Stinson Beach Paid for Its Own Firehouse. The Lot Across From Fritz Bikes Is Where It Goes.

On a night shift at the Stinson Beach fire station, the captain sleeps in a trailer parked in the street outside. The engineer sleeps on a pull-out bed in the public day room, which is also the kitchen. Volunteers, visitors, crews and administration all share one bathroom. If you walk in hurt and need help, you'll be treated on a folding chair in the apparatus bay, beside the engine.

The Stinson Beach Fire Protection District describes all of this on its Fire Station 2027 page. The building is a converted garage the district rents from the Stinson Beach Community Center. It has been modified several times and still doesn't meet current seismic standards. The district's equipment and supplies are kept somewhere else, in a garage at 100 Calle del Arroyo with no kitchen, no bathroom and no living quarters. The Point Reyes Light reported in 2022 that the department's largest vehicles are parked there too.

The replacement is planned for a vacant lot a few doors up Shoreline Highway. What sets it apart from most public buildings is where the money came from. Most of it came from people in town.

Three doors down, on the old Sea Beach Hotel lot

The new station will stand at 3422 Shoreline Highway, the site of the former Sea Beach Hotel. If you've biked or driven past it, you know it: the empty parcel across from Fritz Bikes, three doors from the current station. The Point Reyes Light described it in 2022 in just those terms. The paper also reported that the district had acquired the property with help from anonymous donors and then merged the lots as the first step toward building.

The lot has had several lives since then. The Light reported that the project went on hold during the pandemic, when the district's first priority became hiring paid staff as volunteers fell away. For a while, the contractor building the Surf Lodge used the parcel for dumpsters, supplies and vehicles under a written agreement that expired in fall 2022.

Marin County's Deputy Zoning Administrator held the permit hearing on September 4, 2025. The application covered a Coastal Development Permit, a Coastal Variance, Design Review and a Conditional Use Permit to build and run a fire station on the lot. It also covered removing a heritage California bay tree that stands on the site. The county's hearing notice lists Fire Chief Jesse Peri as the applicant.

Neighbors raised the money first

The total cost is $14.7 million. That figure came out of competitive bidding, which brought the earlier $16.8 million estimate down by $2.1 million.

Here is how the money came in.

• February 2026: The district newsletter reported just over $12.5 million in donations and pledges, 85 percent of the goal, 16 months into the campaign.
• Early 2026: The district's project page reported $14.2 million raised and said half the town had already contributed. Its stated goal was to finish fundraising by June.
• August 18, 2026: At the Board of Supervisors meeting, the county considered an added $500,000, which would bring its total to $600,000 counting $100,000 approved in 2023. The staff report gives the reason: part of the station will support countywide medical transport and ambulance readiness.
• September 24, 2026: Supervisor Dennis Rodoni's office announced $800,000 for the station in the state budget, through Assembly Bill 113. The county's District 4 report says it builds on the earlier $600,000 county commitment.

Apart from the county's $100,000 approved in 2023, the public money arrived this summer, after donors had already pledged $14.2 million. The district hasn't published a final ledger showing how the pledges and the county and state money add up against the $14.7 million cost. But the order is plain in the records, and so are the proportions. Neighbors pledged $14.2 million. The county and state together have committed $1.4 million.

What half the town paid for

The Point Reyes Light's 2022 report laid out the problem. Engines had grown over the decades until there were about three inches of clearance between the trucks and the bay pillars on either side. That tight fit kept protective gear close to diesel exhaust. Peri told the paper, "We have firefighters sleeping out in a trailer because we don't have adequate living facilities." The Light also reported that a major renovation of the old station wasn't feasible under streamside development rules.

Inside the new station, according to the county's staff report:

1. Modern apparatus bays, so engines and protective gear no longer share a cramped room
2. Dedicated living quarters for firefighters and paramedics, replacing the street trailer and the day-room bed
3. Training and meeting space, which the current station has nowhere except the apparatus bay
4. Incident command capability for large emergencies
5. Emergency medical space, so a patient isn't treated on a folding chair
6. A community meeting room

The last item matters to anyone who isn't a firefighter. In July, the district's build team was gathering proposals for audio-visual equipment for the conference room and had a furniture kickoff meeting on the calendar.

The design/build team is Arntz Builders with PBK Architects, hired when competitive bidding closed in December, as the district's February 2026 newsletter reported. The district's newsletter lists their recent projects as Tiburon Fire Station 10, the Marin County Fire Dispatch Center, and the College of Marin's Bolinas Marine Lab. Neighbors over the ridge will recognize that last one.

The calendar, as of late October

The district has been clear that its dates are targets. Here's the sequence from its own board documents:

• Early July 2026: PBK submitted drawings for permits, with the first round of comments expected by July 31.
• July 23, 2026: The district submitted an application to PG&E for new electrical service.
• Utilities: Water service will go in after the septic system. Arntz was reaching out to Caltrans to schedule a kickoff meeting, which makes sense for a lot that fronts Highway 1.
• Target construction start: October 2026.
• Target construction finish: November 2027.

At the June 22 meeting, the minutes recorded the district as "still hoping for an October groundbreaking." The September 28 agenda included an update from Cumming Group, the project consultant reporting to the board's Fire Station Build Committee. The board's next regular meeting was set for Monday, October 26. The district's board meetings page is where its agendas and minutes are posted, and a confirmed start date would show up there.

The district calls the project "Fire Station 2027," and its target finish of November 2027 is a little more than a year away.

The district and the Community Center look after each other

The fire district and the Stinson Beach Community Center are landlord and tenant. That arrangement will end when the new station opens, but their ties go further than the lease. On its September 28 agenda, the fire board took up a proposal to put $20,000 toward a new emergency generator for the Community Center. The resolution would place the money in the Disaster Preparation line of the district's 2026/27 budget.

The Community Center's own schedule carries on as usual this week. The Community Center calendar lists a Haunted House on Saturday, October 31. Yoga with Kelly has been on the schedule Tuesday and Thursday mornings all month.

The fire district keeps its own events going too. Its February newsletter reported a first Fire Engagement Day with more than 100 people and a successful Firefighters' Ball.

The engines will still roll out from the converted garage this Halloween. If the schedule holds, by November 2027 they'll leave from a building three doors north, one the town paid for largely out of its own pockets.

If you'd like to talk about what the new station means for your corner of town, or you just have questions about Stinson Beach, call or text Terry Donohue. Terry is a longtime West Marin volunteer firefighter and EMT and can tell you what a working firehouse needs.