared for her safety, described as “sheer terror” and likened to “Syria.”

Carl Fricke, a board member of the Lucas Valley Estates Homeowners Association, which represents houses nearest to the Lucas property, said: “We got letters saying, ‘You guys are going to get what you deserve. You’re going to bring drug dealers, all this crime and lowlife in here.’ ”

I can see why Lucas is irritated. Apparently the project was endorsed as part of the master plan in 1996.

[zibazinski]

This will be interesting to see it played out.