Marin allocates $485K to buy Point Reyes Station parcel
The county of Marin will spend $485,000 to purchase about 1.25 acres in Point Reyes Station, even though it has not identified a use for the property as yet.
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the purchase from the Donovan family. Supervisor Dennis Rodoni, whose district includes Point Reyes Station and most of West Marin, recommended the acquisition.
“The Donovan lot in Point Reyes Station has been desired by the local community for some time,” Rodoni wrote in an email. “Because it is the entry point to Point Reyes Station, many community members have suggested the county make this investment, so the community can decide the future use.”
The property, one of the few undeveloped parcels in Point Reyes Station, is at 101 B St. at the corner of Highway 1. The money to pay for the land will come from the county’s general fund.
Speaking at the supervisors’ meeting on Oct. 12, when the purchase was first discussed, Ken Levin, president of the Point Reyes Station Village Association, said, “This would be a really wonderful property for county parks to acquire. It is the gateway to West Marin for hundreds of thousands of visitors.”
In an email, Levin said public ownership of the property would benefit locals and visitors alike. He said it would it alleviate a shortage of visitor parking and locate visitor facilities — such as interpretive materials and restrooms — away from the downtown area.
Levin added that the lot “wouldn’t be developable for much else because it is right next to a creek.”
Rodini wrote, “We do know there are infrastructure restraints around septic and water way setbacks.”
The West Marin Environmental Action Committee’s executive director, Morgan Patton, and conservation director, Ashley EagleGibbs, voiced their support in an email to the county. They noted that besides being adjacent to one of the main entrances to town, it is adjacent to state lands that connect to the Giacomini Wetlands preserve.
Gordon Bennett, president of
Save our Seashore, also voiced his support. In a letter to the county, Bennett wrote that “the Donovan parcel could provide useful services (e.g., parking) not just to local residents, but also to local businesses and tourists.”
“Save Our Seashore is particularly interested in the parcel’s usefulness as an environmental mitigation (restrooms),” Bennett wrote. He noted the detrimental effect on Tomales Bay caused by the “visitor use of Highway One shoulders as informal restrooms due the lack of formal restrooms.”
Several of those advocating the deal mentioned the need for additional public restrooms.
“Please pursue the opportunity to install another cluster of toilets, sorely needed as we all know too well,” Ron Wagner and Bonnie Rudner wrote to the county.
Frank Borodic, president of the West Marin Chamber of Commerce, wrote that the organization has long supported using at least a portion of the property to accommodate overflow parking serving Point Reyes Station’s downtown.
Rhonda Kutter wrote in an email, “The tourist parking is out of control in Point Reyes Station. I would like to recommend that the county purchase the lot and create a parking lot so visitors may come, park and then walk around town.
We can not go back in time, but we can thoughtfully manage the visitors so we can all still enjoy our town.”
But Jeff Felix wrote that a parking lot will only encourage more visitors in a town “overrun” with them.
“Incidentally, I think these particular folks come to town to eat and shop. Not to visit nature,” he wrote. “There are many of us who live here who are not motivated to encourage more people to come to our town.”