Body of News Release
San Rafael, CA – A draft environmental impact report is now completed and available for public viewing on a proposed development on Marin County’s unincorporated Strawberry peninsula.
The property owner, North Coast Land Holdings, LLC (NCLH), submitted an application for redevelopment of the 127-acre property that was formerly the site of the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, which relocated its students to other campuses in 2015. It would be Marin’s largest private development project in many years.
The Marin County Community Development Agency (CDA) has posted a draft environmental impact report (EIR), completed under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The report shows that the proposed project would result in significant and unavoidable impacts related to greenhouse gas emissions, temporary construction noise, and vehicle miles travelled.
The proposed project includes construction of a new residential care facility with up to 100 independent and 50 assisted living and memory care apartments for older adults and 336 single- and multi-family residential units that would replace a majority of the existing residential housing. Fifty of the proposed residential units would be reserved as below-market-rate housing.
In addition, North Coast’s proposal includes a 3,000-square-foot preschool and 17,000-square-foot fitness center that would be open to the public. A 15,800 square foot addition is proposed as part of the renovation of the Administration Building, resulting in a 41,000 square foot building. No changes to the educational use of the site are proposed.
More than 70% of the former seminary would be preserved as open space, athletic fields, paths, and plazas.
The County’s draft EIR includes all of the topical impact areas required by CEQA, including aesthetics, biological resources, cultural resources, energy, greenhouse gas emissions, land use and planning, noise, population and housing, recreation, transportation, and wildfire. CDA has mailed notices to nearby residents and the public comment period is open through 4 PM on September 16. The comment period has been extended beyond the required 45 days to provide additional time for community and public agency review. Comments can be emailed to CDA’s Environmental Planning Division.
The Marin County Planning Commission will host a public hearing on the draft EIR on September 9, wherein members of the public are invited to attend and submit oral and written comments on the adequacy of the EIR. Meanwhile, CDA staff will gather public comments received before then and share them with the Planning Commission prior to the September 9 meeting.
Learn more about the proposed project on the CDA website or by calling 415-473-3615. Anyone may subscribe to receive emailed updates on the planning and environmental review process.
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Requests for accommodations may be made by calling 415-473-4381 (voice) 473-3232 (TDD/TTY) or by email at least four work days in advance of the event. Copies of documents are available in alternative formats, upon request.