OUR
FUTURE
THE VISION.
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ADVOCATE FOR ENFORCEMENT
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Light Industrial
If we implement policies that make it easier for light industrial fabricators and similar companies to find space and perform their work, Sausalito can expand its legacy of innovation in both prototype fabrication and intellectual property. It is essential to continue to promote and protect the Industrial zoned areas.
Artists
We must continue to support our artist communities with access to facilities and workspaces that are not priced out with new office uses and zoning changes.
Maritime
We have 2100 vessels and 450 floating homes in our waters. We must protect and enhance our maritime industry in order to continue to serve our marine community.
Office and Residential
No new commercial office development or housing development should be allowed in the Marinship as specified in the current Marinship Specific Plan. Limited office use, determined to be strictly accessory to a permitted use, will be allowed and existing or approved office buildings and uses may remain as permitted uses. The risks and liabilities of opening the Marinship to any type of land-based residential would be significant considering sea level rise, subsidence, industrial noise, evacuation risk and existing contamination.
Historic Resource
Finally, we support a thorough evaluation of the historic resources in the Marinship, and suggest that the City analyze the opportunities to preserve and honor our City's important culture and history of fabrication and innovation.
AS WE IMPLEMENT A NEW VISION​
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Advocacy
We believe that it is necessary to do more to communicate the work done and value created in the Marinship. It is also important that we enable the growth and success of our existing industry, while also attracting more innovators and mission-aligned businesses to locate in the Marinship and join our working waterfront community. For this reason, we propose to create the Marinship Commerce and Industrial Association (MCIA) which will work to improve the conditions for maritime, industrial and arts industries to grow, collaborate and innovate in the Marinship.
Education
The Marinship is already home to a variety of educators and educational opportunities. Its craftspeople, skilled machinists, technicians and artists can (and many already do) offer everything from recreational classes for seniors and youth to full-fledged training programs for specialized careers. Consider just a few examples:
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The ICB Building hosts over 135 working artists, their studios, and associated art classes.
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Marin Made boasts state of the art welding and micro-manufacturing machinery for its students.
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Spaulding Marine Center leverages its long history of woodworking, boat-building and related maritime skills with an apprenticeship program.
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Educational Tall Ship
This culture and these resources should be supported, celebrated, and built upon.
Innovation
All stakeholders recognize the threat of Sea-Level Rise and Subsidence, and the need to adapt creatively to the rising tides. This threat is intimately connected to Marinship businesses, trades, and their ways of life. In this same vein, the Marinship’s history, industry, and location position it to promote innovation in areas of ocean health, environmental sustainability, and sea-level rise adaptation. This is a unique value proposition for Sausalito and the broader Bay Area.
Many local opportunities have slipped away to other bay area locations...but new small scale opportunities that are complementary to maritime, light industrial and art uses remain! In taking advantage of these opportunities we need to maintain an environment that continues to foster our local entrepreneurs and not price them out.
THE OPPORTUNITY.
We see the future of the Marinship as a vibrant and clustered modern manufacturing community where businesses are provided the stability to invest, grow, and continue to flourish. We envision an environment where innovation, artist, maritime, and light industrial uses receive a strengthening of protection, rather than the erosion of it.
The future of the Marinship goes hand in hand with Sausalito’s culture of diversity, arts and innovation. If the community loses the “saltiness” of the Marinship, the community loses its core identity. Our goal is to present an alternative to the business as usual way of inviting developers to solve our financial problems. We, as a community, have the resources, insight, and passion to create new paths forward that honor our uniqueness.
Rather than engage in fatigued dialogues around office spaces, we invite the community to explore the benefits of the Marinship as a vibrant and clustered modern manufacturing community where businesses are provided the stability to invest, grow and continue to flourish and provide quality jobs for Sausalito and neighboring communities. As our planet emerges from the Covid-19 epidemic we seek to offer the Marinship as a model of a future where innovation, artist, maritime and light industrial uses receive a strengthening of protection, rather than the erosion of it. The initiatives offered above are strategically designed to meet Sausalito’s needs for a diverse economic base, arts and creativity, and of course a celebration of our working waterfront.
Over the past 10+ years, more than a dozen patents have come out of the Marinship and been turned into products. This was accomplished in a relatively hostile industrial climate in the Marinship. We see a change that embraces this kind of accomplishment rather than ignores it. We see a future of stewardship of our maritime, industrial, and artistic heritage in the decades to come bringing continued economic and community vitality.