David Lee Hoffman, the Lagunitas resident and tea purveyor who has protected dozens of unpermitted buildings on his property from demolition despite a decade of legal actions and mounting fines from the county, this month brought a briefcase with $46,000 in cash to court.  

The county did not touch the briefcase, but Mr. Hoffman gained ground: he has 60 days to formalize a settlement agreement.  

Marin County Superior Court Judge Paul Haakenson—who in 2015 put the property, dubbed The Last Resort, under the control of a receiver—recommended a settlement after receiving the county’s latest position during a hearing on June 7.   

Brian Case, deputy county counsel, told the court, “I think that Mr. Hoffman has in a dramatic fashion presented his offer, but the county has never received a formal offer. The county is certainly willing to sit down with Mr. Hoffman and discuss a settlement of the receivership if there is a realistic plan to achieve the purposes of the receivership.”

Judge Haakenson, gesturing toward Mr. Hoffman, said, “What he just said, I would be jumping for joy if I were you.”

The judge outlined three goals for the settlement discussions: to determine a plan to bring each structure into compliance, to identify who is going to do that work and to decide how it will be paid for. 

Mr. Hoffman has already made some headway in bringing his property into compliance. Although he dismissed his lawyers early this year, unable to afford them any longer, he and his many supporters have continued to insist that his property—a model for sustainable building, featuring gray and black water systems and a composting toilet—deserved architectural recognition. The court’s receiver, attorney Eric Beatty, finally agreed in March that it made sense to apply the historic building code, a more lenient alternative to the state building code applied to properties with architectural significance. 

Although Mr. Hoffman commissioned a San Anselmo architectural firm last fall to delineate how the property might be brought into compliance with the historic code, Mr. Beatty received permission in March from Judge Haakenson to create his own plans, saying a great deal of technical evaluation was still needed. 

The historic code does not shield Mr. Hoffman from extensive permitting and reconstruction costs, however; by Mr. Hoffman’s own estimate, those costs will run at least $2.2 million.

Mr. Hoffman also faces a nearly $1 million tab on his property taxes, reflecting the court’s administrative penalties and a lien from Bank of America to cover the costs of the receiver’s work.

Help may be on the way, however. In March, Mr. Hoffman announced his plans to transfer ownership of the property to a new local nonprofit, the Lagunitas Project, which has to date raised around $100,000. 

Judge Haakenson encouraged Mr. Hoffman to be optimistic on Friday, despite the long road ahead. “What I’m hearing from Mr. Case is that there might be an avenue to reverse the clock more than 10, 12 years back—to start over, to do a do-over,” he said. “Now, not even at the 11th hour, but the 13th hour, the county is saying that there might be an avenue to transfer the property to a nonprofit, to have a settlement agreement where the receiver is not needed anymore.”

The judge said he didn’t expect all details to be hammered out in two months, but to report back with an agreement that includes an outline for the structures and a payment plan. He would not approve releasing the receiver until that collaboration is underway and Mr. Beatty is guaranteed to be paid for his time.

Another issue that the parties will address over the coming months is a citation from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board that claims Mr. Hoffman violated state water code by building over Cintura and Alta Creeks. 

Mr. Hoffman has said he is perplexed by the violation and rejected the water board’s claim that he has discharged waste into the creeks. A February letter from the water board mandated a restoration plan, although Mr. Beatty has since negotiated to allow specialists to instead draft mitigation measures.

 

The next hearing on The Last Resort will be held in Marin County Superior Court on Friday, August 23 at 9 a.m.