Nicasio-based filmmaker George Lucas will find out next week if his epic 10-year struggle to expand his multimedia empire will have a tearful or happy ending. County supervisors on Tuesday, Oct. 29, will consider approving Lucasfilm's master plan to build 640,800 square feet of office buildings for digital film production and development of interactive-entertainment and educational products.
The two complexes would be clustered on Grady and Big Rock ranches north of Lucas Valley Road and east of Skywalker Ranch, home to Lucasfilm's headquarters and post-filming production facilities.
After two marathon public hearings in the past month, county planning commissioners endorsed the project as long as Lucas adheres to a long list of detailed conditions, most of which are aimed at mitigating environmental impacts.
Opponents of the project, the most vocal of whom are residents of Lucas Valley Estates to the east, complain that huge office buildings don't belong in rural West Marin but along the Highway 101 urban corridor.
Supporters, including many other residents of the neighboring subdivision, argue that the project permanently protects thousands of acres of summits, valleys, canyons, and plateaus, creating a buffer between the coast and suburban sprawl.
To sweeten the deal, Lucas bought the McGuire and Loma Alta ranches - on the south side of Lucas Valley Road - and has offered to open them for public access.
Skywalker Ranch manager Tom Forster this week showed The Light the sites proposed for development and for open space, where new trails would give access to some of the most spectacular views in the county.
In all, about eleven miles of trails would be opened on Grady, Big Rock, McGuire, and Loma Alta. The trails would connect to a 400-mile prospective ridgetop loop of trails around the Bay Area. The addition would leave just two small gaps in the Marin section of the loop - one on either side of Lucas' property.
Here's a closer look at what's planned
for each ranch:
Development on the 1,039-acre Grady Ranch would cover 52 acres. The main building, a 295,000-square-foot digital-film-production facility, would be nestled at the bottom of a canyon in close to the road and the small Wetsel horse ranch at the southeast corner of the ranch.
The building, two stories atop a 350-car garage, would be dug into the ground. The excavated dirt would be piled in front of the building to create a landscaped berm that would eventually hide the structure from passing motorists.
Exactly where hikers would get to the Grady Ranch stretch of the Big Rock Ridge Trail from Lucas Valley Road will be determined later, when Lucasfilm submits a series of formal "Precise Development" plans.
Ultimately, the trail may start at the road and head up the ridge through the ranch but around the building sites. If Lucasfilm wants more space between its complex and the public, hikers would get to the ridge from county open space behind Lucas Valley Estates.
Also unclear is whether Lucasfilm will retain ownership of a 800-acre chunk of Grady Ranch that would be left open space. If the company keeps and maintains the land, hikers will be restricted to the Ridge Trail. If the land is handed over to the county, the Open Space District can designate all the trails it wants.
In any case, the western part of the Ridge Trail would be reached from Lucas Valley Road by a trail that begins at the Big Rock, sometimes known as Graffiti Rock.
That trail would ascend Big Rock Ridge just east of the proposed 56-acre development site on the 1,117-acre Big Rock Ranch. Planned for the ranch is a 109,600-square-foot facility for creating interactive-entertainment and educational software.
An existing ranch pond would be enlarged to provide a scenic front yard for the complex. The pond would also used for fire-protection and irrigation for agriculture. As at Grady, the huge building would be partially obscured by landscaped berms.
A familiar sight for West Marin residents who drive over the hill via Lucas Valley Road would soon disappear: the small ranch house at Big Rock with the scarecrow seated in the yard would be demolished. Its current occupant is a Lucas employee.
Most of Big Rock would be preserved through an agricultural easement. Although hikers would be allowed to explore part of the 1,800-foot-high ridge, they would not be allowed to get close enough to Skywalker Ranch to see Lucasfilm's headquarters from above.
The Big Rock Ridge and the highest peak on the other side of Lucas Valley, Loma Alta, provide awe-inspiring views in every direction.
Big Rock Ridge looks north over Novato. Loma Alta, at 1,900-feet, looks south toward the San Geronimo Valley. Both peaks include views of Black Mountain to the west and a panorama of urban Marin, the East Bay, and San Francisco.
Hikers would be able to reach the wind-swept peak of Loma Alta from a fire road that starts on Lucas Valley Road near Graffiti Rock and heads up the hills on the east side of McGuire Ranch.
Loma Alta and McGuire would continue to be used for grazing cattle. Both properties would be protected from development through an agricultural easement. An old deer-camp on the east side of Loma Alta would be torn down.