By Omar Carrera

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to offer public comment about an important housing project in Corte Madera.

The proposed project at 240 Tamal Vista Blvd. will add 98 units of affordable housing to a town and a county where it is desperately needed. Situated in a walkable part of town, this housing project will give new residents and their families easy access to schools, parks, shopping and much of Marin County’s employment base.

As I told the Corte Madera Planning Commission, this project is more than just an apartment building. It is a systems-level intervention that addresses the structural barriers faced by many families in our community; barriers rooted in historic exclusion, rising costs and a shortage of affordable, family-friendly housing. This project reflects a long-overdue shift from treating affordable housing as an act of charity to understanding it for what it is: essential infrastructure. Like our schools and roads, affordable housing is an essential component of a healthy, functioning, and equitable community.

As someone who works closely with working-class families, I can tell you that the need for three- and four-bedroom apartments is real. The Tamal Vista project apartments are not theoretical units. These new units will be homes for multigenerational households, and families with children who currently face overcrowding, long commutes, or are one rent increase away from displacement. It will help serve our town’s essential workers, the people who work in local stores and restaurants and businesses and make our town liveable, safe, and fiscally sound.

This project is not just something that makes sense to me as the leader of one of Marin County’s largest direct service providers. Corte Madera has been my home ever since I arrived in this country 22 years ago, it’s where I raised my children and a place I am proud to call home.

I recognize there are concerns about the project’s height and unit mix, and about traffic and parking challenges this project may generate. But let us not lose sight of the bigger opportunity: This is 100% affordable housing in one of the most exclusionary housing markets in the country. It uses state tools to advance a more inclusive future, and it is a project we as Corte Madera residents should embrace. As the Marin IJ editorial board has made clear, “There should be little debate that it will help meet a community need.”

The conversation around Tamal Vista is also not about a single development. It’s about what kind of community Corte Madera wants to be. Do we want to plan around exclusion and scarcity? Or do we want to design a community where people who work here can live here, raise their children here and age here with dignity? This project represents an opportunity to take real steps toward a more equitable Corte Madera in which I know so many of us believe.

It was wonderful to see other Corte Madera residents come out in support of this project at the recent Planning Commission meeting.

I was not alone. My fellow residents also stepped up to say we need more projects like these. This gives me hope that Corte Madera can lead in this county when it comes to affordable housing, much like we led on the Casa Buena site, where our town became the first in the county to create new housing for the homeless through the state’s innovative Project Homekey.

Now is the time for the Corte Madera Town Council to ratify the Planning Commission’s support for this critical project, rejecting any calls for formal appeals about this project. With Tamal Vista, we have the opportunity to lead on housing and live our values, and I hope we will take it.

Let us embrace the development of desperately-needed housing, and make Corte Madera the welcoming place for all.

Omar Carrera, of Corte Madera, is CEO of the Canal Alliance, a San Rafael-based nonprofit organization.