(via North Coast Land Holdings rendering at left)
On the Heels of the Unveiling of Marin County’s Largest Housing Development in Years, Spirit Residential Group, Also in Strawberry, Eyes a 150,655-square-foot building on a 6.6-acre parcel at 70 North Knoll Road
See links and info on both projects above.
At left, the final environmental review for a proposed development that would bring hundreds of housing units to the former Golden Gate Theological Seminary property is now available to the public, Marin County officials announced Monday. The proposal for the site on the county’s unincorporated Strawberry peninsula is available for public viewing and open for feedback through Jan. 26.
The old seminary site renovation would be the county’s largest private development project in many years. The 127-acre property off Seminary Drive is owned by North Coast Land Holdings LLC, which purchased the land after the seminary moved in 2015. Marin County has released the final environmental impact report for a large-scale redevelopment of the former Golden Gate Baptist Seminary property in Strawberry, kicking off a 45-day public comment period that ends Jan. 26. The 127-acre project at 201 Seminary Drive would transform the site into a mixed-use development with 336 single- and multifamily residential units — including 70 affordable units — and a 150-unit senior residential-care facility. The project also includes a 17,000-square-foot fitness center and a 3,000-square-foot preschool, both open to the public. While more than 70% of the campus would remain as open space, athletic fields, paths and plazas, the project would add about 530 new residents and about 250 new workers.
Project rendering from plans titled “Spirit Living Group Senior Housing” prepared by Trachtenberg Architects, August 7, 2025.
Now onto Spirit Residential Group.
A proposal for a five-story residential care center with 106 apartments in Strawberry has been approved ministerially without review by the Marin County Planning Commission or the Board of Supervisors.
The Marin Community Development Agency announced the decision on Tuesday.
Spirit Residential Group intends to construct the 150,655-square-foot building on a 6.6-acre parcel at 70 North Knoll Road. The project involves 71 independent living apartments with kitchens and 35 assisted living/memory care suites without kitchens.
The building will reach a height of 63 feet, 6 inches above grade and be built over a subterranean garage with 72 parking spaces.
“This is a prime example of how the housing element approved by the Board of Supervisors almost three years ago has changed land use in unincorporated Marin,” said Don Dickenson, a former planning commissioner.
The building will be located at the base of a hill in an area designated in the Marin Countywide Plan as “ridge and upland greenbelt” because of the “visually prominent ridgelines.” Restrictions on building in the “ridge and upland greenbelt” were eliminated in the county’s new housing element.
Dickenson said the allowable development of the site has gone from one house subject to design review under the old rules “to the now-approved over 150,000-square-foot, five-story building over a 72-car parking garage that requires massive grading of the hillside site.”
When Spirit Residential Group submitted its preliminary application in March 2024, the Marin County Community Development Agency said it failed to meet a number of requirements under the county’s form-based code. The code was created in hopes of getting developers to build smaller structures instead of fewer larger buildings. The code gives developers a variety of building sizes and types to choose from.
The final environmental impact report released for review includes responses to about 160 public comment letters, including oral testimony at a public hearing, on issues such as land use, project alternatives, geotechnical concerns, storm drain systems, and traffic and transportation impacts, according to the county.
The initial draft report for the property showed that the proposed project would result in significant and unavoidable impacts related to greenhouse gas emissions, temporary construction noise and vehicle miles traveled, according to the county.
After additional study and analysis, which included consideration of public comments, the final report identified no new impacts, and none of the conclusions in the draft report significantly changed, according to the county.
Marin County Community Development Agency staff will bring recommendations regarding the certification of the final report and approval of the project to the County Planning Commission in March. The commission will then make a recommendation for a Board of Supervisors decision. A final review by the Board of Supervisors is expected by late spring.
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The fight over one of the largest residential projects in Marin County began heating up dating back to 2020.
Developer North Coast Land Holdings proposed redeveloping the former Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary campus adjacent to Mill Valley in 2020 and has been working on the plan since.
North Coast then wanted to build 337 residential units, including replacements for existing units, on the 100-acre site as well as renovate the existing campus. Those homes would accommodate about 850 residents, including those living at a proposed senior residential care facility. Up to 50 of the units would be affordable for low-income families.
The project also involves creating a day care and fitness center, as well as outdoor recreation spaces, and renovating spaces used by Olivet University, a private Christian university on site. The seminary, which once taught more than 900 students on the campus, left for Southern California in 2014. The site is on unincorporated land near the Strawberry neighborhood.
The project highlights the county’s efforts to meet its state-mandated housing targets, Sarah Jones, Marin County director of community development, told the Chronicle. Marin County’s housing goal is to permit 14,210 units by 2031, while the housing target for unincorporated Marin County, which includes the North Coast development, is 3,569 units.
“This type of project is something that is unprecedented in our unincorporated county,” Jones said. She said the state is prioritizing adding a variety of housing to well-off neighborhoods with abundant resources, “as this project would do.”
Additional housing projects have been created with county housing targets in mind, where underperforming shopping centers have been considered as sites to create new neighborhoods.
The report, which took more than three years to finish, highlights the project’s impact, including traffic and noise. Neighbors have objected to the size of the project, lobbying against it since it was announced.
Famed architect Mark Cavagnero, who designed the project, did not return calls seeking comment, but he told the Chronicle in 2019 that the fight has “been a big, big, big taste of NIMBYism the likes of which I’ve never experienced.”
“There is no property anywhere near this size anywhere in southern Marin, if not all of Marin, that would be available and zoned for housing,” Cavagnero said at the time. “This is important not only for the housing we can build — workforce housing, affordable housing, senior housing — but also on an exemplary basis.”
The county’s principal planner for the project, Michelle Levenson, confirmed that Mark Cavagnero Associates is still the architectural firm working on the construction plans.
Riley Hurd, an attorney for the Seminary Neighborhood Association, which has long opposed the project, called the proposed construction timeline of four years “nothing short of comical,” adding that he “wouldn’t be surprised if this was a minimum of a 10-year construction project.” He said a longer construction timeline would mean great environmental impact. Levenson said she stands behind the timeline in the report.
The 411: The Seminary at Strawberry is located at 201 Seminary Drive. MORE INFO.Want to know what’s happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!
Vern Shughart
Dear writer:
Haven’t you heard about,1,420 new residenced in Terra Linda?