The Marin County Fire Department has released rough plans for a new 20,000-square-foot headquarters on the former San Geronimo Golf Course, and the public has until 4 p.m. on Jan. 4 to give input.
Blueprints included in a new feasibility study outline structures totaling 26,000 square feet, including the fire station, parking and storage for cars and emergency vehicles, an outdoor classroom and a training tower up to 45 feet tall. The existing clubhouse could be turned into an administrative headquarters but could be torn down if repurposing it proves too difficult.
A draft document prepared in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act concluded that, with the implementation of mitigation measures, the project would not result in significant environmental impacts to aquatic habitats, migrating birds, or bat and plant species found in and around the property.
“We were very purposeful in not getting to a design point because the community really needs to be a part of this process to make sure it abides by the look and feel and character of the San Geronimo Valley,” Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber said. “For us to move forward with the purchase, we have to disclose any potential work we would want to do at this site.”
The project would replace the current headquarters two miles east in Woodacre, though the fire department would retain that site to store equipment and engines and house the maintenance and repair shop.
Mr. Weber said a move has been needed for years. The current station is small, old and tucked in tight streets, prolonging emergency response times. Construction, which is expected to take at least 18 months, will tentatively begin in 2025. A price tag is still unknown.
The feasibility study outlines how the headquarters will house five double-deep, drive-through emergency vehicle bays, equipment storage areas, firefighter workstations, captain and battalion chief offices, utility rooms and living quarters with 33 beds. The fire station would be set back roughly 130 feet from the boulevard.
The plans have received mixed reviews on the social media app Nextdoor, where dozens of valley residents argued that some of the proposed details—especially the 45-foot training tower—conflict with the valley’s rural character. Others have defended its necessity as a training facility for local firefighters. There are already training towers in San Rafael and Novato.
San Geronimo resident Amos Klausner told the Light that, as a former volunteer firefighter, he recognizes the importance of a dynamic firefighting facility. But from a design perspective, he said the tower goes against the valley’s rural character.
“I’ve trained in these towers before. I understand the value they bring. I don’t think it belongs here,” he said.
In a San Geronimo Valley Planning Group meeting on Monday, members shared concerns ranging from hillside aesthetics to glare, dark sky-appropriate lighting and more. Chair Eric Morey said the group supports the goal of the project and the opportunity to give input.
“We’re all for the approval of the negative declaration and the county purchasing the golf course,” he said. “None of this stuff is set in stone. It’s a piece of the process to ensure we don’t get some brutalist architecture monstrosity out there.”
The project would take place on the northern, 22-acre clubhouse parcel of the former San Geronimo Golf Course, the 157-acre property that the county plans to purchase from the Trust for Public Land.
The project’s main constraints are the ephemeral streams, channels, wetlands and riparian forests on the property. Several ephemeral streams cross the clubhouse parcel and are channeled into two culverts under Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, where they continue toward San Geronimo Creek. The creek, a tributary of Lagunitas Creek and an important breeding and migrating ground for endangered coho salmon, runs 650 feet south of the clubhouse parcel.
From its headwaters on Mount Tamalpais to Tomales Bay, the Lagunitas watershed is the largest watershed in the county and holds the largest and most stable population of coho salmon south of Fort Bragg, according to Trout Unlimited, which is steering a restoration project on the property.
A feasibility study outlines the development of two temporary stormwater bioretention basins on either end of the clubhouse parcel. The basins would retain any hazardous materials and direct stormflows to channels that flow to San Geronimo Creek. Sediment barriers would catch any runoff from construction, and the area would be routinely monitored for leaking equipment and sediment deposit into streambeds.
According to the state’s Water Resources Control Board, increasing sedimentation has affected the Lagunitas Creek watershed since the 1960s, caused by channel incision, dam construction and development and hastened by natural events like the historic 1982 and 2005 storms. This has led to habitat simplification and, in turn, declining salmonid runs.
An active northern spotted owl nest found northeast of the property in the Roy’s Redwoods Open Space Preserve requires that pre-construction surveys be conducted to avoid its disturbance. Red-tailed, white-tailed and red-shouldered hawks could also nest along the riparian corridors of the former golf course. The pallid bat, a California species of special concern, has been seen roosting in the area, and pre-construction surveys, along with a bat-safe, two-step removal process for potential habitat, are planned. While three rare plant species have been observed nearby, none were seen in the project area.
The release of the initial study marks the first major progress on the project since the county signed a 10-month option agreement with the Trust for Public Land last December. The county plans to purchase the 157-acre property for $4.5 million. The option agreement included an initial payment of $100,000 and the option for two 90-day extensions, the first of which the county took advantage of in October. The board also approved a $122,000 contract for the environmental constraints analysis included in the feasibility report. If supervisors decide to opt for another extension at their Jan. 2 meeting, they will have until April 8 to pay the trust the remainder of the purchase price.
According to the San Geronimo Valley Historical Society, the 22-acre clubhouse parcel was once part of a 420-acre ranch owned by the Roy family since 1868, when they purchased it from Adolph Mailliard. The Roys grazed the land, but as development pressure increased and the construction of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard brought urbanites to West Marin, plans for a golf course emerged in the early 1960s. The Marin County Board of Supervisors approved development plans for the course in 1965, and construction was completed in 1966.
The San Geronimo Golf Course was challenged by its distance from Marin’s population centers, and club membership stagnated. In response, the course transitioned from a semi-private club to an all-public facility.
When it was listed for sale in 2017, District 4 Supervisor Dennis Rodoni proposed the idea of preserving the land as open space. The county entered into an agreement with the Trust for Public Land, which footed the $8.85 million bill and planned to hold the property until the county gathered all the funds. The county’s purchase has since been waylaid by several obstacles.
In 2018, a Marin superior court judge blocked the purchase after a lawsuit was filed by the San Geronimo Heritage Alliance, which sought to preserve the golf course. Although the case was eventually thrown out in 2021, one of its primary arguments—that the county needed to perform a CEQA review prior to purchasing the course—was sustained. A subsequent CEQA review found that a mitigated negative declaration would suffice.
When the Trust for Public Land took over, it opened the property to public access, stopped irrigating and left the land to rewild. That same year, the Marin County Fire Department began using the clubhouse as office space.
Last year, the trust sold a $3.1 million conservation easement to the Marin Open Space Trust that covers the property except for the clubhouse parcel. The easement restricts uses of the 135 acres to passive recreational activities such as hiking, biking and equestrian access.
The trust is currently working to change the dedication of the property’s water rights from irrigation to enhancing stream flow in San Geronimo and Larsen Creeks. During its operation, the golf course ranked within Marin County’s top 10 water consumers, with over 170 acre-feet per year used for irrigation. The course used municipal water and surface water diverted from Larsen Creek and stored in a 20-acre-foot pond on the property—the largest pond of several. Mia Van Docto, a hydrologist for Trout Unlimited, said that a change in the water rights dedication could lead to draining the irrigation ponds if research supports it.
In January, Ms. Van Docto will place stream gauges in Larsen Creek, a seasonal tributary where coho salmon returned in 2022 for the first time since 2006.
Todd Steiner, executive director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network, said the irrigation ponds contain invasive frogs, plants and fish and encourages the spread of these species along the creek.
To view the project documents and to comment, go to www.MarinCounty.org and search “San Geronimo Fire Station Initial Study.”