Marin Co.: County Officially Takes Control Of Former San Geronimo Golf Course Site

Bay City News

The ownership of the site of a former golf course in West Marin now known as San Geronimo Commons transitioned from the Trust for Public Land to Marin County on Tuesday, setting aside nearly 157 acres for a public park, nature preserve and a new county fire headquarters.

"San Geronimo Commons is a landmark project that enhances habitat and ecosystem restoration, connects thousands of acres of public land, boosts community climate resilience, and accommodates modern fire facilities in West Marin," said Guillermo Rodriguez, California state director of the Trust for Public Land, in a Thursday news release.

In addition to being a protected habitat for endangered salmon, the site will house the future headquarters of the Marin County Fire Department, according to the county.

"By centralizing our community's fire department headquarters we can effectively serve for generations to come," Fire Chief Jason Weber said in the same release.

The county said the San Geronimo site is much better situated for emergency response than the fire department's current location in Woodacre, where it has resided for over a century. The new site is more accessible to main corridors such as U.S. Highway 101, even though it is barely 2 miles from the Woodacre location. But as they say in firefighting, every second counts.

Marin County Parks will oversee areas of the expanse that have been open to hiking, biking and equestrian activity. The Trust for Public Land purchased the golf course in 2018 for nearly $9 million, promising a restored nature scape with hiking trails that link up to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore.

According to the trust, the golf course was set up in the early 1960s with the intention of building an entire suburb around it, but that never happened. In fact, the golf course itself struggled to stay financially on par and went up for sale in 2017.

Once the Trust for Public Land took over, a sort of reverse-development began, with the artificially engineered golf course landscape slowly being taken over by what it supplanted decades before: Mother Nature. San Geronimo Creek was undammed, birds returned to nest, and native plants and grasses began to sprout.

As with many Marin public land deals, getting to this point had many fits, starts, and even lawsuits, including residents that wanted to see the golf course rebooted and even a wastewater treatment plant erected on the site.

Ultimately, supervisors approved the purchase of the site last month for $4.5 million with the intention of preserving it for public use and conservation.

"This purchase reflects the county's commitment to protect, connect, and restore this property for our community," said Dennis Rodoni, president of the Board of Supervisors and representative for San Geronimo Valley.

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