Tiburon’s new open space is worth the wait – Marin Independent Journal

The official removal of “No Trespassing” signs from the Martha Co. property on the Tiburon ridge is a fitting conclusion to a decades-long fight to save the land as public open space.

Although often ignored, the signs were a symbol that the hill country was earmarked for the construction of multimillion-dollar homes with breathtaking, postcard-perfect views of San Francisco Bay.

Over the years, the property’s development potential was limited by restricted zoning and other planning hurdles until the family that owned the 110-acre property agreed to sell it.

Tiburon residents had purchased property and saved hillside land adjacent to the Martha Co. site, but securing the hilltop for public use involved numerous, years-long development battles at both the County Civic Center and Tiburon City Hall.

For more than 40 years, officials made no secret of their preference for preserving the property as public open space. It was one of Marin’s development battlegrounds. It’s a treasured piece of Marin that has long been on the county’s open space “wish list.” Eventually, the often-frustrated landowners put the land up for sale and the stage was set for a $42.1 million purchase that recently closed.

The landmark purchase was made possible in large part by Belvedere and Tiburon voters’ overwhelming support for a bond measure that would raise more than half the amount needed to make state ownership a reality. The county, the Marin Open Space Trust, the state and private donations filled the gap.

Thank you to the leaders of the Tiburon Peninsula, the tireless longtime volunteers and elected officials who have never given up on their goal of transforming the ridgeline into a public open space, ensuring one of the most spectacular places in the Bay Area for the public to enjoy for generations to come secure.

Some criticism that securing the land as public open space undermines the community’s ability to meet its affordable housing needs is misguided. These hilltop neighborhoods were never intended as affordable housing, but rather as sites for multimillionaires’ mega-homes. Because of its value, it has never been accessible as a site for the type of housing the Tiburon Peninsula desperately needs.

Affordable housing activists would have preferred to build affordable housing, but the purpose certainly reflects the will of the community and is likely to benefit many more people.