The public restrooms in Point Reyes Station are among the busiest in Marin, used by visitors and locals alike and long exceeding the capacity of their septic system. Now, the county plans to take the pressure off with a new facility just down the street.
Last week, supervisors approved a $57,000 civil engineering contract to determine what kind of new bathrooms could fit on a county-owned parcel near the Coast Guard property, at Mesa and Giacomini Roads.
The existing public toilets were built in 2008 and upgraded last year with a $165,000 ramp. (Toby’s Playground next door was built through a community fundraising effort the same year, after the Board of Suprevisors approved the restrooms.) The facility is attached to a modest septic drain field, but the waste regularly exceeds what the system was designed to handle.
Consequently, the county pays nearly $62,000 a year to pump and truck away sewage from the bathrooms’ holding tank and two adjacent portable bathrooms.
“That restroom was built essentially for the amount of use we expected,” said Max Korten, the director of Marin County Parks. “It turned out to be way higher than that. That’s become a real hub.”
Point Reyes Station has seen increasing visitors in recent years, and many business owners are reluctant to make their restrooms publicly accessible because their septic systems cannot accommodate high volumes. Cowgirl Creamery, the Bovine Bakery and the Palace Market are among those that see heavy weekend traffic but don’t offer bathrooms to customers. Most visitors go to the public bathrooms, which have become the third most-visited county park site in Marin, and the second most-visited site on weekends, according to a 2015 parks survey. Visitation has only climbed since then, especially during the pandemic.
The nearby vacant county lot—once a baseball field—is separated from the existing bathrooms by a grassy field owned by E.A.H. housing. The company bought several adjoining parcels before deeding the corner lot to the county in 2005 and developing the adjacent affordable units.
The idea of adding a new restroom there is not new: A 2019 county survey of Point Reyes Station residents, funded by a state grant for rural water resource planning, raised the possibility of a community wastewater system akin to the village-wide system in Marshall.
That survey, and public meetings held in conjunction with it, revealed a clear interest in more visitor bathrooms, and Supervisor Dennis Rodoni convened working groups to address both issues. The community wastewater system option was supported by some business owners, said Ken Levin, the president of the Point Reyes Station Village Association, but some homeowners worried it could promote more development. Those concerns, along with topographical constraints, stalled the conversation on a community wastewater system.
But the public bathroom working group’s vision of a green facility on Mesa Road eventually spawned the contract with Sherwood Design Engineers, the same firm that is working with the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin on its affordable housing project at the former Coast Guard station next door. Sherwood will look to ecological “cutting-edge or state-of-the-art” technology for the bathroom, according to its contract, and will consider a composting toilet or an improved septic tank called an anaerobic baffled reactor.
The contractor will hold two public meetings with county staff to explain the project and take feedback, though no dates have been set.
Mr. Levin lauded the “necessary” step toward a new restroom. In the meantime, he said, he encourages visitors to use the public bathrooms in the Point Reyes National Seashore instead.