A rendering of proposed residential building at 150 Shoreline Highway in Mill Valley. (The Pacific Companies)
Per the Marin IJ, on the heels of Marin County Superior Court Judge Stephen Freccero nullifying approvals for millions of dollars in tax-exempt bond funding for a proposed apartment building in Marin City, the developer said at the time that the project – split between two developments, one at 825 Drake Ave. and 32 relocated apartments on a half-acre site at 150 Shoreline Highway, which the company purchased for $1.8 million. The 150 Shoreline location is near the Holiday Inn Express and Floodwater.
The proposed project at 150 Shoreline Highway calls for a five-story building in an area that has been classified as a flood zone by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The California Department of Transportation is contemplating including the site in a sea-level rise project. The project was scheduled to be reviewed by the Tamalpais Design Review Board on Wednesday, but Amy Kalish, the board’s chair, said she decided to remove it from the agenda after reviewing the application.
“The designs did not reflect the site constraints,” Kalish told the Marin IJ. “It literally did not look like a design that had been produced for that site.” Kalish said that despite the risk of flooding at the location, the drawings showed windows placed at ground level. “Even the tree selections, when I checked them, none of them could have tolerated living there because their roots wouldn’t tolerate brackish water,” she said.
Doug Wallace, another member of the board, said the plan “repeats the historical injustice of pushing lower-income people to marginal housing sites.” “That is my main critique,” he said. “I find that highly objectionable.”
In 2021, county supervisors approved a plan to build a two-story building with 10 studio apartments and 11 hotel rooms at the site. The building was to have been constructed on a 3-foot-high concrete plinth base to protect it from flooding during a 100-year storm event.
Market conditions changed, however, and the developer abandoned the project.
Caleb Roope, chief executive officer of the Pacific Companies, agreed to relocate the planned apartments from the project at 824 Drake Ave. in Marin City to 150 Shoreline Highway as a means of easing criticism of the Marin City development.
“This building is just one monolithic structure,” Kalish said. “I would like to see it broken up.”
“I’m very concerned about the visual impact. This is a gateway to much of the rest of Marin,” Wallace said. “I consider it an eyesore.”
Here’s the prior story on the proposed project and related hurdles.
Updates and information about the Marin City project can be found on the 825 Drake webpage. Shoreline Highway project updates and information can also be found online.