Critics continued to blast San Rafael officials this week over the city’s plan to build a temporary village of cabins in Terra Linda to shelter homeless people.

Residents queued up at the City Council meeting on Monday to voice their grievances about the project at 350 Merrydale Road near the Rafael Meadows neighborhood. Speakers said their mistrust has been amplified by Nov. 17 City Council meeting minutes where agreements and ordinances approved for the plan did not reflect the sentiment of the community.

“What the minutes don’t show is how overwhelming the process was,” said Ken Dickinson, a resident of Rafael Meadows. “The city released more than 500 pages of material, including a shelter crisis declaration, two ordinances, an $8 million grant agreement, a real estate purchase, just 72 hours before the vote. For most residents, that made meaningful engagement impossible.”Dickinson is a member of the group called Marin Citizens for Solutions Not Secrecy, which formed after the shelter plan announcement on Oct. 15. Dickinson said the most troubling thing about the minutes is that the city invoked an emergency ordinance to allow the shelter site, but there has been no immediate activity to build it.

“There was no winter shelter proposal, no-short term measures, no immediate relief,” he said. “Every action taken that night was about spring and beyond. … Trust comes from alignment between what the city says and what the city does.”

“The public deserves an accurate record of what actually happened and how extraordinary that night really was,” resident Marianne Nannestad said.

“I’m asking for amendments not to undo anything, but so the historical record fully and accurately reflects what occurred,” resident Jennifer Wallace said. “That’s essential for transparency and it’s essential for precedent.”

In response, City Attorney Rob Epstein said the city has not taken verbatim minutes for a number of years. He said that around the time the city began recording meetings on video is when officials switched to the practice of abbreviated minutes that only reflect the action taken. Permanent recordings of the meetings are available online, he said.

City Clerk Lindsay Lara, who records the minutes, said it’s her job to remain neutral in writing them.

“So whether it’s the sentiment, the feeling of the community or the feeling of the City Council, I remove that entirely,” Lara said.

The underlying issue is that critics oppose the project because they allege city officials approved plans in secrecy.

“From the beginning, mayor, you blindsided us,” resident Frank Mason said. “You held a press conference with helicopters overhead, officials lined up behind you — cameras rolling — celebrated a project that you had never told the neighborhood about. This wasn’t leadership. This was theater. And it foreshadowed everything that followed: the secrecy, the rushing, the decisions already made in closed sessions.”

Ahead of the meeting, resident Gregory Andrews submitted a letter requesting that the city remove an ordinance establishing homeless shelter standards and procedures from the council agenda’s consent calendar.

Consent calendar items are generally considered noncontroversial and are typically grouped together and approved in a single motion with no discussion.

In his letter, Andrews argued that there was no corresponding staff report, only the ordinance itself, attached to the agenda. He said there wasn’t enough information provided about the ordinance and it warranted a discussion.

Addressing the City Council, Andrews said the city’s homeless residents are not the problem. People experiencing homelessness “need help and compassion,” he said.

“The problem is you, mayor and council members,” Andrews said. “I don’t trust you, and I hope you hear that.”

On a unanimous vote and without deliberation, the City Council approved the consent calendar, which included the Nov. 17 minutes and the shelter ordinance.

The city and county have been met with fierce opposition since announcing the plan on Oct. 15.

The Marin Citizens for Solutions Not Secrecy sent a letter to the city on Nov. 3 demanding it rescind all decisions on the project that were made outside of public meetings.

That action was followed by a court filing seeking a temporary injunction against the city. The group alleged the city approved plans in a closed session. Without a report out of the alleged decision at a public meeting, that would have been a violation the Brown Act, a government transparency law. The injunction request aimed to prevent the property purchase until the court determines whether city officials violated the Brown Act.

City officials maintained that there were no reportable actions following closed session meetings on the property acquisition because no decisions were made.

After intensifying pushback, the City Council declared a homeless shelter emergency on Nov. 17, approved a grant agreement with the county and authorized the purchase of 2.5-acre lot at 350 Merrydale Road.

The City Council also approved a resolution that confirms the city’s “unconditional promise to refrain from violating the Brown Act” and “commitment to transparency and community engagement.”

The resolution admitted no violations. Epstein said the resolution was intended as a step to dismiss the case by Dickinson and the plaintiff group.

On Nov. 24, Judge Sheila Shah Lichtblau denied the motion for a temporary injunction, clearing San Rafael officials to proceed with the property acquisition.

City Manager Cristine Alilovich announced Monday that the city closed escrow on the property on Nov. 26.

The project aims to provide 65 cabins for up to 70 people for approximately three to four years. The site will have round-the-clock security and support services.

The project is expected to be up and running in early 2026. The plan involves moving inhabitants from the city’s sanctioned encampment at Mahon Creek Path to the new site.

The agreement with the county also commits the city to develop an affordable housing project with 80 apartments at the site once the shelter winds down. The commitment requires the property to be entitled by June 30, 2028.

Officials set community meetings for Dec. 9 and Jan. 14 to collect public comments on the plan, including the establishment of a “good neighbor policy.”