Vast coastal property to become a park
Purchase caps long effort to safeguard San Mateo County land
One of the greatest conservation stories on the San Mateo County coast is about to come to a close with 6,300 acres of rolling hills and valleys moving into public hands.
The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which manages a network of nature preserves between
San Francisco and San Jose, won approval from its governing board Saturday to proceed with the $16 million purchase of what’s known as Cloverdale Ranch.
The acquisition of the land along Highway 1, south of Pescadero, will put one of the Bay Area’s largest pieces of private coastal property under permanent public protection and sets the stage for opening the sprawling stretch of prairie and forests to visitors.
“It’s vast and when you’re up there you see just miles and miles of coastline,” said Ana María Ruiz, general manager of the open space district, also called Midpen. “It’s quite magnificent, and it’s one of the reasons the Bay Area as a whole is such a beautiful and incredible place to live.”
The property will be the biggest that Midpen has bought in its 50-year history. When opened to the public, the Cloverdale Ranch Open Space Preserve will be the district’s third largest of 27 preserves.
The sale, which likely won’t close until early next year, also accomplishes the broader goal of safeguarding the rural character of San Mateo County’s southern coast, an area defined by remote beaches, pumpkin and Brussels sprout fields, and hills studded with oaks and redwoods.
Cloverdale Ranch borders such protected landmarks as Año Nuevo State Park, the Pigeon Point Light Station and Butano State Park. Future trails on the ranch lands are expected to link into the neighboring sites.
“From Half Moon Bay down to Santa Cruz, there is not a single stoplight, and it goes to show the incredible foresight of so many people over the past 40 years of knowing how to balance urban and rural areas,” said Walter Moore, president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust, which spearheaded the protection of Cloverdale Ranch.
Under the threat of homes being
built there in the 1990s, the Palo Alto conservation group purchased a portion of the property in 1997, marking one of the largest land-preservation deals in Bay Area history. The group has since bought up additional parcels. It estimates that it has spent about $60 million on acquisitions and maintenance on the ranch lands.
POST's mission is generally not to manage property but to buy it for the sake of keeping it wild or undeveloped, then find others to steward it as parks and preserves. Moore said this part of the coast has long faced development pressure from wealthy individuals trying to pursue their trophy homes.
Portions of the Cloverdale Ranch have already been transferred to the surrounding state parks. POST plans to keep 400 acres to lease for agriculture. But the bulk of the property will go to Midpen.
Saturday's unanimous vote by Midpen's Board of Directors authorizes the purchase of 5,100 acres in the near-term and an option to buy an additional 1,200 acres in three years. The district's initial outlay will be a little more than $15 million. The 2025 purchase is expected to bring the total price to $16.2 million.
More than half the funding for the acquisition comes from grants, mostly from the state. Additional money comes from a 2014 bond measure approved by voters in the district. The district is made up of large portions of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and a sliver of Santa Cruz County.
Midpen plans to begin opening the lands to the public on a limited basis next year. “Community field days” hosted as soon as spring will extend to docent-led hikes in 2024 and visitation by permit in 2025. The existing Wilbur's Watch Trail, a 1mile out-and-back that's already accessible to the public, will remain open.
“We know that there's going to be a lot of interest to get out there,” Ruiz said.
Full access is expected to come once district staff have time to inventory the lands and safeguard ecologically sensitive
“It’s one of the reasons the Bay Area as a whole is such a beautiful and incredible place to live.”
Ana María Ruiz, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District
areas.
For Ruiz, the site's biodiversity is one of the property's defining features: It includes badgers, bobcats and mountain lions and 15 miles of streams that host steelhead trout, California redlegged frogs and western pond turtles.
“This is an incredible opportunity to protect a wildlife corridor and protect wildlife,” she said.
The preservation of the site, Ruiz added, also helps serve the state and federal goal of 30x30 — conserving 30% of land and waters by 2030.