Strawberry residents, developer reach deal on seminary property

After years of conflict, Strawberry residents and a real estate developer have agreed to a compromise on the former Golden Gate Baptist Seminary property.

The agreement between the Seminary Neighborhood Association and North Coast Land Holdings will effectively limit the number of students allowed to commute to the redeveloped campus. It also contains other provisions designed to minimize traffic trips.

Andrew Giacomini, a lawyer representing North Coast Land Holdings, announced the deal to the Marin County Planning Commission on Monday, the first of two days of scheduled hearings on the latest development proposal. The commission’s next meeting is scheduled for March 30.

The commission is considering whether to recommend that county supervisors certify an environmental impact report on the development proposal. The report cost North Coast $1.64 million.

Commissioners also must decide whether to approve the project’s master plan and grant a North Coast request for an amendment to the Strawberry Community Plan.

Michael Gallagher, president of the Seminary Neighborhood Association, said the two sides signed the agreement the night before the commission meeting.

“So it is news to most people, including everyone who came here today to share their comments and concerns with the commission,” Gallagher said.

While Giacomini provided a brief sketch of the agreement, the county had not been provided a copy of the agreement at the time of the meeting. Some commissioners said the lack of information made their job more difficult.

“I think all of us came loaded for bear and ended up with a platypus in the room,” said Margaret Curran, a commissioner.

The proposal for the 127-acre site calls for 336 residences with 859 bedrooms that would replace 139 of the existing 152 housing sites. Seventy of the new dwellings would be reserved as below-market-rate housing.

The project also calls for a 267,354-square-foot residential care center that would contain 100 independent living apartments, 50 assisted living and memory care apartments and a 20,000-square-foot building for a preschool and fitness center.

The focal point of the agreement is North Coast’s plans for the academic campus, which is occupied by Olivet University, a private Christian university. Shortly after purchasing the property in 2014, North Coast proposed moving the Branson School in Ross to the campus. The plan would have allowed Branson to expand its enrollment of 320 students to as many as 1,000.

Branson abandoned the plan in 2017 following community opposition over concerns about increased traffic.

According to a county staff report, Olivet had just 100 students at the Seminary campus as of September 2020, down from 600 in 2015. Most students and their families live offsite and commute to the campus.

North Coast has maintained that a conditional use permit granted to the property’s former owner in 1953 entitles it to have as many as 1,000 students on the campus. The Seminary Neighborhood Association has repeatedly asked the company what its plans are for the campus and received no response.

Under the new agreement, North Coast pledged the campus will be limited to undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate or research program uses and will exclude primary and secondary education. Enrollees in excess of 325 will be required to reside on the project site in dwellings currently proposed as part of the project.

“Throughout our negotiations, the driving principle was to get the trip counts associated with the project down from a high in some of the projections of 4,800 coming from the site to no more than 3,000,” Gallagher said. “The school was the biggest driver of that.”

The agreement includes additional provisions that directly address traffic trips.

North Coast has pledged that for 15 years following the project approval, it will not seek additional development at the site if that would increase daily traffic trips by 5% or more above the number of trips associated with the current project plans, including the school use.

North Coast has agreed to the same traffic trip limit, with no time limit, associated with amendments or changes to the current project.

Other significant terms of the agreement include North Coast’s promise to limit use of the site’s fitness center and day care facilities to people who live or work onsite. If either fail to reach capacity, however, the facilities may be offered for use to people in the surrounding neighborhood.

In addition, North Coast has agreed to limit project buildings to no more than three stories, with the exception of three buildings within the Hodges/Shuck planning area, which cannot exceed four stories, and buildings in a seniors housing area. In return for the agreement, the Seminary Neighborhood Association board has pledged to take no legal action to challenge the project.

“This is an excellent solution for our neighbors and will further reduce traffic and environmental impacts associated with our project,” Bruce Jones, a North Coast representative, said in a statement.

Gallagher issued a statement cautioning that “various provisions of the mutually acceptable settlement depend on Marin County enacting changes and restrictions to the North Coast submitted project.”

These provisions relate to the limits on the type of students allowed and the number that will be permitted to commute to the campus. Provisions will also be required to lock in the limits on building heights.

Sarah Jones, director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, declined to say whether the county will be able to comply with this request.

“The County is encouraged that parties have reached an agreement which can help clarify expectations and provide a more stable foundation for the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors as they evaluate the project and the environmental record,” Jones wrote in an email.

Commissioners spent much of their time Monday discussing whether the conditional use permit issued to the seminary in 1953, allowing it to have around 1,000 students, is still binding. A master plan for the site that was approved by county supervisors in 1984 stated, “With approval of this Master Plan, the previously approved 1959 Campus Plan Use Permit shall become null and void and be of no further effect or benefit.”

Former planning commissioner Don Dickenson, who was the county’s projects planner when the 1984 master plan was created, said he recalled the campus plan.

“It showed the entire campus being used for this educational institution with housing only associated with the campus,” he said.

Deputy County Counsel Brandon Halter said, “The terminology following the word 1959 makes things a little complicated.”

Nevertheless, Halter said that since the county has been unable to locate any evidence of a campus plan he believes the passage refers to a 1959 road improvement agreement.

Commissioner Margot Biehle said, “I think that the conditional use permit/master plan issue is still in question, and my legal brain cannot get to the merits or the EIR until that is somewhat satisfied.”