One of Marin’s Biggest New Housing Projects Could Get Derailed By a Lawsuit

A group of neighbors is challenging Marin County’s approval of a major housing development project on the Tiburon Peninsula, arguing in a lawsuit filed this month that the county was wrong to allow plans to build residences on the slopes of a ridgetop.

The new buildings would be part of a large overhaul of the former Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary campus, a 127-acre site with academic buildings and residences in the unincorporated community of Strawberry covering prime hillsides overlooking the bay.

On June 9, the county approved developer North Coast Land Holdings’ plans to build 337 residential units that would include 70 low-income sites plus a 150-unit residential care facility, a daycare, fitness center and 944 parking spaces. The plans call for demolishing all but 13 existing residences and to preserve open spaces on the property.

But 40 of those market rate units in 25 buildings are too close to the ridgeline known as Chapel Hill “effectively blocking views of the Bay from many vantage points,” according to the lawsuit, filed July 6 in Marin County Superior Court by the Strawberry Residents for Sensible Development. The plaintiffs, who are also suing North Coast, argue the county’s decision violated both environmental laws and local plans governing future development. 

“The proposed development will be visibly dominant, overriding the existing prominence of the hilltop and blocking numerous views of the Bay and surrounding areas,” the plaintiffs said in the complaint. 

Representatives from North Coast Land Holdings and the Strawberry Residents for Sensible Development couldn’t immediately be reached Wednesday.

Sarah Jones, director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, said that the county was obligated to approve the plan under state housing laws that allow for certain waivers to residential developers. She noted that the proposed buildings would not be atop the hill but on its slopes. A judge will decide whether the project can move forward while the lawsuit makes its way through court, she said. 

The seminary, which once taught over 900 students, opened in the 1950s and moved its academic program to Southern California around 2014. Recently, the campus has been used by Olivet University, a private Christian university.

“It’s an iconic property,” Jones said. The seminary “was an institution in Strawberry, and now it’s going to a different future.”

The project had recently overcome efforts from a different group of neighbors who balked at earlier plans for a much larger school over safety concerns that it could generate too much traffic in the small community.

Riley Hurd, an attorney who lives in the area and represented that group, said that they reached a settlement agreement with North Coast after years of negotiations. According to Hurd, North Coast agreed to reduce the school from 1,000 to 325 commuter students for a graduate program, decrease the height of a building from six to three stories, prioritize housing for students and faculty and pause any additional development on the site for 15 years. 

“Unlike other controversial projects, the community was supportive of housing at the site, including low-income units,” Hurd said.