Azucena Vazquez opened the door to her new home and liked what she saw.
The trailer was snug and clean. It had hot and cold running water, the lights came on and the stove worked. It even had a TV set. Best of all, it had a functioning bathroom. Her little girls would no longer have to go outside to a porta-potty on cold, rainy nights.
“This is much better than where we were living before,” Ms. Vazquez said, smiling. “Our daughters are very happy to have a new home. We’re very happy to make this change. We’ll be much more at ease.”
On Tuesday evening, with gleeful children in tow, about a dozen Latino parents walked from the condemned Bolinas ranch housing they’ve been living in for years to an emergency R.V. park next door. Two rows of gleaming EVO Family R.V.s stretched across the freshly graded 2.5-acre lot, located in a rear corner of a 20-acre parcel at 130 Mesa Road.
Standing across from the fire station, the temporary park enjoys a clear view of fog-shrouded Bolinas Ridge.
“We had always dreamed of something better,” said Ms. Vazquez, whose husband does farm work in town. “This has given us faith that anything is possible.”
The Bolinas Community Land Trust received the last permits it needed to open the park last week, when a county zoning administrator approved a coastal development permit and a use permit designating the property a campground. With 27 trailers lined up in two rows, the park has space for the roughly 60 residents of the Tacherra ranch, where tenants have been living in rundown trailers and ramshackle structures for more than two decades.
The trust is negotiating to purchase the ranch next door, clean up the property and build permanent affordable housing on the site, part of which has been used as a dump for decades. It hopes to build the new homes within the next five years, at which time residents would move back in.
Although most locals have supported the project, some have opposed it. At last Thursday’s zoning hearing, they argued that the R.V. park encroaches on a wetland and violates the Williamson Act, a law that gives property owners a tax break if they keep their land in agricultural production.
Their attorney, Edward Yates, told the Light that his clients are likely to appeal the permit approvals and ask the California Coastal Commission to shut the project down. At the hearing, Mr. Yates said the R.V. park could open the door to commercial development on properties set aside for agricultural production across West Marin.
“This is the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent for those people who want to develop in the coastal zone,” he said.
Designating the property as a campground was “farcical,” Mr. Yates said. “This is not a campground. I can’t go in there with my North Face tent and camp. It’s residential housing and it’s market-rate housing in the coastal zone,” he said.
Annie O’Connor, executive director of the land trust, said none of the residents will be charged more than 30 percent of their income for rent.
On Tuesday evening, as residents got their first look at their homes, spirits were high. They exchanged greetings with Jim Tacherra, their former landlord, who stopped by to offer a red rose to Ms. Vazquez and freshly picked apples to her children.
“Look how many people I made happy today,” said Mr. Tacherra, who is known by many children on the ranch as Grandpa Jim. “I want everybody to be happy. If they’re happy here, I’m happy.”
A receiver took over management of the ranch in 2006, after Mr. Tacherra and his brother became embroiled in a financial and legal dispute. Both he and the receiver, Stinson Beach attorney Larry Baskin, are hoping to sell the ranch to the land trust.
“This just feels like the right thing to do,” Mr. Tacherra said.
The tenants maintain friendly relations with Mr. Tacherra even though they are seeking a judge’s permission to sue him and Mr. Baskin for back rent. Ms. Vazquez is a named plaintiff in the suit.
“I tell Jim I have no problem with him, but I must stand up for my rights as a tenant,” Ms. Vazquez said.
She listened attentively as José Leyva, a trust staffer, gave residents a tour of the one- and two-bedroom trailers and explained how they operate. Mr. Leyva’s colleague carried rental agreements for those families who had yet to sign them.
“It’s a beautiful moment,” Ms. O’Connor said. “It’s a privilege to be part of a moment like this.”
Kevin Lunny, president of Lunny Grading and Paving, and his crew worked down to the wire on Friday night, racing to install the trailers by an Oct. 20 deadline. Mr. Lunny, whose family operates a ranch in the Point Reyes National Seashore, serves on a committee seeking ways to improve West Marin’s housing stock for farmworkers and other low-income workers.
“My company installs a lot of driveways,” he said. “It’s nice to be doing some work we believe in. The B.C.L.T. has really created a miracle here. This is a brilliant solution to an urgent problem. It’s a wonderful example that could maybe be duplicated elsewhere.”
Mr. Lunny’s family, like Mr. Tacherra’s, are multi-generational ranchers, and their families are friends. “Jim has a big heart, and he has a hard time saying no,” Mr. Lunny said. “When people came and asked to live here, he’d tell them no three times. Then they’d come and get on their hands and knees and beg and he would finally say yes. He just got in over his head here.”
County planners have been supportive of the project, saying it is imperative to move the residents out of the ranch before the rainy season. On Tuesday, the Marin County Board of Supervisors contributed $662,000 to the project. Ms. Vazquez and one of her neighbors, Ingris Yanet Lopez, addressed supervisors before they voted.
Later, Ms. Lopez told the Light she was grateful for the support of the board, the land trust, Supervisor Dennis Rodoni, Sen. Mike McGuire and the many community members who have rallied to the residents’ cause. “We accomplished this together,” Ms. Lopez said. “We’ve built a lot of mutual respect and trust. We feel embraced and protected by all the people who helped us achieve this goal.”
Unfamiliar with their new country’s culture and customs, newcomers are often afraid to raise their voices, Ms. Lopez said.
She hopes the efforts of Tacherra tenants will encourage people in similar situations to speak out.
“Through all the difficulties you endure for a better life for yourself and your children, you have to speak out and unite,” she said. “In this country, you have the opportunity to speak out, and others will listen.”