Alameda waterfront
Sausalito votes · November 3, 2026
Measure X allows oversized buildings on our waterfront — and takes away your vote to stop them
Measure X reaches far beyond the Marinship. Its 266-page rewrite of Sausalito’s zoning rules affects every resident and every part of the city. If it passes, all of it becomes law.
Measure X is not a vision. It is a deeply flawed zoning rewrite.
Measure X is promoted with pretty promises of what it will do to help artists and makers and to generate money to prepare for sea-level rise. Those are worthy goals, but details matter. Measure X does the opposite.
Repeals protections and funding
As documented in the City’s independent reports, Measure X repeals existing protections for artists, makers, and maritime businesses and repeals the only existing rule in Sausalito’s municipal code that requires developers to pay their share of infrastructure costs.
What Measure X really does is authorize much larger commercial buildings on our most vulnerable land and take away zoning authority from Sausalito voters—handing that power to any three Council members, now or in the future, to make deals with developers without voter approval.
Massive "one-size fits all" upzoning
Measure X increases how much can be built on every waterfront lot by 900%, from the Spinnaker Restaurant all the way north to Highway 101, and by 650% in the Marinship along Bridgeway and east to the bay. All without any overall environmental review or development plan, while also repealing access and view protections.
A citywide drafting error
The City’s independent legal review found that Measure X’s own text would classify every existing use in Sausalito as legally nonconforming. In plain English, your home or business could stay—but enlarging or structurally altering it could require a special permit. If you voluntarily left it vacant for six months, you could lose the right to move back in or reopen it.
Measure X supporters may say the City can fix this later. But Measure X limits the City’s power to amend it, and any correction would have to fit that authority. Why would we want to knowingly enact a citywide drafting error in the first place?
Protections that do not protect
Even when Measure X tries to protect something, it gets it wrong. Its promised protections for the ICB Building and historic Arques Shipyard do not define or map the properties. The city’s independent legal review called the protections “vague and unenforceable.” And because Measure X singles out those two properties without explaining why, the review warned that, once the locations were clarified, the City could face a regulatory-takings challenge.
The City’s staff and independent reports identified additional conflicts, ambiguities, and drafting errors in Measure X. If it passes, all 266 pages—errors and all—become law.
We do not have to make Measure X’s problems our own. Simply vote No.
40 years of voter protection
Measure X takes away our vote on nearly all waterfront and commercial zoning
Today
After Measure X
Measure X comes with more costs
Pushes Bridgeway traffic past its limits
Bridgeway is already headed toward “intolerable delay” from nearly 1,000 authorized homes along and near the corridor. Measure X would pile far more commercial traffic onto Sausalito’s one main road. That added burden could make the housing Sausalito has already planned harder and more expensive to deliver.
New risks for artists and makers
Measure X is promoted as helping artists and makers sell what they create—but they can already do that. What it actually does is open the Marinship to higher-paying uses that independent reviewers warn could raise rents and displace the people it promises to help.
Developers profit; We get the bill
Measure X allows large new buildings on vulnerable shoreline land and repeals the one existing rule requiring developers to pay their share of infrastructure costs. It contains no flood-protection project and no funding plan to pay for one. Developers get more valuable building rights; residents could be left with the bill.
There’s a Better Way
We can have the waterfront we want — without Measure X
Solve the problems.Don’t gamble the waterfront.
We all want a working waterfront, support for artists and makers, relief from flooding, and a city that can get things done. But the choice is not between Measure X and nothing. There is a Better Way.
Measure X substitutes an extreme, one-size-fits-all upzoning for the practical work Sausalito actually needs. Measure X starts with how much developers can build. The Better Way starts with what our community needs, what our roads can handle, and which land is actually suitable for development.
Make practical improvements now. Plan for the housing already authorized. Choose solutions that fit each place. Include new development where it can be supported. On our most vulnerable shoreline parcels, the most sensible answer may be not to add major new fixed buildings at all.
1Make practical improvements nowHelp the working waterfront directly and reduce flooding now—without a massive upzoning.
Help artists, craftspeople, fishermen, boatbuilders, and marine trades directly. The City Council can consider targeted code changes that add compatible uses and give makers more flexibility without opening the Marinship to massive new buildings and higher-paying office uses.
Makers can already sell what they create in up to 15% of their space. The City can consider allowing more accessory retail within existing development limits and strengthen the working waterfront, larger changes can come to voters.
Use pumps, tide gates and other drainage improvements where they can reduce flooding now. Near-term action does not have to wait for a speculative future stream of development revenue.
None of this requires Measure X.
2Make the housing already authorized workPlan honestly for nearly 1,000 new homes before adding millions of square feet of commercial capacity to the same one-road corridor.
Sausalito has authorized nearly 1,000 new homes along and near Bridgeway. Those homes matter, and we need to plan for them honestly.
Bridgeway is our one main road and a critical emergency route. Update the traffic and public-safety analysis to include the housing already authorized. Then limit additional development to what our roads, intersections, and emergency network can safely support.
Measure X would authorize millions of square feet of commercial development on top of the housing commitment. That additional traffic and infrastructure demand could make the homes Sausalito has already planned harder and more expensive to deliver.
Plan for the housing first. Do not jeopardize it with an unrelated blanket commercial upzoning.
3Build on suitable land—not our most vulnerable shorelineFind the right places for development before changing the zoning; do not build a flood plan around new fixed buildings on flood-exposed land.
Measure X is not confined to the Marinship. It applies extreme new rules to Waterfront parcels from beside the Spinnaker through the Marinship and toward the north end of town—including some of Sausalito's lowest, most flood-exposed land.
Finish the shoreline plan before rezoning that land. Decide what should be protected, raised, restored, floated, adapted, or left open. Identify parcels that are actually suitable for new buildings, then consider development rules that fit those places.
Building more fixed private property in the path of rising water is not a flood plan. It can create more buildings, utilities, roads, and private value that the public will face pressure to protect later. Future development revenue is uncertain, arrives only after development, and is not dedicated to shoreline adaptation.
Do not upzone the most vulnerable parcels in the hope that the resulting development will somehow pay to protect itself.
4Keep responsibility clearDevelopment pays its share, the facts determine the plan, and voters retain the final say on major zoning changes.
Put real numbers behind roads, drainage, shoreline adaptation, public services, and long-term maintenance before changing the zoning. Make the costs, expected revenue, timing, and funding gap public.
Require every new project to pay its fair share of the infrastructure and adaptation it requires. Do not shift private development costs onto residents.
Write zoning changes clearly, examine their full consequences, and bring major changes to voters one proposal at a time. The facts should determine the answer; the studies should not be used to justify a buildout chosen in advance.
With the Better Way, Sausalito can move forward with confidence: practical action now, responsible planning, and development based on facts.
To move forward on that path, we must reject Measure X. Vote NO.
Choose the Better Way.
Vote NO on Measure X
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