Update: The Marin County Board of Supervisors, at its May 15 meeting, agreed to submit a letter to City of San Rafael staff outlining their concerns over the proposed Airport Soccer Complex project. For more details, visit Patch.

The San Rafael City Planning Commission will hear the merits of the (Smith Ranch) Airport Soccer Complex project at its meeting on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, at 7:00 pm at San Rafael City Hall. Please submit comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it before 4:30 pm on May 24 to be included in the packet.

On January 24, 2012,  the San Rafael Planning Commission voted unanimously on January 24 to recommend certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report for a proposed 85,700 square-foot sports complex at San Rafael Airport. (See MCL Newsletter for November-December 2011).

The basic project: two indoor soccer fields/courts and an area for dance and gymnastics, a lighted outdoor soccer field for night games, an unlighted soccer warm-up area, and 7-day-a-week operation.

The project site is a 9.1 acre portion of the overall 119.5-acre airport site, which lies between the north and south forks of Gallinas Creek.  Environmentalists have monitored wildlife in the marshes of Gallinas Creek, especially the endangered California Clapper Rail, and appreciate the habitat value of this diked, former tidal marsh.  Its sensitivity was recognized in 1983, when the City and County agreed to allow higher-than-usual density near the freeway in order to keep the more sensitive wetlands to the east free from development.  Both parcels were sold to developer Joe Shekou. Since then, his attempts to develop the eastern (airport) portion have never ceased.

Although a covenant dating from 1983 restricts uses of the airport, “public and private recreation” is included among those uses, city staff have argued that the complex complies with the covenant.  MCL and many others view this response as unsatisfactory, citing the intent of the covenant, which was to limit development and human activities, not to intensify development.  At the recent hearing of the commission, MCL and many residents of Santa Venetia enumerated defects in the FEIR.

Issues involving safety hazards due to close proximity of the airport runway to open soccer fields with kids playing and parking lots have arisen.  A March 9, 2012 letter from the California Department of Transportation to the City of San Rafael Planning Division raises some of these concerns.

2012 Documents and Correspondence

• March 9, 2012 - Letter from CalTrans Division of Aeronautics to San Rafael Planning Division

2011 Documents and Correspondence

• November 14, 2011 - MCL's comments on the FEIR
• September 9, 2011 - San Rafael Airpport Sports Complex Final Environmental Impact Report

2010 Documents and Correspondence

• March 29, 2010 - MCL letter to the California State Lands Commission

• May 7, 2009 - MCL comments to the city of San Rafael on the Draft EIR