Leo DenOuden entered the Planning Commission hearing room on Monday with trepidation. County code inspectors had told him he had no real choice but to tear down the two buildings on his Forest Knolls property in which he spends many of his waking hours, painting, tinkering and growing wheatgrass. He wasn’t counting on the commissioners to throw him a lifeline, but they did—for now.
Instead of ordering him to tear down his greenhouse and art studio, they gave him a six-month reprieve and asked county staff to re-evaluate the strict stream conservation ordinance designed to protect endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout in the Lagunitas Creek
watershed.
The ordinance prohibits building within a 100-foot streamside conservation area, or S.C.A., even if an environmental review shows the structures pose no threat to fish or creek beds. The rules were the result of a series of lawsuits against Marin County filed by the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, a program of the Olema-based Turtle Island Restoration Network. After years of litigation, the two sides reached a settlement whose terms are reflected in the S.C.A. ordinance, which county supervisors approved in 2022.
Mr. DenOuden says he didn’t have any idea he was within 100 feet of a waterway when he built the 145-square-foot greenhouse and the 292-square-foot art studio and office at his property at 107 Montezuma Road. In fact, that was a few years before the ordinance was written.
His next-door neighbor’s entire home stands between his house and the ephemeral stream, blocking the view of any water passing beyond. You can’t typically hear any water flowing by, and you can’t see any either, unless you walk down and check for it in the middle of the rainy season.
Like hundreds of other homeowners in the San Geronimo Valley, Mr. DenOuden had built the structures without obtaining permits. But he was the first of them to have a hearing under the new ordinance, which established an anonymous hotline so that neighbors could report violations.
In July 2022, just weeks after the rules took effect, a neighbor reported the two structures as well as a small shed and a shipping container that he had converted into a workshop. A code enforcement officer came to inspect the property shortly afterward.
Hoping to legalize the structures, Mr. DenOuden spent $3,000 for an environmental review of his property, which did not turn up any environmental impacts. A trained architect, he drew the site maps required by the county on his own, saving himself a couple thousand dollars.
Mr. DenOuden has offered to contribute to an environmental mitigation fund that was discussed when the county negotiated the settlement with SPAWN, but that fund was never established.
When he arrived at the hearing on Monday, only two unpalatable options were on the table: tear down the structures or move them. The latter was unfeasible given the unconventional layout of his property, which is only a third of an acre.
Planning commissioners expressed frustration over the fact that the ordinance left them no ability to grant exceptions. They quickly concluded that the rules should be modified.
“There’s no indication, no suggestion that anything happening on this property is, in fact, impacting the stream,” said commissioner Peggy Curran, who visited the site before the hearing.
“I don’t see any good work-around in terms of just moving things to the other side of the property. That’s a harsh reality.”
Chris Desser, a commissioner from Point Reyes Station, said a rigid policy that did not allow for exceptions might discourage other homeowners in the San Geronimo Valley from seeking building permits for their projects.
“There are hundreds, if not thousands of unpermitted structures in Marin County, especially in West Marin,” she said. “Up until a few years ago, West Marin was a little like the Wild West. People just went out and did stuff. Getting permits didn’t seem like a big deal. People simply didn’t bother.”
Like Ms. Curran, she called for a more flexible approach. “I’m open to a continuance for the appellant to work with the county to try and find a sensible resolution to some of these matters,” Ms. Desser said.
The commissioners voted 6-0 to hold another hearing in six months and directed county staff to work with SPAWN to modify the S.C.A. ordinance in the meantime.
That came as a great relief to Mr. DenOuden.
“I’ll be in limbo for another six months, but I can see some light,” he said after the hearing. “It seems they have directed the planning department to work something out for me and perhaps for everyone else in the valley in a situation like mine.”
Steve Kinsey, a former county supervisor and land use consultant whose firm, CivicKnit, was hired by Mr. DenOuden to work on the case, said he expected that SPAWN would be open to updating the ordinance.
“It was a great day for Leo because six out of six recognized this wasn’t a fair or rational situation that he was in,” he said. “It was also a good day for SPAWN because most elements of the ordinance are being upheld, and it’s not in their political interest to require that projects that don’t have impacts be torn down. That would reignite a civil war.”
After the hearing, Ken Bouley, the new executive director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network, said the nonprofit would indeed be open to discussing an update.
“We fought hard to get the ordinance enacted, and we wouldn’t want to see it weakened,” he said. “But if it’s putting undue hardships on people in a way that doesn’t help the fish or the environment, then we’re very happy to discuss modifications to it.”
For now, Mr. DenOuden will return to painting watercolors, tinkering in his workshop and growing his wheatgrass. “It’s vitamin- and mineral-packed,” he said. “I like to drink it before exercising. I gotta stay well for my ladies.”
Those would be his wife, Barbara; his daughter, Diana; his granddaughter, Hannah; and his great-granddaughter, Violet.