Popular Marin Headlands trailhead receives upgrade
Fifty years ago, the sounds of excavators moving dirt and trucks pouring concrete in the Tennessee Valley would have been a cause for alarm for Marin County's open space defenders.
But unlike the 1960s and 1970s when developers eyed the valley as a gateway to the envisioned city of Marincello in the Marin Headlands, construction crews working in the valley are instead upgrading an entry point to one of the largest tracts of protected public land in Marin.
“Had it not been for community involvement, this would be an entrance gate to Marincello and we would be seeing condominiums and houses on the Marin Headlands instead of the open space that we see today,” said National Park Service spokesman Charlie Strickfaden.
This project, led by the National Park Service and Federal Highways Administration, is working to upgrade the popular Tennessee Valley Trailhead near Mill Valley with a paved parking lot. The trailhead will also include new amenities and safety upgrades such as bike racks; sidewalks between parking areas and trailheads; and curbs to prevent erosion in some areas.
The trailhead is visited by about 195,000 people per year, and the previous 75-spot parking lot is often full during peak seasons. The project will ultimately reduce the number of parking spots to 69, which includes 66 standard spaces and three accessible parking spots for disabled visitors.
The project is expected to cost more than $733,000 and is funded by the Federal Lands Transportation Program. The park service was unable to provide information on the estimated completion time.
The trailhead is located near some of the remnants of the ill-fated Marincello. Concrete medians for the planned Marincello Boulevard, which would have led cars into the 30,000-resident community, now sit overgrown with shrubs along a dirt trail now enjoyed by thousands of hikers and bikers.
First conceptualized in the 1960s, plans for Marincello were eventually defeated after a sixyear battle by residents, open spaces advocates, environmentalists and political representatives. The land was eventually acquired by the Nature Conservancy in a $6.5 million deal and then transferred to the National Park Service in 1972 to become a piece of the newly formed Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The 82,000acre park in Marin County and San Francisco has become one of the most visited national parks in the nation.
Amy Meyer of San Francisco was one of the key players in the grassroots movement that led to the creation of the new urban national park, but said the “people in Marin made all the difference” when it came to defeating Marincello.
“It was the foresighted people in Marin, the Marin Conservation League, Margot Patterson Dawes, Huey Johnson and the Board of Supervisors all recognizing we could do something much better than Marincello,” Meyer said.
Nona Dennis, a former president of the Marin Conservation League who was among opponents of the Marincello, welcomed the improvements to the Tennessee Valley trailhead, calling it “a great way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.”
“It is probably the most popular and accessible trailhead for walkers of all ages, family groups, people from all over the Bay Area, bikers, equestrians from the nearby stables (everyone except dog walkers) on the Marin Headlands,” Dennis wrote in an email. “Remnants of Marincello's erstwhile entryway still stand, marking the victory of public land over massive development all the more notable. It's a beautiful 4-mile roundtrip walk to the beach, always popular.”
Chris Prentiss of Mill Valley is one of the 15 million people who now use the Golden Gate National Recreation Area each year. Prentiss was riding on an open dirt path of the Marincello Trail recently.
“I think this land being protected is pretty important for the community that we have,” Prentiss said. “I passed a bunch of hikers and bikers and everybody else. This is land that we all enjoy and, it makes Mill Valley and Marin pretty special.”