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’s promises sound good.Its 266 pages tell a very different story.
Measure X is promoted as a way to empower residents, help artists, makers, and maritime businesses, generate money for infrastructure, and prepare for sea-level rise. Those are worthy goals.
But Measure X does the opposite.
Hands zoning power to three Council members
Measure X takes away zoning authority from Sausalito voters—handing that power to any three Council members to make deals with developers without voter approval.
Repeals protections for artists and makers
Instead of helping artists, makers, and maritime businesses, Measure X literally repeals the existing rules that protect them.
Repeals the rule requiring developers to pay their share
Rather than funding infrastructure, Measure X repeals the only existing rule in Sausalito’s municipal code that requires developers to pay their share of infrastructure costs.
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.
Measure X does this without any overall environmental review or development plan, while also repealing access and view protections.
Measure X is the opposite of planning.
A citywide drafting error threatens every home and business
The City’s independent legal review found that Measure X’s would add new “strict limitations on expansion of all uses in the City” by classifying every structure and use as nonconforming.
In plain English, your home or business could stay—but enlarging or structurally altering it would require a special permit. If you voluntarily left it vacant for six months, you would lose the right to move back in or reopen it.
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 language “vague and unenforceable.”
“Fix it later” is not so easy
Measure X supporters may say the City can fix these problems and the many other conflicts, ambiguities, and drafting errors later. But how long would that take? Measure X defines the City’s power to amend it, and any correction would have to fit that authority and timeline. If Measure X passes, all 266 pages—errors and all—become law.
Why would we knowingly enact those errors in the first place?
Don’t make Measure X’s flaws Sausalito’s law. Vote No.
Measure X would make Sausalito’s real challenges harder to solve.
Pushes Bridgeway traffic past its limits
Nearly 1,000 homes are already planned or newly zoned along and near Bridgeway. Independent analysis projects that housing traffic alone could push intersections into “intolerable delay”—before traffic from Measure X’s 11.7 million square feet of commercial capacity is added. That additional burden could make those homes harder and more expensive to build.
See the numbers behind the gridlock warningCould crowd out artists and makers
Measure X would let office-type businesses, retail, restaurants, fitness, and other higher-paying uses compete for space now occupied by artists, makers, and maritime businesses. Independent reviewers warn that the people Measure X promises to help could be priced out by tenants able to pay more.
See the protections Measure X would repealDevelopers profit; we get the bill
Measure X authorizes much larger buildings on flood-exposed shoreline land. Supporters say development will pay for infrastructure and sea-level-rise protection, but have presented no analysis showing how much revenue it would generate—or whether it would be enough. City staff says indirect revenue alone is unlikely to meet infrastructure needs. Owners get the building rights now; Sausalito gets no guarantee development will pay the bill.
See who gets the rights—and who could get 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. Measure X is not the only way forward.
Measure X starts with what should be offered to developers. The Better Way starts with what our community needs, what our roads can handle, and which land is actually suitable for development.
1Make practical improvements nowSupport the working waterfront and reduce flooding 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 to 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 for nearly 1,000 new homes before adding millions of square feet of commercial capacity.
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 shorelineChoose suitable sites before changing the zoning 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 clearDevelopers pay their share, facts guide the plan, and voters keep the final say.
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.
Measure X is not a conversation starter. It would put its extreme upzoning and reckless repeals into law before Sausalito has done the necessary traffic, shoreline, and funding work. To ensure Better Way, we must reject Measure X.
Vote NO on Measure X
Join your neighbors. Sign up to help defeat Measure X.