The language of a March 2020 ballot measure that would require the county to seek voter approval before eliminating golf as the county’s stated primary use at the San Geronimo Golf Course property was approved last Tuesday, despite objections from the property’s owner, the Trust for Public Land.
The golf equipment has been sold and the land is returning to nature, said Erica Williams, the trust’s Marin representative, at a Board of Supervisors hearing last week. “Referring to it as the golf course property is an objectively false and misleading description,” she said. “We strongly urge you to modify the description of the property to make it clear to voters that the property is a former golf course. This can be as simple as adding the word ‘former’ to the ballot language.”
But advocates for the measure said the language must reflect the petition that was signed by 12,000 people. “I suggest T.P.L.’s discussion of former use and wanting to say, ‘Gee, this is all over and it’s too late to change anything,’ which seems to be the intent of their argument, belongs in the voter pamphlet arguments,” said Woodacre resident Peggy Sheneman, a member of Save Community Plans, a registered campaign committee.
County counsel Brian Washington agreed. “The remedy that T.P.L. does have is to go to court, take a writ of mandate to the court, and ask them to change the ballot language,” he said.
Brendan Moriarty, the trust’s senior project manager, said the group has not decided whether to pursue that route.
The ballot measure would amend the San Geronimo Valley Community Plan and county development code to mandate golf as the property’s primary use. Yet because the property is owned by a private entity, the measure cannot force the trust to operate a golf course, and county officials have questioned its efficacy.
Mr. Moriarty said were the initiative to pass, the property would likely remain in its present limbo of dried up greens. “You basically would lock in this outcome in the valley that doesn’t serve anybody,” he said.
Any proposal, such as for restoration, agriculture or a new fire station, would be tabled while the trust explores how to clear the hurdle posed by an adopted initiative. The trust and its supporters have formed a campaign committee opposing the measure: Protect, Connect, and Restore the San Geronimo Valley 2020.
Supporters of the initiative crafted their petition when the golf course was actively operated and the county was on track to obtain the property from T.P.L., which purchased it in 2017 with the plan to sell it to Marin. But the San Geronimo Advocates sued the county, and a judge ruled that Marin would have to conduct an environmental review prior to finalizing the purchase. The county backed out of the deal due to the cost of such a review.
This year, T.P.L. employees and their partners launched a community engagement process to determine the property’s fate, which they hope to wrap up next spring. The trust will then release a document summarizing its vision for the property. “Once we know that, we can build the roadmap to get there,” Mr. Moriarty said.
In the meantime, the trust has partnered with Trout Unlimited to explore restoration opportunities for the two creeks that run through the land—part of the Lagunitas Creek watershed, home to the Bay Area’s most stable population of endangered central California coho salmon.
“The types of restoration that we can apply on the landscape are tied to the land uses,” said Anna Halligan, the north coast coho project director for Trout Unlimited. So although a restored watershed and golf can coexist, Ms. Halligan said absent the sport, restoration efforts can be more expansive.
While her group waits for the fate of the course to be determined, its employees are in “listening and learning” mode. Their focus will eventually be to restore the floodplain, creating slow-water refugia for the fish.
Parts of Larsen Creek that run through underground metal culverts could be uncovered and restored, and the surrounding landscape could be diversified and softened using the guiding concept of “slow it, spread it, sink it.”
Beyond the benefits to salmonids, the creation of a wildlife corridor would expand habitat for land animals, possibly reducing traffic collisions. Coyotes, bobcats, foxes, skunks, deer, raccoons, rabbits and other small mammals would benefit. The land is adjacent to four open space preserves—the French Ranch, Roy’s Redwoods, Gary Giacomini and Maurice Thorner Memorial Open Space Preserves.
The Salmon Protection and Watershed Network is also in the final stages of permitting a pair of restoration projects on the golf course property that will repair the Roy’s Pools fish ladder and make improvements upstream on San Geronimo Creek. These projects, years in the making, began under the prior owner’s tenure. The improvements will create alcoves, floodplain terraces and side-channels for salmon using wood, rocks and vegetation.