Marin wildlife center unveils revived expansion plan
WildCare wants to build a new three-story wildlife hospital and education center at its site in San Rafael.
Four years after pulling the plug on a multimillion dollar relocation plan, the San Rafael nonprofit WildCare aims to update its headquarters with a new three-story wildlife hospital and education center.
The proposal was publicly aired for the first time Tuesday at a conceptual design review session at San Rafael City Hall. The Design Review Board gave glowing reviews of the project proposed for 76 Albert Park Lane.
“I want to start by saying, it’s probably the most impressive conceptual set of drawings we’ve ever seen,” said Jeff Kent, a member of the board.
Kent said that considering the site constraints — such as the small size, a creek running through the front yard and the fact that it’s in a flood zone — “I’m surprised you came up with any solution at all, much less one that’s creative as the one you put in front of us.”
Some board members suggested minor revisions for the western façade to help transition the structure with the residential neighborhood.
“I love the project,” said Sharon Kovalsky, a board member.
Kovalsky said she would like to see some color, and “variation” on the rear façade that faces toward homes.
“I think with some tweaking, it’ll be great, and I think the mission is fantastic,” Kovalsky said.
The WildCare headquarters is an aging 4,100-square-foot wildlife hospital and education center on a 0.36-acre site across from Albert Park. The property is accessed by a footbridge that crosses the San Rafael Creek that runs parallel to Albert Park Lane.
WildCare proposes to demolish all the buildings except the historic Terwilliger building, named after the Marin environmentalist Elizabeth Terwilliger. The structure was built as a parish hall for St. John’s Church in 1879 in the carpenter-gothic style architecture.
The plan would include moving the structure toward the front of the property, then building a three-level, modern center behind it as a backdrop. Each level would be tiered to reduce the visual impact of height.
The first floor would include the lobby, education rooms, administrative offices and some hospital functions. Animals will also reside on the ground floor. The second and third floors will be reserved for outdoor cages where recovering animals can rehabilitate before being released. A screening will wrap around the cages to shield the animals from public view.
The new center would be approximately 11,400 square feet, including 4,600 square feet of caging on roofs and 1,600 square feet of caging on the ground floor.
The nonprofit suspended its expansion plans in 2018 amid financial strains that forced several layoffs and reductions in staff hours. The organization ended a capital campaign that had raised roughly $8 million for a new center.
WildCare had planned to move to a 4.5-acre site in northern San Rafael. Initial estimates projected the relocation would cost roughly $8 million, but when contractors bid on the project in 2018, the lowest bid was for more than $20 million, making the project unfeasible for WildCare at that time, directors said.
The journey to find the perfect site has been a decade long, said Ellyn Weisel, WildCare’s executive director.
“We looked everywhere,” Weisel said. “We looked in the East Bay; we thought about leaving San Rafael; we thought about leaving Marin County; we looked at raw land and we looked at warehouses.”
“And we kept coming back to the fact that we’re an urban wildlife hospital and our location allows us to serve these animals and for people to find us,” she said. “This is our home.”
Weisel said the hospital serves 3,500 animals year and its educational programs reach 35,000 children and adults annually.
“We see this as a community investment,” Weisel said. “The new wildlife hospital will finally support WildCare’s extraordinary capabilities and the work we do on the front lines of wildlife medicine.”
The nonprofit started a “quiet phase” of its capital campaign in September, raising about $5.6 million toward its goal of $20 million.
Project planners aim to submit a final proposal responding to initial design review comments by the end of the year. The project will require design review, use permit approval and environmental review.
The Design Review Board is expected to consider the proposal early next year. The project will require Planning Commission approval.
Weisel said she hopes to have approvals in time for construction to begin in 2024 and be completed in 2026. The goal is for fundraising to be completed by the time the center is constructed, she said.
More information on the project plans are on the city’s website at bit.ly/3h9dAmt. More information on the capital campaign is at discoverwildcare.org/capital-campaign.
