Nov. 5--For the first time in decades, a development proposal for the Hanna Ranch property in Novato might gain enough traction to move through the civic approval process.

Positive feedback from the city's Design Review Commission on Wednesday has the property owner feeling good about its pitch for a hotel, restaurants and retail space on the 19-acre parcel north of the interchange of highways 37 and 101, just south of the Vintage Oaks shopping center.

"We're very pleased with the reaction," said principal partner Dennis Allen of Urban One, a Los Angeles development company that owns the land.

Only two years ago, residents protested vehemently against a proposed Home Depot store at the site, which in recent years has become a popular -- and illegal -- off-road vehicle park.

Urban One's tentative plans include a hotel of about 115 rooms and approximately 72,000 square feet in a flat portion of the property between three knolls. Farther north, along the eastern edge of the pond just south of Costco, would be a mix of retail and commercial spaces at the property's "panhandle" near the train tracks. There are two restaurants, possibly with views of the pond or the marshlands to the east, included in the plan.

The development would occupy 7.3 percent of the 19 acres, leaving most of the oak trees and vegetation. The Novato City Council has approved a three-building office complex on an adjacent 4.86-acre parcel, site of the former McPhail's concrete plant. West Bay Builders/Thompson

Development has yet to start building there.

Citizens expressed concern at Wednesday's workshop about how traffic would be affected on Rowland Way and wondered about possible vehicle access to Highway 37 or bike and pedestrian access from the Bel Marin Keys area south of 37. Others emphasized that the buildings and grounds be as sustainable as possible, but Urban One officials said they were not far enough along with plans to roll out "green" details.

"We've had several meetings with local environmental groups and will continue to do so in an attempt to best preserve the natural beauty and wildlife on and near the property," Allen said. "They like what we have done so far and are anxious to keep working with us."

Barbara Salzman, president of the Marin Aububon Society, said she is anxious, all right.

"It sounds sort of outlandish to me," Salzman said Thursday. "It's overkill for the site. ... Anything built between the pond and the marshland would block access for wildlife between the two. You can't have isolated wildland areas like that and surround them with development."

Hanna Ranch has a long history of projects that were discussed but not approved or unraveled for various other reasons.

Alan Lazure, the city's principal planner, said a large hotel and conference center was proposed in the early 1990s but was shelved because of how it drastically changed the topography and character of the land. There were unsuccessful attempts to build office complexes drawn up after that.

In 2004, development company Wilson Meany Sullivan proposed 95 townhouses and 25,000 square feet of retail space. Three years later, the firm was approached by Home Depot for a store that would have generated up to $600,000 a year in sales tax for the city. A large public outcry followed, and the application was yanked because an agreement couldn't be reached with the property owner.

A railroad station for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit passenger train was briefly considered for the site in 2007.

"There have been a lot of pretty bad suggestions made for this land, but this is pretty fresh," said Tom Telfer, an alternate design review commissioner. "I like what I've seen so far."

Allen said Urban One would seek another workshop with the Design Review Commission early in 2010. An environmental review would most likely follow, he said.

Read more Novato stories at the IJ's Novato section.

Contact Brent Ainsworth via e-mail at bainsworth@marinij.com

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