This Marin County town is having a ‘freakout' over a planned downtown apartment complex
A view of Bolinas Street in downtown Fairfax, where the plan to build a six-story apartment building is causing a rift in the Marin County town. (Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle)
Perched up on a hillside on the outskirts of downtown Fairfax for decades, the rambling wooden Frogs Hot Tubs complex was the embodiment of the sun-kissed, laid-back Marin County lifestyle.
There were community hot tubs, cold plunge pools, yoga studios and a clothing-optional sundeck. Rock bands practiced in some of the rooms. The hot tubs and saunas were located in a woodsy area next to Contratti Park, home of West Marin Little League action and where the Grateful Dead played softball against Jefferson Airplane in the mid-1960s.
Now Frogs is boarded up and the blighted property is at the center of a development fight over a proposed 243-unit apartment complex that says as much about Marin County politics 2025 as hippies and nude sunbathing did about the town in decades past.
It's a battle that pits a vision of Fairfax as blue-collar bastion of musicians and artists and outdoors enthusiasts - considered the birthplace of mountain biking, the town has four bike stores and a bicycle museum - against the reality that it, like most of Marin County, has substantially gentrified, with the average home selling for $1.4 million and the average apartment renting for $2,700, according to Redfin.
The future site of a housing development is seen near Bolinas Park in Fairfax. (Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle)
The dispute has also fueled an attempted recall of the mayor and vice mayor, who critics blame for approving the state-certified housing plan that changes the zoning to allow the apartment complex to be built. And the fight could be a test case of what happens when a town's residents dig in their heels and rebel against state requirements meant to ease the housing shortage that has made Marin County and much of the state unaffordable to the majority of workers.
Developer Mill Creek is proposing a six-story, 243-unit apartment complex on the 95 School St. site, which was identified as the biggest development opportunity in Fairfax's state-certified housing element, which requires the town to plan for 490 units of housing between 2023 and 2031.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development's approval of the housing plan was contingent on Fairfax committing to an "action plan" stating all opportunity site projects with at least 20% of units being affordable - including 95 School St. - are "entitled to ministerial approval." The Mill Creek project would include 25% of its units at below market rates.
Then, in June, Fairfax Planning Director Jeffrey Beiswenger reversed course, saying that the project actually did not qualify for over-the-counter approval, citing a chapter in town code that excluded projects in high fire hazard severity zones from ministerial review.
Mill Creek attorney Riley Hurd said the code the town cited has nothing to do with the application, which was based on a policy adopted as part of the housing element.
The future site of a housing development is seen near Bolinas Park in Fairfax. (Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle)
"This is a town just saying, ‘We don't care what the law says, we're gonna say no," said Herd. "I guess the plan is to pretend that the ministerial policy doesn't exist. They're gonna get their housing element decertified, they're gonna get sued and lose. The question is why? It might be as simple as, ‘We are going to have a court make us do it.'"
As town officials and developers clash, the Fairfax Citizens Coalition has been gathering signatures to recall elected officials they blame for what they see as a botched housing plan. On Monday the group submitted 1,783 signatures to recall Mayor Lisel Blash and 1,806 to recall Vice Mayor Stephanie Hellman. That's about 300 more than the 25% of registered voters required to qualify a recall for the ballot. The county has 30 days to verify the signatures.
The recall petition argues the mayor and vice mayor "blatantly ignored" a homeless encampment in Contratti Park," siding with "the mentally ill drug addicts" while dismissing "West Marin Little League's desperate pleas about threats to child safety." It criticizes the pair for pursuing "high-density housing in downtown Fairfax, increasing the risk of a death trap scenario for residents during wildfires, floods or earthquakes." It also accuses the officials of fiscal mismanagement and curtailing free speech.
Coalition Treasurer Sean Fitzgerald said the effort was "100% grassroots" with no paid signature gatherers. He said adding 243 units downtown would be a disaster in the case of an earthquake or wildfire.
Mark Bell wears a recall pin while standing at the future site of a housing development near Bolinas Park in Fairfax, California Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle)
"We are a tiny canyon valley town," he said. "If one lane of Sir Francis Drake is blocked or if there is a light out in San Rafael it can take 45 minutes to get to the freeway. We are gridlocked back here."
Hurd said Fairfax clearly identified the School Street property as a site that could accommodate a large chunk of the required housing. The argument that the 243 units would lead to gridlock in the case of a natural disaster is disingenuous given that the town's housing element plans for twice that number.
"If there is this much outrage and hyperbole over building less than 50% of the assigned number, it's very clear they do not intend to come anywhere close to achieving the full number," he said.
In opposing the recall petition, Hellman's campaign stated that she "has served Fairfax with dedication to protecting the town's character, ensuring responsible governance, and advancing policies that prioritize the well-being of all residents."
She said the recall "mirrors the toxic and divisive tactics of MAGA politics - disinformation, personal attacks, and manufactured outrage - designed to sow division instead of promoting solutions."
Even before the recall vote the development has already shaken up town politics.
Two Town Council candidates elected in November, "Mikey" Ghiringhelli and Frank Egger, successfully ran on a platform opposing the rezoning that allows taller buildings. Fairfax has long had a 35-foot height limit. Egger, a former Fairfax mayor who served on the council for 39 years before losing his seat in 2005, said "all this talk of high-rise development dragged me out of retirement."
Ghiringhelli, who owns a pizza place and several restaurants in town, said he had retired from politics 20 years ago and wasn't even paying attention to the development fight when a group of residents urged him to run.
He said the pressures applied by the state, the role of social media, and the clash between YIMBYs and NIMBYs have changed politics - for the worse.
"I thought things were brutal 25 years ago, they are more brutal now," Ghiringhelli said.
He sees the role of elected officials as looking out for constituents and dealing with potholes, not trying to solve the state's housing crisis.
"I used the exact same campaign slogan as I did 28 years ago – ‘Mikey like Fairfax,'" Ghiringhelli said. "The older I get, the less it seems like a great slogan."
Walking around downtown Fairfax, it's hard to avoid conversations about the recall and the development. Fairfax Citizens Coalition Lead Candace Neal-Ricker manages Nave's Bar and on a recent weekday afternoon there was no shortage of patrons willing to weigh in on the Frog's development.
A runner makes their way down Broadway in downtown Fairfax. Critics worry a proposed downtown apartment building would make the area unsafe if fires break out. (Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle)
One was Lew Tramaine, a former Fairfax mayor and newspaper publisher, who now manages a general store.
"It's not divisive at all - nobody wants it," he said. "The biggest problem with Fairfax council is they are not standing up and fighting back. They are just bending over. It's like ‘Grow a pair.' You don't have to let the state tell you to change the character of the town. That is not going to work here."
Neal-Ricker said she hears the dissatisfaction every day.
"Why are our roads falling apart? Why are people so angry? Why aren't people getting along? Why do you feel like you are being treated with hostility?" she said. "I was born and raised in this town. I've walked every inch of it. I have a lot of pride in it, a lot of love for the children growing up here."
She said she could never qualify for the proposed project's 41 affordable units, which would be rented to households earning 80% of area median income, which translates to $119,000 for a two-person household and $134,000 for a three-person household. She said she would support a three-story project in which 50% of the units were deeply affordable.
"I'm low income," she said. "Affordable housing would be great but that is not what that is."
Hurd said the argument that the project would be palatable if the developer were to increase affordability level or "lope off three stories" is unrealistic in the current economic environment of high interest rates and construction costs. "That would mean no project," he said.
"I think what the town is banking on is that the project cannot sustain the costs and delays associated with their obstinance," Hurd said. "That is a real concern. As the saying goes, ‘time kills all deals.'"
Herd said he expects the state housing officials to contact the town soon, although he said he has been unimpressed with the state's follow-through when it comes to punishing towns that violate housing law.
"Everybody got spoked that there would be serious repercussions and so far I haven't seen them," he said. "There has to be ramifications for this behavior or other entities will follow suit."
The town also faces lawsuits from YIMBY law, which sues municipalities that violate state housing laws. In a June letter to the town, YIMBY Law Executive Director Sonja Trauss said the town "is legally bound to approve the project ministerially unless it can make findings that the proposed housing development would be a threat to public health and safety."
"Fairfax is walking into a buzzsaw - they are going to waste a lot of money and they are going to lose," Trauss said. "They are having an absolute and complete freakout over one project that is not that big a deal."
