The Marin County Planning Commission on Monday green-lit a massive redevelopment on the site of a former seminary in Strawberry, advancing a long-debated project that may transform the former religious campus into a mixed-use community with housing, education and open space.
The commission sent the proposal to the Marin County Board of Supervisors, which will make the final decision.
If approved, the Seminary at Strawberry would include 337 residential units, including newly constructed housing and a large senior care facility, along with childcare and recreation areas.
Currently, there are over 300 people in 139 low-cost rental units scattered across the property who will be displaced to make way for the redevelopment of the 127-acre property. Those older apartments will be replaced with new affordable units with deed restrictions at 80% of the area median income. As of April 2025, the median income for a household of two in Marin County was $148,000, so a low-income household would be defined as making around $123,800 a year.
Roughly 70% of the property, which overlooks Richardson Bay, would remain undeveloped open space, including two new public parks.
Planning commissioners added some other specifics along with their approvals, such as keeping a hilltop park without trees to preserve an open view and allowing a fitness center and daycare facility to be more broadly available to the Strawberry community.
Planning Commission Chair Gregory Stepanicich said he appreciates the emphasis on maintaining the area’s natural beauty.
“What I like about it is the preservation of open space and also there are different sub-neighborhoods within the development,” he said. “That really does provide variety. All the homes aren’t just put together as in a typical subdivision, which I would not have wanted to see on that beautiful piece of property.”
Education to continue at Strawberry
Since 1953, when the property was first developed by the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, the land has carried a permit that authorizes a school with approximately 1,000 students, plus faculty and staff. The old seminary campus is now temporarily leased by Olivet University, a private Christian college with a few hundred enrollees.
There was a 12-year standoff over the proposals environmental impact report between the developer North Coast Land Holdings LLC and the Seminary Neighborhood Association, a nonprofit association of Strawberry residents that formed in response to the seminary’s plan to redevelop. That dispute ended earlier this month when they reached an agreement.
“What I like about it is the preservation of open space. … All the homes aren’t just put together as in a typical subdivision, which I would not have wanted to see on that beautiful piece of property.”
Gregory Stepanicich, Planning Commission Chair
Under the agreement, there must be a college or college-level research program on site. No more than 325 students may commute to the campus. Any additional students would need to live on campus, a measure intended to reduce daily car trips in the Strawberry area. North Coast representative Andrew Giacomini said that part of the agreement is forever.
“The only things that are temporal are the limitations on future development, where we’ve agreed that for 15 years we will not seek future development other than what’s already shown on our drawings,” Giacomini said, referring to another point in the agreement. There are also height limits that limit most buildings to no more than three stories.
Giacomini said that there is a capacity right now for the developer to ask for up to 606 units, according to state bonus density laws if affordability requirements are met, but the developer is only asking for approval to build 337 units.
Commissioner Margaret Curran questioned Giacomini about what the developer’s rights or obligations might be in 15 years, and he answered that would depend on whatever the laws and codes will be at that time.
“(The neighbors) were just trying to protect against us from getting this entitlement and then coming right back in and trying to get the rest of the housing that’s allowed under law,” Giacomini said.
Concerns for displaced apartment dwellers
Margot Biehle was the only commission member who voted against the EIR recommendation and voiced concern about the 320 people who will be displaced by the demolition and construction.
Commissioner Leila Monroe followed up on her point.
“I am very surprised that we didn’t hear from anyone who lives in any of those units,” said Monroe. “I understand that some of them were canvassed and that they potentially know about this project, but that’s a question I have: do they know about the project?”
“Almost everybody on that site is in some kind of affordable housing situation,” said Biehle. “And we are replacing the number of units with 70 units that are going to be technically affordable, but they are not going to be affordable to the people who live there currently. It’s going to reduce the absolute number of affordable units on the site.”
Biehle placed the blame on a suite of state laws meant to accelerate housing construction. According to a county staff report, Marin County’s ability to deny or downsize housing projects that meet legal standards is extremely limited. The state density bonus law mandates that local governments allow developers to build 50% or more units if their projects include a certain percentage of affordable housing.
“They’re not considering what we are replacing, right?” Biehle said. “I feel like our hands are somewhat tied. We have an affordable housing crisis in this county. I think that it is our responsibility as a commission to pay very close attention to that. I think that we are losing here, we are missing out, and we are not serving our community.”
