›› UPFRONT
Median cool Medians Committee finds middle ground in Point San Pedro by Peter Seidman
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hat’s happening to the medians along Point San Pedro Road is a confluence of weather, tax policy and citizen activism. The Point San Pedro Road Medians Committee in San Rafael has raised enough money to proceed with creating an assessment district to reinvigorate and maintain median strips along Point San Pedro Road. At last count, the Medians Committee had raised $57,394 from 205 donors, well above the target $50,000, to take the idea of forming an assessment district to property owners on 4.5 miles of Point San Pedro Road. About 2,500 residential and 15 commercial properties would be in the district, according to Andre Perry, chairman of the Medians Committee. The way in which the committee approached the problem of how to beautify the medians and the solutions the committee chose reflect issues that date back to 1978, when California voters, including those in Marin, passed Proposition 13. Reverberations from the proposition, designed to make it harder to raise taxes, indirectly give the citizen’s committee in San Rafael a powerful tool to convince voters that forming a benefit assessment district to beautify medians is a good thing. Proposition 13 mandated that property tax
shall not exceed 1 percent of the cash value of a property. The proposition also rolled back property values to 1975 values as a starting point and restricted tax increases to no more than 2 percent a year. There are, however, two big exceptions: When a property changes hands or when major construction takes place. The median beautification plan needs a simple majority vote from owners representing more than 50 percent of the assessed property in the area to form a benefit assessment district. The details of exactly how much it will take to beautify the medians will be determined by engineering studies and final design plans The goal, according to Perry, will be to create medians that feature native, drought-resistant landscaping. An initial estimate calls for borrowing through a bond mechanism $1,835,000 for a period of 30 years at a 7-percent interest rate. That amounts to an annual payment for each residential property owner of about $68. (Commercial property owners would see an annual payment of about $1,366.) Perry uses the now-familiar price-of-a-Starbucks equivalent to put into perspective that $68 annual payment for residential owners. In other words, it’s not much money for much-improved aesthetics along a portion of Point 10 >
›› NEWSGRAMS Film fest rolls out red carpet for Bening Annette Bening will be making something of a Bay Area homecoming this October, as the “American Beauty”star is set to be honored with a Mill Valley Film Festival Tribute at the 33rd incarnation of the local film frenzy. Bening, a former San Francisco State student who launched her acting career with American Conservatory Theatre before going on to star in“The Grifters” and“Bugsy,”will be on hand for an onstage conversation and overview of her career Oct. 14, according to festival officials who released the always-anticipated festival schedule this week. The festival, running Oct. 7 to 17 at the Sequoia in Mill Valley and the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, will also feature an Oct. 9 career-tribute to actor Edward Norton (“American History X,”“The Illusionist”), a“spotlight”on the work of director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (“Amores Perros,”“21 Grams,”“Babel”), and an Oct. 8 event with groundbreaking director Julian Schnabel (“Basquiat,”“Before Night Falls,”“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”). Opening the festival on Oct. 7 at the Rafael is“The King’s Speech,”starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush and, at the Sequoia,“Conviction,”featuring Sam Rockwell and Hilary Swank. Directed by Tom Hooper and set at the brink of World War II,“The King’s Speech”follows the plight of Britain’s George VI (the one that found himself on the throne after brother Edward abdicated to wed an American divorcee) whose leadership at a time of crisis was on the verge of catastrophe due to his embarrassing stammer. Firth stars as the not-so-smooth-talking monarch, Helena Bonham Carter as his wife, Elizabeth, and Rush as an unconventional speech therapist. Based on a true story,“Conviction”features Rockwell as a man wrongfully convicted of murder, relying on his high-school-dropout sister (Hilary Swank) to get him out of the clink. Rockwell— whose film credits include“Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”and“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”—will appear with“Conviction”screenwriter Pamela Gray at the Sequoia opening in Mill Valley.Tickets are $12.50 general; $10 institute members.Visit www. cafilm.org or call 415-383-5256. Look for the Pacific Sun’s comprehensive festival overview in our Oct. 1 issue. —Jason Walsh Novato Sanitary looking clean, says DOJ The Novato Sanitary District had some of its own trash hauled away this week, as it was announced that the U.S. Justice Department has abandoned its investigation into alleged environmental violations by the district. At the NSD board meeting on Sept. 13, district council Kenton Alm informed the board that the Department of Justice, working on behalf of the EPA, had declined to file criminal charges against the district or any of its employees relating to allegations that the district illegally dumped sewage into to San Pablo Bay in 2007. The FBI raided district offices in spring of 2009 after the EPA received an anonymous tip about the supposed NSD sewage discharges. Federal agents seized copies of hard drives and several boxes of paper printouts—but offered few specifics as for what they were searching.The quixotic raid has left the district somewhat in limbo about investigation for nearly a year and a half. District officials says they are“gratified”by the decision not to prosecute. Despite the good news, the district isn’t completely out of the water yet, as the DOJ says it is now referring the matter over to the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board for potential civil action. In a statement to the press, district officials say they are looking forward to“resolving the matter with the SFRWQCB, and will continue to work closely with all environmental agencies to comply with environmental laws and protect water quality.”—JW
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