Point Reyes Light - October 12, 2000

Driveway won't cross Bolinas Cemetery as settlement nears

As part of a conditional settlement of a long-standing dispute over the Bolinas cemetery, Marin planning commissioners at 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 16, in Civic Center will hold a public hearing to decide whether neighboring homeowners Alex and June Kleider can relocate their driveway through the historic site to a less controversial route.

Originally, planning commissioners had also been set to hear an appeal on Monday by the Friends of the Bolinas Cemetery, an ad-hoc coalition that was objecting to multiple parts of the Kleiders' residential development at 445 Olema-Bolinas Rd.

However, the group dropped their appeal last month in another aspect of the deal.

"We are very pleased with the agreement," Josiah "Tink" Thompson of the Friends of Bolinas Cemetery said Tuesday. "There are various things that have to fall into place before it will all happen, but essentially the Kleiders will be out of the cemetery and the new driveway gets paid for by the [Kleiders'] title company."

Change in plans

The Kleiders' proposal follows several months of work with county planners to design an access road to their five-acre property which avoids the adjacent graveyard.

The Kleiders have now asked planning commissioners to amend the building permits issued to them in 1997 by barring their use of the cemetery while approving a 12-foot-wide driveway with two-foot-wide shoulders that will reach their house uphill from Olema-Bolinas Road.

The graveyard route that had caused a furor reached the property from Horseshoe Hill Road through the cemetery via a disputed easement granted by the owners of the site, the Bolinas Cemetery Corporation.

The proposed driveway, which would follow a narrow, steep farm path that historically provided access to the hard-to-reach property, would require installing a 110-foot-long wood retaining wall with a maximum height of four feet, various drainage improvements, and removing two eucalyptus trees in the county right-of-way plus an additional eucalyptus and two oak trees on the Kleider property.

Planning staff endorsement

Planning staff on Monday will recommend that commissioners approve the new driveway, which county Public Works, Kleider's engineer, and representatives of the Bolinas Fire Protection District have all looked at together, said Planning staffer Johanna Patri.

County planners in 1997 permitted the Kleiders to build a home, second unit, barn, and garage, along with various other site improvements including the construction of the existing 600-foot-long driveway running through the cemetery.

The Bolinas Cemetery Corporation and some 25 members of Friends of Bolinas Cemetery later sued the homeowners claiming the easement through the graveyard was illegal.

The suit against the Kleiders was suspended last fall, after the homeowners agreed to work with the county on constructing an alternate route. Meanwhile, Friends of Bolinas Cemetery appealed to the county that the lack of legal access to the Kleider parcel, along with several other aspects of the project, violated county code.

The group withdrew its appeal shortly after an agreement was reached between the Kleiders, the Bolinas Cemetery Corporation, and First American Title Company, which provided title services for the Kleiders.

Clear up murky easement

The settlement might end up providing the Bolinas Cemetery Corporation with outright title to the entire graveyard, something it has been seeking in the negotiations.

Thompson of Friends the Bolinas Cemetery explained that if the new driveway is indeed approved and built, the Kleiders will concede any claim to an easement through the site and the Bolinas Cemetery Corporation will eventually secure full title of the non-denominational graveyard.

Thompson added that his group has agreed to pay for any restoration of areas damaged with the laying of the first driveway.

"We wish to fully support the Kleiders in their efforts to resolve this matter and in establishing the new driveway," he said.

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