Nearly a decade after being decommissioned as housing by the United States Coast Guard, the 33-acre site on the outskirts of Point Reyes Station has cleared another significant hurdle on its path to becoming affordable housing.
In a monumental step forward for West Marin, an area chronically plagued by housing shortages, the Marin County Deputy Zoning Administrator approved the redevelopment proposal at a hearing last Thursday.
The project, led by the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin in partnership with affordable housing developer Eden Housing, aims to adapt 10 boxy, two-story buildings into 36 townhouses, convert former barracks into apartments and repurpose an existing galley with a commercial-grade kitchen into a community space.
Built in 1972, the complex once provided housing for Coast Guard employees and their families, including close to 60 enlisted ranks. At its peak, the facility housed about 185 residents, many of whom worked at the Communication Area Master Station Pacific, which operated a receiver near Abbotts Lagoon until its decommissioning in 2015.
Now languishing, the abandoned buildings were once a neighborhood.
Historian Dewey Livingston described the compound as a “vibrant community” that enriched Point Reyes Station—students populated West Marin School, spouses worked in local businesses, and residents coached little league, joined clubs and served on boards.
“The neighborhood was a special attraction to kids from all over during Halloween, with so many concentrated residences offering treats and scares,” he remembered. But once they were gone, “it turned into a ghost town.”
After a successful lobbying effort by local advocates, the county purchased the site in 2019, with a mandate to set it aside for affordable housing. CLAM and Eden Housing, the latter of which manages over 160 properties across California, secured the redevelopment rights in 2020 with unanimous support from the Board of Supervisors.
The planned revitalization will offer 54 units of varying sizes: 15 one-bedroom units, five two-bedroom units, 27 three-bedroom units, and seven four-bedroom units. The former dormitory will be reimagined as accessible, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant one-bedroom apartments for seniors. Those units will come with wheelchair-friendly sidewalks, accessible parking, wider doorways and updated stairwells to enhance mobility, according to project manager Tom McCafferty.
The average price tag for building each unit? A staggering $1 million.
“Just because it is affordable doesn’t mean it costs any less to build,” said Sarah Allen, a project developer with Eden Housing. “It’s the same contractors, it’s the same price of lumber.”
With county permits in place, the developers are turning their focus to fundraising. The total project cost is estimated at $59 million, including $36 million for construction. Initial funding has come from a patchwork of federal low-income housing tax credits, state and county contributions, Section 8 subsidies, a grant from the Marin Community Foundation and individual donations. But roughly $11 million is still needed. Construction is expected to begin in May 2026, with the first residents moving in by the end of 2027—nearly four years behind the original schedule.
It’s not uncommon for an affordable housing project to be mired for many years in paperwork. “It’s a glacial process,” said Marshall Livingston, a former CLAM board president. “I always say, it takes twice as long and costs twice as much.”
Despite the delays, the project will eventually provide 53 affordable housing units (one unit is reserved for staff) to a region that has struggled to tame rising housing costs. Nine units will be earmarked for households earning less than 30 percent of the area’s median income, or A.M.I., while 35 units will be dedicated for those earning 50 percent of the A.M.I. and nine units will go to those earning 60 percent of the A.M.I.
CLAM and Eden will dole out the units by drawing applicants at random. Funding restrictions prevent them from giving preference to local residents, limiting the project’s ability to combat local displacement.
Affordable housing, defined as costing no more than one third of a household’s income, often falls short of this promise in high-cost areas like Marin.
“If we’re spending more than 30 percent of our monthly income on rent, we are considered rent-burdened,” said Jarrod Russell, who took the helm this summer as CLAM’s executive director. “This means there’s little left over to cover other living expenses, save for the future, or achieve financial security.”
Rental rates are determined based on the area median income, a figure determined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Marin County’s A.M.I. falls within the broader San Francisco metro area, a region that has consistently reported the highest median incomes in California for the past eight years. For 2024, HUD set the median income at $149,300 for a two-person household. Yet the median household income in Point Reyes Station is starkly lower, at just $60,714, according to the United States Census Bureau.
The disparity highlights a fundamental challenge: With the 100 percent A.M.I. benchmark tens of thousands of dollars higher than the real median income in Point Reyes Station, what is marketed as affordable housing based on regional standards remains out of reach for many local families.
For a family earning 50 percent of the A.M.I., a two-bedroom unit in the Coast Guard neighborhood will cost approximately $1,866 per month; for those at 30 percent, the rent would drop to $1,120.
For the residents in CLAM’s 18 affordable rental units in Point Reyes Station, Inverness and Stinson Beach, the average income is 37 percent of the A.M.I., with rents averaging $1,370 a month.
“I’m proud to be a part of a project that not only addresses the social impact of affordable housing but also champions environmental stewardship,” Mr. Russell said. “The co-benefits are truly significant.”
The development’s environmental components are part of what makes the project so bold, Mr. Russell said. The plans call for 22 acres of habitat restoration, a cutting-edge wastewater system and solar panels expected to meet all the compound’s energy needs.
For years while it was occupied, wastewater from the housing units was trucked to the Coast Guard training center in Two Rock Valley, prompting federal pressure to establish a local sewer system. But a sewer proposal was twice rejected by the community in the 1980s and 1990s over concerns about spurring more development.
Under CLAM’s plans, wastewater will be treated onsite with a self-contained system and leach field designed by Sherwood Design Engineers. The system will recycle wastewater from the 54 units and use it to irrigate fields around the property.
The redevelopment marks a step forward in Marin County’s broader efforts to rezone and meet state-mandated housing targets, which call for the construction of 14,210 new units by 2031. This includes 3,569 units designated for unincorporated areas such as Point Reyes Station.