For the first time in more than two decades, the Marin County Planning Commission is working without the independent voice of Don Dickenson.

Dickenson, a longtime planner and environmentalist, chose not to seek reappointment when his term ended in the spring. He attended his final commission meeting on May 5.

“I realized that I was at odds with a number of the policy decisions being made by the Board of Supervisors,” he said.

Dickenson’s replacement is Robert Sandoval, a lawyer for a cryptocurrency company in San Francisco. Dickenson is the third commissioner to leave the advisory panel after voicing concerns about the county’s new development policies.

Another veteran member, Christina Desser, resigned weeks before the end of her second term in December, citing a vote of no confidence from Supervisor Dennis Rodoni as the reason.

“It didn’t seem to me that it is our job to support the planning staff if we believe the staff is incorrect or behaving improperly,” Desser said.

In June 2023, supervisors chose not to reappoint Andrea Montalbano after she criticized decisions made in drafting the housing element of Marin’s countywide plan. Montalbano had objected to ceding more control over Marin’s development to the state than was legally necessary to achieve a compliant housing element.

On Jan. 5, 2023, the Planning Commission voted 6-1 against recommending the Board of Supervisors approve the housing element.

“It’s just a vision for the future that I can’t support,” Dickenson said at the time. “It is too inconsistent with what is of value to many of the people in Marin.”

Coincidentally, on Jan. 24, 2023, the day county supervisors approved the housing element despite the commission’s reservations, Dickenson fell 25 feet from the roof of his house while trimming tree branches. He suffered fractures that required surgeries and four months of rehabilitation.

In an interview this month, Dickenson said he continues to believe that the county could and should have done more to push back against new state laws that strip counties and municipalities of their local control over development.

“I thought because of all the uncertainty about this new legislation that we should be conservative in our approach,” said Dickenson, who lives in San Rafael. “Wherever we had an option to retain regulation, we should do that for now. If that doesn’t work, we can amend the regulation.”

“I don’t think the board as policymakers did that,” he said. “They were not required to make all 148 of the housing element sites ministerial and California Environmental Quality Act-exempt. They did that at the urging of staff.”

Had Dickenson sought another term on the commission it’s possible he wouldn’t have been reappointed. When he was reappointed on a 4-1 vote in May 2023, Supervisor Katie Rice said she was voting for him this time but wanted him to display less leadership.

“The benefit of having folks with a lot of history is that they do know the history, and they can explain the history,” Rice said. “There is respect given to that historic view. They can tend to dominate, although not in an intentional way.”

She encouraged Dickenson “to try to sit back a little bit.”

Contacted on Monday, Rice, who retired from the board at the end of 2024, said her comments weren’t intended to muzzle Dickenson or influence his vote.

“I know Don well enough,” Rice said. “I knew he wasn’t interpreting it that way.”

Supervisor Eric Lucan cast the vote against Dickenson’s reappointment.

Dickenson’s departure leaves the commission without any members who are design professionals. Dickenson, who has spent 65 of his 77 years living in Marin, graduated from Novato High School before earning bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in architecture from the university’s College of Environmental Design in 1973.

Dickenson started work as a Marin County planning aide in 1974 and worked his way up the ladder to senior planner. He oversaw the approvals for George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and the contentious cleanup of Waldo Point Harbor, which earned him a rock through the window of his house. He was also the planner assigned to the “Running Fence” art installation created by the artists known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

In 1984, Dickenson left the county government to become Mill Valley’s planning director. He held that position for 16 years, shaping the future of many undeveloped properties in Mill Valley before retiring at age 50.

Dickenson has hardly been idle since retiring. In addition to his long tenure on the Planning Commission, he served on the Marin County Civil Grand Jury for two sessions and served on the board of a number of environmental nonprofits, including the Marin Conservation League, the Marin Open Space Trust, the Greenbelt Alliance and the Sierra Club Marin Group.

“I have been relying on Don for sound land use opinions for 55 years,” said Nona Dennis, a past president and longtime member of the Marin Conservation League. “From the early days of CEQA at the county, through his years heading planning in Mill Valley, up to the recent frustrating years of state housing law overreach.”

“Modest to a fault but forceful and convincing in his knowledge of the facts and concern for the environment,” Dennis wrote, “it’s hard to overestimate Don’s contributions to Marin County.”

Paul Jensen, the organization’s vice president and a former San Rafael planning director, wrote, “Don’s institutional knowledge of Marin County cannot and will likely never be matched.”

Dickenson was appointed to the Planning Commission in 2003 by Supervisor Susan Adams after he helped her win election.

The dominant issue at the time was the fate of pasture land owned by St. Vincent’s School for Boys and the Silveira family along Highway 101 between San Rafael and Novato. At the time, 766 residences and up to 120,000 square feet of commercial space were being proposed.

“Don was really instrumental in helping me understand the ins and outs of why it was a bad idea,” Adams said.

After she was elected, Dickenson supported Adams’ efforts to win approval for an infill, affordable housing project at the Marinwood Plaza.

“He wasn’t against all development,” Adams said. “He just wanted to put it in places that make sense.”

“He calls things how he sees them, even if he knows it will make people not completely happy with him,” she said. “He does his homework, and he knows land use and planning issues better than anybody that Marin County has ever had on the Planning Commission. So it will be a loss for Marin County.”