Black Real Estate Investor Sues Marin County, Alleging Racism Through Red Tape

A Black real estate investor filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Monday, alleging Marin County officials used its permitting system to racially discriminate against him when he tried to do business in two exclusive waterfront communities.

Dietrick Burks said he was hit with burdensome, expensive and unlawful permitting requirements when he attempted to relocate three floating homes to affluent waterfront neighborhoods in Sausalito. His experience adds to that of other Black homeowners who have reported racial discrimination in the North Bay.

“I just wanted an opportunity,” Burks said. “It was stressful, very stressful. I just couldn’t believe it — not in the world that we live in today.”

In an emailed statement to KQED, Marin County Director of Communications Laine Hendricks said the county had not yet been served with the lawsuit, but will carefully review it and respond through the legal process once it is received. She added that the county’s building policies “are applied uniformly and are not motivated by race.”

According to court documents, Burks purchased three floating homes in 2019 from the Docktown Marina in Redwood City. He had planned to relocate them to Kappas Marina and Waldo Point Harbor — two waterfront communities — in Sausalito, where he would renovate and resell them.

When Burks renovated and sold his first floating home in Kappas Marina, he worked with a white business partner and did not face permitting issues, according to the suit. The home was sold at fair-market value.

But after the Kappas Marina and Waldo Point floating home communities learned that Burks was in charge of the homes’ relocation and renovation, he said he started to face targeted opposition.

The permitting process that followed, he told KQED, was “unreal.”

The lawsuit states that Bill Kelley, the county’s chief building official, worked with other county staff to change the building code, requiring all floating homes relocated to Sausalito marinas to be considered “new construction” and therefore subject to additional requirements.

Owners of relocated homes would also have to provide extensive documentation about the history and origin of the floating home and would require a licensed marine surveyor or civil engineer to review and verify the home’s dimensions, among other new rules.

Burks said those rules were enforced on his projects before being formally approved by the Board of Supervisors.

Nor were they applied universally, he said. In the three years it took for him to relocate his first floating home to Kappas Marina, Burks said he made a lot of relationships with community members. Soon, some decided to purchase and relocate floating homes themselves.

“[The homes] were permitted in a fraction of the time I got my permit, without having to do a fraction of what I had to do,” he said. “And they were much larger in size and dimensions. It’s very disappointing.”

The lawsuit claims the delays in permitting added significant interest payments and operational costs, causing Burks to sell some of his floating homes at below-market rate values. He now awaits a court date for a preliminary hearing, which he expects will be set within 90 days of filing the lawsuit.

“Sometimes you have to touch the stove to remind yourself that it’s still hot,” said Andanté Pointer, Burks’ lawyer. “NIMBYism is alive and well, and this one has a racial animus tint to it.”

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