📢 What Is the AIM Proposal?
The AIM Initiative is a 266-page proposal that would repeal the Marinship Specific Plan, upzone industrial and waterfront parcels throughout Sausalito, and remove voter approval rights over zoning changes in every commercial district except the downtown Historic District. Its proponents believe that repealing regulations and placing zoning decisions with the City Council majority—rather than voters—will help bring new economic life to Sausalito. Like most people in Sausalito, we support a vibrant city but details matter.
Given the complexity of the AIM proposal and its potential to have a significant impact on Sausalito’s built environment, one of the challenges is visualizing what particular zoning parameters really mean.
💻 SOS Announces New Software Tool to Examine AIM Impact
SOS has built on ViewSync software data to allow the community to visualize the possible impact of the AIM proposal on specific parcels and neighborhoods. Regardless of how you feel about AIM, it is quite important to have an accurate picture of what it would allow.
Today, using our new software tool, we are focusing on the proposed increased density of Industrial-zoned properties. In a future email we will cover the Waterfront lots, other neighborhoods, and what uses would be allowed in the AIM proposal.
👀 Clear-Eyed Evaluation: Read What Is Allowed, Not Hoped For
When we evaluate zoning proposals, we have learned to always look at what would be allowed, not what we hope would happen.
At 1 Harbor Drive, the city defined a zoning envelope and the developer determined how to maximize what was possible, proposing a six-story building that surprised and even shocked some in the community. We do not fault developers for taking advantage of the opportunities available to them. But sound public policy must ensure that use of the full entitlement is something the community finds acceptable.
A zoning designation guarantees only its text. What actually gets built is up to the developers.
📈 AIM Enables 650% Increase in Allowed Density
Under the AIM proposal, parcels zoned “Industrial” would see their allowed floor area increase by 650%—from the current floor area ratio (“FAR”) of 0.4 up to 3.0—with buildings permitted to cover up to 70% of a lot and reach 47 feet in height. What does this mean?
🏢 Typical Four Acre Parcel: 28–30 Liberty Ship Way
We chose this example because it is well known to many Sausalito residents—visible from Bridgeway and central to the Marinship. There is no active proposal on this site so we have used our new software tool to contrast what exists today and what AIM would permit at this location.
- Parcel size: 3.99 acres (173,717 square feet)
- Current: Two buildings totaling ~70,000 square feet (FAR 0.4)
Under AIM the allowed floor arear ratio grows from 0.4 to 3.0 meaning that a developer could build a much larger building with much greater density.
Extending the math, AIM would allow 521,151 square feet of floor area to be built on the parcel resulting in a five-story, 47-foot building running approximately 530 linear feet along Bridgeway.
⚓ The Marinship as a Whole
The true impact becomes clearest when considering the Marinship as a whole.
The Marinship contains 57 Industrial-zoned parcels totaling approximately 77 acres —about 3.35 million square feet of private property. (Public streets and parks are not included in this figure.) Every single parcel owner would have the right to expand density as shown in the 28-30 Liberty Ship Way example.
- Current entitlement (0.4 FAR): ~1.34 million square feet of buildable area
- Under AIM (3.0 FAR): ~10 million square feet of buildable area
Net increase: ~8.7 million square feet of new development capacity
🔢 Check Our Math
77 acres × 43,560 sq ft/acre = 3.35 million sq ft of private Marinship parcel area.
Current:
- 3.35M x 0.4 (Current FAR) = 1.34 million sq ft
Proposed:
- 3.35M × 3.0 (AIM proposed FAR) = 10.05 million sq ft
- Difference: 8.7 million sq ft
📈 How Big Is That?
The Mall of America, the largest shopping mall in the United States, totals roughly 5.6 million square feet. The new development capacity that AIM would add to the Marinship alone is 8.7 million square feet—more than half again the size of the Mall of America.
🤔 Will It Really Happen?
We have heard from some in the community who find this hard to believe—they say entitlements this large will simply never be used, that it will never happen. But we have learned to be clear-eyed: entitlements tend to get used. Not always immediately, and not always by current owners.
Upzoning makes land more valuable, and more valuable land attracts developers prepared to build to the limits the code allows. We saw it firsthand when Sausalito voters approved Measure J and upzoned parts of the Marinship in the Housing Element. The first project to come forward is 1 Harbor Drive—a six-story building. Other Measure J sites will likely see similar large projects.
AIM proposes to increase the density in the rest of the Marinship by 650%. If we are not fully comfortable with that, we should not put it in our code.
➡️ Coming Next
Our next email will focus on the Waterfront lots—what the AIM Initiative proposes, and what sea level rise means for that picture.
Stay tuned.
Save Our Sausalito
P.S. We plan to schedule a community forum soon to demo our new software tool. Please email us a specific property address that you want us to use in our demo.
