Following pressure from locals, Marin County Parks has pledged to install signs warning visitors that camping is illegal along the willowy banks of Papermill Creek, where some residents have complained that campers leave garbage. The pledge follows a letter sent in November by Point Reyes Station resident Tom Quinn and endorsed by the Point Reyes Station Village Association that called for county and federal agencies to address both illegal camping and vehicle habitation on C Street, which borders the Giacomini Wetlands and the trailhead to the creek. Last month, Ari Golan, the acting superintendent of county parks, surveyed the trail area on a walking tour accompanied by Mr. Quinn and Karen Gray, the village association’s interim president. Afterward, Mr. Golan told the Light that the parks department is developing a plan to improve signage throughout all areas it manages, including at the Papermill Creek trailhead. The timing for installation is not yet known, but the promise arrives amid larger pleas to improve signage in general in Point Reyes Station, which in recent years has been flooded with visitors to the seashore and which does not have adequate markers leading to restrooms, garbage receptacles and legal camping. Exacerbating the situation, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office has not been enforcing a 20-year-old county ordinance that prohibits car sleeping since a Los Angeles court of appeals struck down a law in 2014 that prevented people from sleeping in their cars. Instead, the office enforces vehicle code that requires parked cars to move elsewhere after 72 hours. “It’s no longer a tool for us to use as law enforcement,” Lieutenant Doug Pittman said of the vehicle habitation ordinance. “So we don’t. Instead, we just check to see if the people sleeping in their cars are stressed or just enjoying the coast like we all do.” Credence Healy, a Point Reyes native who often sleeps in a motor home with her boyfriend, attributed the practice to a lack of housing in West Marin. Rather than shell out $1,500 for a room, she said, she would rather invest in her motor home and keep closer to local employment opportunities. “Being mobile saves you in this kind of crisis, because you can get to work,” said Ms. Healy. “You just have to have a couple of places to crash that are comfortable and safe and are sanctuaries.” In the meantime, the practices of camping off the trail and sleeping in cars on C Street do not appear poised to decline anytime soon in West Marin, which many visitors and non-housed residents alike perceive to be a place of unique beauty and respite. “This place holds so much beautiful energy,” said John Basehart, a former Catholic missionary to the Philippines who grew up in Point Reyes Station and occasionally parks his R.V. overnight on C Street. “If you’ve lived here even a short time, you can feel the energy of this place. It’s just incredible.”
County to post no-camping signage in Point Reyes open space
