Body of News Release
Marin County, CA – A major mixed-use residential and community-serving development in southern Marin County is scheduled for the Board of Supervisors’ June 9 agenda following more than a decade of planning and public input.
Scheduled for consideration are a public hearing and the approvals tied to a 337-unit proposal for the former Golden Gate Theological Seminary property on the unincorporated Strawberry peninsula, including the final environmental impact report (EIR), a master plan, and related land use permits.
Redevelopment planning for the property has been in the works since North Coast purchased the property after the seminary relocated to Southern California in 2015. The proposal would replace aging buildings with a mixed-use residential and community-serving neighborhood that includes a variety of housing types including senior care, childcare facilities, continued educational use and preserved open space. Approximately 70% of the property -- one of the largest remaining redevelopment opportunities in southern Marin -- would be retained as recreational or open space.
After receiving input and a recommendation to approve the project by the Marin County Planning Commission in March, the Board will be the final decision maker on the county’s largest private development project in many years. All the details will be in the staff report prepared by the Marin County Community Development Agency (CDA). In addition to the staff report, a slide deck with more details will be published on the Board’s website as part of the regular agenda on the afternoon of Thursday, June 4.
The June 9 meeting will take place both online and in-person at the Board of Supervisors chamber, Suite 330, at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael. The North Coast Land Holdings hearing is scheduled first on the policy agenda and will take place after ceremonial items and the consent calendar, likely in the late morning.
The property at 201 Seminary Drive includes nine parcels. The center of the former campus is about half a mile east of Highway 101. North Coast proposes to construct 184 new residential units and a new residential care facility for seniors while renovating 139 existing residential units and an existing academic building. The residential care facility would offer up to 100 independent and assisted living and 50 memory care apartments for older adults. Tentative plans show for the relocation of an existing day care center to a new building that would also house a fitness center.
The new buildings would replace a majority of the existing residential housing on the site, which has been there since the early 1980s. Seventy of the proposed new residential units would be reserved as below-market-rate housing. All 70 will be offered at 80% of the average median income for Marin County, which is $168,100 for a household of four.
The Board’s hearing regarding the 101-acre development footprint follows years of environmental review, public meetings, and more than 11 hours of Planning Commission deliberations earlier this year. Community feedback during the process focused on issues including project scale, traffic, neighborhood compatibility, safety, and construction impacts. In response to public input and continued discussions with neighborhood representatives, the applicant, North Coast Land Holdings, LLC, agreed to several project refinements this spring, including reduced building heights for some residential buildings and limitations on future institutional uses and commuter student enrollment.
“When this proposal first came to the County a decade ago, it was a stand-alone proposal for expanded housing in Marin,” CDA Director Sarah Jones said. “Over the many years of public input and environmental review, the proposal has evolved to balance housing needs, open space preservation, community amenities, and the site’s longstanding institutional character. What we have before the Board is a project that would increase housing supply in a way that’s considerate of the context and nature of this extraordinary property.”
On June 9, the Board will consider the final EIR and a master plan that would guide future development of the site as well as other project entitlements and project conditions many of which were identified in the project EIR to reduce environmental effects of the project. The final EIR was completed in December 2025, and the Planning Commission recommended March 30, 2026, that it be certified by the BOS.
Because the project requires discretionary County approvals, it underwent a multiyear environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), including multiple public hearings and opportunities for community input.
Anyone may subscribe to receive emailed updates from the CDA Planning Division about the planning and environmental review process.
Supervisors’ meetings are livestreamed on the County website and aired locally on Channel 27 for Comcast and AT&T U-Verse subscribers. Meeting participation guidelines are provided on the County website as well.