A Black entrepreneur who faced burdensome red tape and resistance from officials in Marin County, California, when he tried to renovate and sell floating homes in two tony waterfront communities filed a federal lawsuit claiming racial discrimination.
Deitrick Burks bought three floating homes from Docktown Marina in Redwood City in 2019 with a plan to fix them up and move them to the more upscale Kappas Marina and Waldo Point Harbor floating home communities in Sausalito, 36 miles north, and then to sell them at a tidy profit.
The first floating home, which he renovated and sold in partnership with Gary Star, a white investor who had experience in Sausalito real estate and acted as the face of the project, sailed through the permitting process with no issues and was sold at fair market value, according to his lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in California on Aug. 19 (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star).
Burks and Star were only required to obtain an occupancy permit to relocate the floating home to Sausalito prior to the sale…