The debate over the stream conservation ordinance that would affect San Geronimo Valley continues on August 20, when a subcommittee will report back to the Marin County Board of Supervisors during the regularly scheduled public meeting. The committee formed in June to investigate whether to revise the ordinance or the 2007 Countywide Plan that dictated its constraints. Based on the group’s feedback, “staff will provide recommendations on next steps towards possible Countywide Plan amendments and a possible interim stream conservation ordinance, with the goal of coming back to the supervisors to take action, likely in mid or late September,” Liza Crosse, an aide to Supervisor Steve Kinsey, said. Homeowner and conservation groups, including a new one dubbed Community Marin 2013 that represents the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, the Sierra Club Marin Group, the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network and others, have submitted new comments. Community Marin 2013 has called for the ordinance to be enacted as is, writing, “When the bottom line often trumps the environment, we look to Marin County’s elected leaders to defend nature.” Another citizen’s group, called Marin Stream Conservation and Restoration Trust, or MAST, is being formed to advocate against the current ordinance and for voluntary landowner incentive programs, as well as for a focus on the restoration of streams already impacted by development, particularly in the urban areas of eastern Marin. In its recent letter, the San Geronimo Valley Stewards urged supervisors to revise the Countywide Plan to ease prescriptions for a conservation ordinance and to host a series of working sessions in which homeowner and environmental groups could send two representatives each to “search for a middle ground.”