After listening to public praise and condemnation of Lucasfilm's proposal for more than three hours, each of the five supervisors thanked Lucas for his patience and hailed the development as the county model for boosting the economy while protecting vital open space.
"This is class. This is integrity. This is commitment to the county, the likes of which this county has never seen," said Supervisor Gary Giacomini. "It's a joy and a privilege to participate in a project this good."
Lucas has been working - sometimes unsuccessfully - on his proposed expansion for 10 years.
Giacomini said that after Lucas' first expansion project was scrapped in 1992, he asked the billionaire filmmaker to consider sweetening the pot by purchasing and permamently preserving the Loma Alta Ranch as open space.
Loma Alta is a 561-acre piece of property south of Lucas Valley Road, featuring a 1,900-foot peak that boasts sweeping views of Marin County and the rest of the Bay Area; it was the subject of a landmark case in which the US Supreme Court upheld agricultural zoning in the late 1980s.
Giacomini told the filmmaker he didn't care whether Lucas made the purchase in response to his request, but, he added, "I want to thank you for that...
"I'm glad this project came around when I was still here," said Giacomini, whose six-term, 24-year tenure as supervisor ends in January.
Referring to Lucas' opponents' protests that the expansion violates zoning guidelines in Marin's Countywide Plan and paves the way for further development of residential and agricultural land, Giacomini said: "[Critics] talk about this being a precedent. God love it. Thank God it's a precedent. This is not a denial of the Countywide Plan; it's its ultimate celebration...[the project] is so delicious and so good, and it satiates so many goals of the Countywide Plan."
The supervisor said similar fears were expressed when Lucas applied for a permit to build his headquarters in Nicasio, but no massive building elsewhere resulted. Meanwhile, Giacomini said, Lucas has permanently protected some 6,000 acres of ranchland and open space.
Giacomini was not alone in his admiration. "Everything that I've heard about this really strengthens my enthusiasm for it," said Supervisor John Kress, whose district shares Lucasfilm property with Giacomini's district.
"I'm proud to be associated even in some small way with [Lucas' expansion]," Kress said. "I am very, very favorable to this."
Added Supervisor Harry Moore, "I have tried to find a weakness" in the plans, but "I have a hard time doing that."
What the supervisors are so exited about are Lucas' plans to build more than 640,000 square feet of buildings on Big Rock and Grady ranches, just east of Lucas' Skywalker Ranch headquarters.
Development will be limited to 108 acres. The remaining 2,048 acres at Grady and Big Rock - plus 1,208 acres on Loma Alta and McGuire ranches to the south - would be preserved as a combination of agricultural easements and public and private open space.
The project is expected to pump nearly $1 million in tax dollars annually to the county general fund. Lucas already pays $1.1 million a year for his Skywalker Ranch holdings.
Big Rock and Grady ranches are allowed to employ 640 people. Lucas expects to generate an additional $40 million in annual payroll.
Lucas for the first time in the course of the planning process spoke at a public hearing. "I've been in Lucas Valley for almost 20 years now," he said, "and I believe I have the largest stake in wanting it to stay the way it is.
"The proposal before you is my attempt to stop subdivisions from continuing to march up our valley, and at the same time I'm trying to preserve it's rural beauty. I love this valley as much as anyone in this room, and I definitely do not want to see it destroyed."
After the supervisors' vote, Lucas said, "It's a great relief." He said it would be "extremely optimistic" to think that ground would be broken before Spring, 1998.
Asked by The Light if he had plans to purchase more land in and around Lucas Valley, he said, "You never know."