We want to thank all of our supporters who have written letters, signed petitions, attended hearings and spoke in front of the planning commission and city council members these past 8 long years. Your support for this much needed facility has been fantastic!

Our next steps are to secure financing and formulate the final construction plans. We expect to break ground in July 2013 and open the facility in late 2014.

We will continue to keep you informed of any new developments at www.letmarinplay.com and on our Facebook page as the project progresses.

Click here to read the Marin Independent Journal’s article on the project approval.

Thank you again for your support and we look forward to seeing you on the fields soon!

Sincerely,

The San Rafael Sports

The August 6th San Rafael City Council meeting to vote on the San Rafael Sports Center has been postponed until September. The city of San Rafael wishes to to clarify a last minute issue raised by project opponents attempting to disqualify one of the City Council Members from voting on the project. The City Attorney ruled there is no valid issue but decided to postpone the meeting for one month in order to receive clarification from a state agency confirming the City’s ruling. We will notify you once a new meeting date has been set.

Thank you for ongoing support of this project! We are in the home stretch!

If you would like to speak in support of the project at this upcoming meeting, please respond to this email and we will follow up with you.

Best regards,

San Rafael Sports Center

Please Save the Date and mark your calendar to attend!

We need your help! We need every supporter to attend this meeting to ensure the City Council hears the resounding positive community support for the Sports Complex and understands the benefits this project will bring to our community.

We need your help! We need every supporter to attend this meeting to ensure the Planning Commission hears the resounding positive community support for the Sports Complex and understands the benefits this project will bring to our community.

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

Please show your support by taking action today:

1. Click on this link to join our supporter list and confirm you plan to attend the August 6th City Council Meeting

2.Over 10,000 Marin families support this project.  Click here to see all of the project endorsements from sports leagues, businesses, prominent organizations and individuals from our community.

3. Encourage your family, friends, neighbors and contacts to visit www.letmarinplay.com and sign up to support the project or write the Planning Commission

Thank you for all the support getting the project to the point now where the goal is in site. With your help, our community can win with the approval of this greatly needed project.

The San Rafael Sports Complex is one step closer to being approved, but the next public hearing is the most important San Rafael Planning Commission Meeting for project supporters to attend. The next public hearing is on the merits of the San Rafael Sports Complex where the project will be considered for approval by the San Rafael Planning Commission.

San Rafael Planning Commission – Public Hearing to Consider Approval of the San Rafael Sports Complex
Date:  Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Time:  7:00 PM (Please arrive by 6:00 PM)
Location: San Rafael City Hall – 1400 5th Avenue, San Rafael

Please mark your calendars to attend the March 13 Planning Commission meeting, recruit others to attend and help make this project a reality for our community.

Click here to join our supporter list and let us know if you can attend or speak at the meeting.

Please help us win approval for this great community asset. We need additional letters sent to the Planning Commission letting them know the community supports the project. Click here to send the Planning Commission an email with your support. If you’ve already submitted a letter, please join our supporters list and find out how you can continue to help us.

At the hearing on November 15, the Planning Commission heard presentations from San Rafael City consultants confirming the conclusion of the FEIR is that there were no significant and unavoidable impacts of the project after mitigations. Additional presentations were made demonstrating that sports fields and recreation is commonly found throughout the nation next to airports because it is a safe and compatible use.

The Planning Commission also heard testimony concerning the hundreds of supporter emails sent to the Planning Commission and the many positive environmental impacts the San Rafael Sports Complex brings to the community.

Tighe O’Sullivan of Club Marin spoke in favor of the project saying “There is no other location in San Rafael that is farther from neighbors and will have lower impacts than this site.”

Numerous other members of the public spoke and submitted comments on the project. Several others submitted questions that the Planning staff indicated they would review and provide the Planning Commission the answers on January 10, 2012.

If the Planning Commission certifies the FEIR on January 10, 2012, the next step would be for the Planning Commission to schedule a meeting to hear the merits of the project and at the conclusion of that meeting- the Planning Commission would vote on approval of the project.

Thanks again for your support!

Our Community Benefits – We ALL Win!

Creating a Healthier Community

Physical Fitness / Obesity Epidemic
The high statistics on the growing obesity in America and California are staggering.  In California, a study in 2001 by the California Department of Health Statistics found that only 43.2% of all Californians were at a healthy weight and most children are having a difficult time meeting the very minimal standards for physical fitness. Only 25% of 5th graders, 29% of seventh graders and 27% of ninth graders were able to pass these tests.  Our schools are cutting back on PE classes; after-school fitness programs barely exist and many parks are unsafe for kids to go to by themselves.

Childhood obesity is already at an alarming rate and is only getting worse.  Kids from ages 8 to 18 spend an average of 7.5 hours per day using electronic entertainment in a typical day such as TV, videogames, cell phones, computers and movies.  Only 1/3 of high school students get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity a day (www.letsmove.org).  Kids not only need more exercise but they also need role models in seeing their parents participate in exercise.

The San Rafael Sports Complex addresses these very concerns of health and fitness for our young children, teenagers and adults, and provides recreation opportunities for the entire family.  Recreation facilities are a big part of keeping a community healthy, vibrant and a desirable place to live, and this facility will be a positive influence for the citizens of San Rafael and all of Marin.

Increasing Local Business in San Rafael
Tourism & Tax Dollars
The San Rafael Sports Complex will be a community asset to the City of San Rafael and will generate sales tax for the City and increase the pool of local jobs, especially jobs for teenagers and young adults.  In addition, local restaurants in the North San Rafael area should see an increase in business from all the new families visiting the area, particularly on weekends.

A Higher Quality of Life
Marin County residents deserve a high quality of life. Providing good quality parks and recreation facilities is one way local government enhances the quality of life for its residents. For soccer alone, there are over 6,000 Marin youth playing on 500+ teams and another 4,000 adults on 300+ teams – ALL fighting for less than 50 fields in the entire county. When you also add in lacrosse, basketball, rugby and other sports, it’s no wonder we have such a field shortage and that many of the fields we do have are so overused, poorly maintained and dangerous to play on.

Both the San Rafael and Marin County General Plans recognize the importance of this issue and have called for the creation of additional cost-effective all-weather fields and indoor recreational facilities to combat these existing shortages and problems.

The following are policies from the San Rafael General Plan. The San Rafael Sports Complex is the exact kind of project San Rafael’s General Plan calls for and will greatly assist the city in meeting its goals:

• PR-4. Provide opportunities for recreational activities for boys and girls, teens, and adults through the creation of additional facilities such as fields for active sports.
• PR-4a. All Weather Fields: Provide cost-effective all-weather fields to optimize year round use of community sports facilities.
• PR-13. Commercial Recreation. Encourage private sector development of commercial recreational facilities open to the general public.

• PR-14. Amateur Multi-Sport Athletic Fields. Strive for the development of publicly or privately funded, large multi-sport athletic field clusters to address the needs of the community.
• Creating More Community Connectivity & Positive Role Models

Organized sports like soccer, lacrosse, basketball and rugby aren’t just about exercise for adults and kids of all ages; they are a positive outlet for community activity and togetherness.  For adults, it’s about coming together to do something positive, including exercise and enjoying their friends and family time.  For kids, organized sports not only provide a positive outlet for exercise, but team sports teach kids a lot about life.  Kids learn about teamwork, competition, challenging themselves and how to handle success and defeat.

Both adults and kids need these facilities and outlets to provide a variety of activities so there is something for everyone.  Stress and boredom play a large role in teenage and young adolescent drinking, drug use and bad behavior, and this facility will help to reduce all of those negative traits.

The facts are that when communities do not provide enough entertainment and recreational opportunities for their citizens, they suffer negative consequences.  Our community is very concerned about having healthy and fun social facilities that help to combat childhood obesity, diabetes, crime, drugs and gang activity.

This facility is such a positive step for the community in terms of providing a healthy, fun, social and physical outlet for our kids and adults, getting our young adolescents off the street and into healthy programs, helping to reduce childhood obesity and the potential for reducing drug use and crime as the former San Rafael chief of police had previously testified to in our design review hearing.

The San Rafael Sport Complex will allow many different sports groups year round access to indoor and outdoor facilities as well as many great programs, classes and activities.

Meeting the Needs of Seniors & Neighborhood Organizations
The indoor facility will have numerous meeting rooms that will be available to senior groups and local neighborhood organizations at no charge.  This project will greatly assist in providing more space in the community for our seniors to have recreational opportunities.  Special interest classes for seniors such as dance classes, yoga and other activities can be organized to keep our senior population active and healthy.

The San Rafael Sports Complex has something for everyone to cheer about and enhance our community’s quality of life.

This meeting is a public hearing to receive comments on the adequacy of the Final Environmental Impact Report.
Download and Read the Final Environmental Impact Report.

The San Rafael Airport Sports Complex was reviewed extensively by government agencies, aviation agencies and safety experts during an exhaustive 5 year Environmental Review Process. The Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) found no significant or potentially significant environmental impacts by the project after mitigation.  The EIR evaluated the project for environmental impacts in following areas:

• Land Use and Planning
• Aesthetics/Visual Impacts
• Air Quality
• Biological Resources
• Cultural Resources
• Geology and Soils
• Hazards and Hazardous Materials
• Hydrology and Water Quality
• Noise