Point Reyes Light - August 24, 2000
Bolinas land trust to turn Gibson House into housing
Triumphing in an era of soaring real estate prices, the often-troubled Bolinas Community Land Trust this week entered a deal to buy Bolinas' Gibson House - in recent times home to the Bolinas Bay Bakery - with the aim of turning the historic Victorian house into at least six to eight units of affordable housing.
The Wharf Road property has been on the market for a year and a half, and includes the two-story house plus a small cottage in back. The house, which measures between 2,500 and 3,000 square feet, has served as a boarding house and/or restaurant for much of the century. It has several bedrooms upstairs plus two bathrooms (not all in working order) on each floor.
In a deal signed late Tuesday, land trust directors and seller Joanne Sobel agreed to 65-day escrow, in which the non-profit trust will have 45 days to nail down funding for the purchase, said Bruce Bowser, president of the Bolinas land trust.
Making it happen The challenge "for the next 65 days is how to make this great idea - this dream of improving things in terms of housing.- actually happen," said Don Deane, owner of Smiley's Schooner Saloon, publisher of The Coastal Post, and long-time land trust director.
Bolinas Realtor BG Bates of Frank Howard Allen said Wednesday that the sales price was "just under" the $695,000 list price, and that the trust's offer was one of two firm offers to surface in recent days.
Owner Sobel of San Rafael is the mother of the late Dave Sobel, who until his death last month operated a bakery and cafe on the house's main floor starting in the mid-1980s. The bakery has been shut since.
Five tenants live on the property now, four of them upstairs. Bowser said Wednesday the trust has no plans to evict the residents, who might be good candidates for below-market rate housing anyway.
Funding 'a puzzle' "We're not going to displace anyone," he said, but those residents "will have to work with us" as the project moves along.
Bowser agreed with Deane that the most immediate chore is to come up with money. "It's a bit of a puzzle at this point," he said.
First, he explained, the group will explore funding from government sources, then look for help through grants from nonprofits such as the Marin Community Foundation. Beyond that, the trust may be looking for private help.
Director Deane said some "angels" in the community may come forward and pitch in. Otherwise, he said, "one of the town politicos" has suggested that the trust offer a subscription of shares, with townspeople in effect buying slices of equity. Bowser added that the trust could then buy back the shares over time, as money from various sources materializes.
The land trust was founded 18 years ago both to protect the town's open space - which it has done over the years by acquiring and donating open lots - and to pursue affordable-housing projects, of which this would be the first successful one.
Checkered past Previous efforts, noted Bowser, have died from "NIMBYism" and the usual Bolinas give-and-take. Indeed, at times the trust has been in total shambles, with membership insurrections, mass board resignations, disputes over unpaid back property taxes and unpaid water-meter fees, and the like.
Perhaps the difference this time around, Deane said, is that the project would not involve building anything. The house already exists. It's connected to the sewer, has a water meter, and has parking spaces which are shared with the Bolinas Community Center. Plus it's located downtown, so the residents could walk to stores without adding to the Wharf Road traffic crunch.
Besides, he said, "it's hard to imagine" that a small housing project could create more of a parking or traffic burden than another restaurant (such as the bakery) would.
Deane also said that Supervisor Steve Kinsey last week enthusiastically endorsed the prospective deal, and the director added that he'd like to see two or three more like it in Bolinas.
"If our little communities don't start producing something in terms of affordable housing," Deane said, "West Marin as we know it is not going to be here in 10 years."