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RESTORATION: A biologist hired by the parks department recommended that a county-owned property on the Bolinas Lagoon be restored to natural habitat. The property, once owned by Lillian and Ed Letter, still houses handmade and antique boating equipment.   David Briggs

Marin County Parks is exploring options for a six-acre parcel on the north end of the Bolinas Lagoon once inhabited by a vibrant local couple. The property, formerly owned by the late Lillian and Edward Letter, was condemned in the 1970s; the county returned a life estate deed to the Letters, who spent the remainder of their days there.

Now, the house, barn and boat shed are in disrepair and a county-commissioned biologist is recommending restoring the shoreline. The parks department is inviting community members to suggest ideas for future public access and recreational and interpretive facilities on the site. It plans to bring a proposal to the Bolinas Lagoon Advisory Council, which must approve the project, within the next year.

“I think the buildings are old and they should probably come down,” said Ralph Camiccia, chair of the lagoon council and a longtime friend of the Letters. “The county is going about this all in the right way—asking the community what we want.”

The Letter property is unique in that it is the only privately owned property on the north end of the lagoon, said James Raives, the senior open space planner for Marin County Parks. He suspects the county bought it to prevent future development there, or else out of concern over the impacts of the septic system on the lagoon.

The Letters kept the property as a second home. In addition to working for Union Hardware in San Francisco, Mr. Letter was one of the founders of the Bolinas Rod and Boat Club. He also served as an assistant fire chief in Bolinas and ran a boat and lock repair shop out of his house. Ms. Letter outlived her husband by three years, dying in 2011.

“That house, that property, has a lot of history for a lot of people,” longtime Bolinas resident Elizabeth Muir Robinson said. It was there that her husband and Mr. Letter built the last wooden schooner ever built in Bolinas: a 50-foot sailboat named after her as the “Elizabeth Muir.” 

“The Letter property really became a gathering place for many great craftsmen in the area, who used the land as a workshop,” she said.

In 2011, the parks department commissioned an inspection of the residence. A report found the home “in a state of total disrepair” and “not habitable by the housing, civil, and health and safety codes.” It recommended razing and reconstructing the structure. An engineer’s evaluation in 2013 corroborated the assessment, flagging significant damage and rot in the barn and finding no structural integrity in the boat shed.

Last year, the county hired ecologist Peter Baye to investigate the condition of the land and identify environmental restoration alternatives that would take future impacts from sea-level rise into account. Dr. Baye presented his findings to the Bolinas Lagoon Advisory Council last Friday.  

Overall, he found a number of native species on the property, living in five different habitat types he said were important for a transition zone between salt marsh and higher land. He also found active shoreline erosion on multiple portions of the property; left unmitigated, those areas could affect the nearby Olema-Bolinas Road, he said.

In order to maintain the integrity of the site, Dr. Baye recommended a number of bolstering measures, including depositing coarse sediment and creating a “living shoreline,” with local native tidal and high marsh vegetation that could absorb waves. His report also warned against installing any permanent structures, roads or parking, due to the potential for erosion and inundation. (Boat access was not a recommended use, as boats would falter in the deep mudflats and low tidal flows.)

At the meeting last week, council and community members seemed to agree that the site may be best suited to low-intensity recreational uses, such as a simple trail, interpretive signs or a picnic area.

 

A summary of Peter Baye’s report will soon be available at marincountyparks.org. Comments and ideas can be sent to the Bolinas Lagoon Restoration Project Manager, Veronica C. Pearson, at [email protected].