The small town of Nicasio is in the midst of a real estate boom unlike anywhere else in West Marin.

Realtors say they're running out of vacant land to sell, and development now underway has some residents concerned that the community may be changing.

"Decent raw land is virtually unattainable," said Realtor Peter Edwards, owner of Nicasio Land Company. Since the beginning of the year, Edwards has sold 11 homesites in Nicasio, ranging in size from three to 885 acres and priced from $313,500 to $2.4 million.

Seven of the 11 lots are in Nicasio Valley Ranch (otherwise known as the Lafranchi subdivision) west of the town square. Six of the 11 lots were listed by Realtor BG Bates of Frank Howard Allen.

"One lot had multiple offers and sold for 20 to 30 thousand dollars more than the asking price," said Bates. Of the 17 parcels originally for sale at Nicasio Valley Ranch, only two remain unsold.

Why the building boom? Bates replied, "We've been discovered."

The Bolinas Realtor said she gets several calls a week from people looking for undeveloped land in Nicasio. "The range of interest varies from buyers able to spend $250,000 to those willing to spend $5 million."

Homes priced at around $1 million take the longest to sell, she said, but "houses under $750,000 fly out the door, and properties priced $1.3 million to $1.4 million also sell quickly."

Realtor Edwards said, "Seventy-five percent of the people who come into my office want an old farmhouse on 20 acres with a pond, orchard, and barn. They are quite surprised when they learn it is not available. I could sell one a week."

With so much vacant land being sold, construction of new homes in Nicasio is on the rise. John Childers, the county assistant assessor for valuations, told The Light this week that 16 building permits have been issued in Nicasio during the past five years.

But of those 16, three were issued this year, and Nicasio Design Review Committee Co-chairman Chuck Gompertz noted that "design review applications are beginning to pile up."

Three more homes are currently waiting for design review approval, including a proposed 8,000-square-foot house and studio, which will be highly visible from Nicasio Valley Road immediately south of Nicasio Square.

All this real estate activity is not limited to residences and homebuilding. At least two of Nicasio's well-known horse stables have recently changed hands, as has the Rancho Nicasio property, which includes most public buildings on the square.

Realtor Edwards said that during the Fourth of July weekend, more than 17 people expressed interest in purchasing the restaurant, bar, store, postoffice, and firehouse. After a long escrow, Bob Brown, manager for the rock band Huey Lewis and the News, took ownership last week.

Some of Nicasio's new residences - especially two overlooking Nicasio Reservoir - have caused controversy since they are highly visible on otherwise open land.

A number of residents have contacted design review members to find out why some homes on ridgelines are receiving approval, which in general runs counter to the countywide plan.

Two projects in particular have drawn much attention. Brian Crawford of the county planning staff told The Light that two controversial homesites on the ridge above Nicasio Reservoir are part of a three-lot subdivision created in the early 1980s.

One large home (owned by Karin Dilou) unavoidably catches the eye of any motorist on Point Reyes-Petaluma Road, but it was built in a three-lot subdivision county planners approved more than 20 years ago, Crawford said.

Despite the Dilou home's visibility, county planners had more of a problem with another house, for which owner Christopher Dawson is now excavating.

After planning staff told Dawson to move his 5,197-square-foot house to a less visible location and reduce by half a proposed 3,782-square-foot autocourt, he appealed to the Planning Commission, but commissioners on July 27 upheld their staff's requirement.

Intense as the current construction is, it could have been far more extensive. Until county supervisors approved the Nicasio Valley Community Plan in 1979, zoning for most of Nicasio allowed one home for every two acres.

In accordance with the plan, Nicasio was mostly rezoned. Although a few two-acre homesites remain, most are 20-acre or 60-acre homesites, Crawford added.

Working with county planners, the Nicasio Land Owners Association last year updated land-use policies for Nicasio. These guidelines are enforced by the Nicasio Design Review Board, an advisory committee formed in the late 1970s when some residents became concerned by the growing number of homes built in full view on open hillsides.

Typically, members of the Design Review Board walk through property where construction is proposed and explain the town's community plan policies to the builders.

Lots that were subdivided 20 years ago have pre-designated building sites, leaving the Design Review Board with little say over where a new home should be placed. However, on lots that have been subdivided more recently, the Design Review Board has more control over where buildings should be placed.

Board members make recommendations to the county, but their role ends before a building permit is issued. "Design Review doesn't do any policing," said board member Jeff Kerr. "Our goal is to make sure that applicants understand the community plan."

Although Kerr thinks county staff do a pretty good job of enforcing the Nicasio Community Plan, he would like to see more follow-through to ensure that finished projects adhere to the conditions of their approval.

Kerr said the Design Review Board has talked of creating a follow-through process to make sure that homebuilders use the colors designated, plant landscaping that was approved, and in general build in accordance with their county-approved plans.

A number of residents have complained that some homebuilders ignore the conditions of their building permits once the permits are issued. In 1992, for example, the county found that a house J. Paul Sosnowski was building on Camino Margarita was 778 square feet larger than provided for in his building permit.

Eventually, he reached a compromise with the Santa Margarita Property Owners Association and county supervisors to remove a 250-square-foot breakfast nook and solarium and to reduce the size of a second unit by 500 square feet.

With townspeople increasingly interested in land-use issues, Nicasio Land Owners Association was amazed to get 13 responses from people willing to volunteer for the Design Review Board when the association solicited new members last month.

Surprising to most people, Nicasio is much a bigger town than its small square would suggest. Its community plan covers 36 square miles bounded by Big Rock on Lucas Valley Road, Moon Hill on Nicasio Valley Road, Laurel Canyon Ridge south of the reservoir, and Rocky Hill on the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road.

Postmaster Lynn Calvert told The Light there are 205 mailboxes in the postoffice and 95 mail boxes along the town's roads, suggesting there are now roughly 300 households in Nicasio - with the total soon to jump.

Who's moving into Nicasio? Realtor Edwards told The Light that a number of properties are selling to prominent people. Besides the sale of the Rancho Nicasio to Huey Lewis' manager, other recent buyers in town have included the Swigg family, former owners of San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel; this fall the family bought The Shadows, a retreat on Nicasio Valley Road that the Swiggs plan to use as a family compound.

Another recent buyer of Nicasio property is a nephew of Beryl Buck, whose estate provided the bulk of the funds for the Marin Community Foundation. Also recently buying vacant land in Nicasio are the Pritzkers of Hyatt Hotel fame.

Unquestionably Nicasio's best-known landowner is filmmaker George Lucas, whose Skywalker Ranch has drawn national attention to the town, but who appears to have had minimal impact on real estate sales. Most of the people who work at Lucas' Skywalker Ranch commute in from other areas.

With so many wealthy people buying a piece of Nicasio, it's hardly surprising that a year ago Worth Magazine rated the town the 44th wealthiest nationwide based on the median price of home sales.

The cheapest house recently on the market in Nicasio (two bedrooms on 10 acres) had an asking price of $500,000. The next cheapest (four bedrooms on seven acres) was $800,000.

What all this development will do to Nicasio School remains to be seen. At the very least, the new buildings will generate additional property-tax revenues for the school district.

So far, the school has not yet felt a serious impact from Nicasio's building boom, but the current enrollment of 66 students already requires it to use three portable classrooms, one of which is more than 30 years old.

In addition, before a building permit can be issued, builders must pay a development fee to the district. Because of the new homes' typically enormous floor area and because the fees are $1.84 per square foot, the school district stands to receive substantial revenues from all the new construction.

But the money can be spent only on new construction or on renting portable buildings. This year, the school district received $25,000 in developers' fees, which are paying the rent on two of the portables. District trustees have already proposed using future fees toward renovating and rebuilding the school, along with the rent.

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