Bel Marin Keys is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Marin County Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It lies at an elevation of .

Geography

Bel Marin Keys is a waterfront community located east of the city of

Novato Novato (Spanish for "Novatus") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, situated in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. At the 2020 census, Novato had a population of 53,225. History What is now Novato was origi ...

. The community has approximately 700 homes. Most of the homes sit either on one of the many

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

s or on Novato Creek. All of the lagoons have access to

San Pablo Bay San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of the San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep wate ...

through the navigational locks. The community is in ZIP code 94949 and

area codes 415 and 628 Area codes 415 and 628 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the city of San Francisco and its northern suburbs in Marin County (across the Golden Gate), and the northeast corner of San Mateo County in the U.S. s ...

. Bel Marin Keys was a planned community built between the late 1950s and late 1980s. Phases 1 through 4 were completed, but phase 5 was never built and instead the land is in the process of being restored back into the

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s of Whiteside marsh, which were drained in the early 1900s for farmland. Phase 5 would have roughly doubled the size of Bel Marin Keys had it been built. In March 2024, residents voted to approve a $30 million parcel tax; the money will build stronger and taller levees, plus an improved set of locks to keep adjacent waters from spilling into the lagoons adjacent to residences.

Government

In the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

, Bel Marin Keys is in the 2nd Senate District, and in the 10th Assembly District. Federally, Bel Marin Keys is in .

References

External links

Bel Marin Keys Community Website

* ttp://hamiltonwetlands.scc.ca.gov Hamiltonwetlands.gov: Official Hamilton/Bel Marin Keys Wetlands Restoration Project website — ''Whiteside Marsh project''. * Unincorporated communities in Marin County, California San Pablo Bay Unincorporated communities in California Populated coastal places in California {{MarinCountyCA-geo-stub