Dick Spotswood: Design, compatibility key for Strawberry plan

That fear of change is vocal when it comes to new housing. It’s often prompted both by poor design and associated traffic impacts.

Change comes hard for most Marin residents. We live in one of the most desirable locales in America. The county is physically beautiful, graced with a mild climate, economically prosperous, a well-educated citizenry and clean politics. No place is perfect. Traffic congestion remains a concern, housing is expensive – particularly for our workforce – and the North Bay is short of one essential natural resource: water.

It’s also inevitable that change never stops.

One spot facing change is the Strawberry Peninsula. It’s an unincorporated neighborhood across Highway 101 from Mill Valley. It is bordered on the east by Tiburon.

That fear of change is vocal when it comes to new housing. It’s often prompted both by poor design and associated traffic impacts. The first failing can be countered by excellence in architecture. The second, traffic, may just be inevitable.

As the IJ reports, “North Coast Land Holdings LLC has applied for development on the former Golden Gate Baptist Seminary property on the Strawberry Peninsula in (unincorporated) Mill Valley.”

The proposal shouldn’t be a surprise. Since the seminary moved to Southern California in 2018, multiple visions for the future of the scenic 127-acre site have been floated. All involve housing and some academic use.

The latest proposal includes well-chosen components that, as a whole, will be beneficial for Southern Marin and adjacent neighbors. The good news is that “more than 70% of the site will be preserved as open space and athletic fields.”

Possible uses include a new residential care facility with up to 100 independent and 50 assisted living and memory care apartments for senior citizens. Elder care is a pressing need since Marin has one of the oldest populations among California’s 58 counties. There’ll also be 36 single- and multi-family residential units. Strawberry-Tiburon residents will appreciate a new preschool and public fitness center.

It’s fair to argue about the number of residences that will be reserved for below market-rate housing. Since that category is Marin’s greatest housing need, that may be a topic of negotiations with county planners. As Strawberry is unincorporated, final permitting decisions are made by the Marin County Board of Supervisors, with Southern Marin Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters playing a major role.

A current tenant, Olivet University, a private Christian school, has 100 students. It will remain. Under the county’s current use permit, it may expand its student body to 1,000. That goal may take decades to achieve.

One dilemma that will not evaporate with any use of the old seminary is traffic. It’s inevitable. It’s just the nature of change and more housing. While beneficial, additional public transit or increased cycling will realistically do little to decrease the traffic impact.

Which brings us to design. There is very little that was architecturally special about the old seminary.

This presents a terrific opportunity for county planners to demand that North Coast Land Holdings present new structures that reflect excellence. As the writer Will Durant says, “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution.”

As architecture students are taught: Good design costs no more.

When I drive by the north Novato development called “Verandah at Valley Oaks,” which is visible from Highway 101, I see about 126 units in four-story structures situated on farmland. It stands out like a sore thumb. Its cookie-cutter architecture is the opposite of the organic design advocated by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Strawberry is a golden opportunity for the county to approve this project only if its design and compatibility with the land achieves excellence. There’s plenty of time before the site’s plan is finalized. Now is the time to do it right.

Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes on local issues Sundays and Wednesdays. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.