Tim Westergren, the multimillionaire founder of Pandora, the country’s top Internet radio service, has his heart set on building a new home that many believe would be the largest private residence in rural West Marin County. This has not been music to his new neighbors’ ears.
The 48-year-old musician cum Internet entrepreneur, listed by Time magazine in 2010 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, has submitted plans with the county of Marin for a two-story showplace home with a separate caretaker apartment, meditation hut, lap pool, studio and two garages on a forested ridge overlooking Tomales Bay in rural Inverness Park, an unincorporated enclave adjacent to the quiet village of Inverness, population 1,300.
In an October 2013 email addressed “Dear neighbors,” Westergren introduced himself and his wife, Smita Singh, founding director of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Global Development Program, as the new owners of the 17-acre property at 135 Balboa Ave. For decades, it had been a Russian Orthodox monastery known as St. Eugene’s Hermitage. The couple bought it in 2008.
“We wanted to check in, say hello and let you know how excited we are to begin the process of building our home in your lovely neck of the woods,” they wrote. “Our program will be light on the land and will be sustainably designed and built. We are big believers in integrating a home with its natural environment — minimizing the disturbance of both the land and the surrounding community.”
They went on to say, “Realistically, our move-in date will probably be in 2016, which seems a long ways away.”
Not long enough, as it turns out, for the project’s many opponents, who have not been swayed by his just folks attempt to win them over.
“If you’re someone who doesn’t have an insane amount of money, then you build sensibly,” said Nancy Stein, who has lived on Balboa Avenue for 40 years. “But because the money out there is insane, people are able to do outlandish things. I would like this place to stay open to musicians and artists, people who don’t have a lot of money.”
Judging from the many letters of opposition that have been sent to county planners, most residents are aghast at the size of the 8,297-square-foot project, which would have 14 bathrooms and up to 17 “functional” bedrooms, according to critics, and would be up to four times larger than the median-sized house in this community of remodeled summer homes, weekend cottages, rustic cabins and modest single-family dwellings.
Westergren says his plans call for nine bedrooms total, but the Inverness Association, an 84-year-old organization of property owners and preservationists, concludes that the second unit “functions as a six-bedroom, two bath housing unit with detached two-car garage” and the septic systems have been sized to service 11 bedrooms in the main residence and six bedrooms in the second unit.
In its report to the county’s Community Development Agency, the Inverness Association notes that Westergren’s “unusual application has generated unprecedented local interest and comment” from residents.
