How one of the Bay Area’s most famous outdoor spaces nearly became a huge housing estate

Marincello was halted shortly after its launch by a conservation campaign and legal crusade that ultimately carved out over 3 square miles of open space stretching from the edge of Mill Valley to the beach. The land was eventually absorbed into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where thousands of people come to hike, bike and be in nature each year.

But that stretch of sidewalk, perhaps 100 feet forming a tight loop in the weeds across from the Tennessee Valley parking lot, has stubbornly held its own for nearly 60 years. It will still be there when the parking lot reopens around April 8 after being paved and striped for the first time.

Amid a year-long celebration of the GGNRA’s 50th anniversary, the old sidewalk stands as a low-key monument to the beloved green space, and how it came close to being closed to the public for good .

“There should be a plaque so people don’t take it for granted,” said Victor Peskin of Albany, who walked right by the old sidewalk without paying attention on an 8-mile hike. with his wife, Neva. When the sidewalk was pointed out to them, it suddenly took on great meaning. “I want to appreciate the historic nature of it,” Neva said, “and the environmental victory.”

But the need for housing is critical throughout the Bay Area, and some are hearing echoes of the Bay Area’s current housing crisis in the defeat of Marincello, and tracing the roots of Marin’s historic opposition. to new developments to this overgrown sidewalk on Tennessee Valley Road.

The late political powerhouse Rep. Phil Burton gets most of the credit for the environmental victory for passing federal legislation that created the GGNRA in 1972. But the victory over Marincello, which has been proposed to include hilltop apartment towers, canyon housing, hotels and commercial buildings, was won before Burton’s legislation was passed.

“The Marincello rescue was the combination of lawyers and grassroots citizens,” said Nona Dennis, a Mill Valley resident of 60 years and a longtime Marin Conservation League board member. “It became the centerpiece of what would become the Marin County section of the GGNRA, eventually stretching 35 miles north to reach the Point Reyes National Seashore.”

In the early 1960s, as hillside ranches west of Highway 101 were being sold, Gulf Oil-backed developer Thomas Fruge purchased 2,100 acres, aiming to create a new community , according to the book “New Guardians for the Golden Gate” by Amy Meyer. Marin officials approved the plan in 1965, when the curved curb was installed, along with pillars and gateposts.

But opponents of the development waged a fight centered on zoning irregularities in the approvals process, and lawyers got to work stopping construction on site. The rezoning challenge mounted by Marincello’s opponents went all the way to the state Supreme Court, where the environmental team prevailed, led by Kentfield trial attorney Bob Praetzel.

“Marin County tried to ram this down voters’ throats and they didn’t get away with it,” Praetzel said of the five-year battle, which he fought voluntarily.

In 1970, Gulf Oil sold the land for around $5 million to the Nature Conservancy, and the developer abandoned Marincello’s plans.

“Housing would have been all over the place, dotting the ridge,” said GGNRA communications director Charlie Strickfaden. “I wonder how many people even notice the sidewalk and wonder why it’s there.”

Marincello’s defeat in court helped prove that the new development could be changed or completely blocked by the legal system.

Soon conservationists halted an expansion of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard through San Anselmo to the coast that would have allowed for a projected population of 750,000. Development of China Camp, on the shore of San Rafael Bay, has also been halted. Eventually, more than half of Marin County would be state-owned, a reality that some say contributes to Marin’s housing crisis.

“As a county, Marin hasn’t done its share of housing creation,” said Todd David, executive director of the Housing Action Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group. “The Bay Area definitely has a shortage of land and devoting 50% of it to open space sends a clear message that Marin is not interested in doing its part to solve the accessibility and displacement crisis of the region.”

Although Marincello’s fate at the hands of the justice system may have inspired other anti-development actions, even housing activists said the Tennessee Valley would not function as a residential community: the density would be too low and too remote. transit options, which would likely create more traffic. and smog, said Rafa Sonnenfeld, director of legal defense at pro-housing organization YIMBY Law.

“We don’t need to pave natural and working land to solve our housing crisis,” he said. “We just need to allow for denser infill development in high-opportunity locations.”

According to Strickfaden, the sidewalk was part of a planned grand entrance to Marincello, intended to provide a sense of style and sophistication to potential buyers walking the lots.

The pillars and posts were removed in the mid 70’s by park staff, but no one bothered to remove the sidewalk, and now it is protected by federal law which protects all historic features in the parks , including lump aggregates.

“God bless Phil Burton. They should put a plaque on it,” said Alan Cohan of Sausalito, who has been hiking here since the 1970s. Like most people interviewed by The Chronicle, Cohan was more interested in the progress of the paved parking lot than the historical significance of the cobblestone curb.

“I think it’s wonderful and I really wish my car didn’t bottom out,” he said. “Never every pothole was good for suspension but it was free and it was parking.”

Parking will always be free. The paving project is estimated at $733,000, paid for by the Federal Lands Transportation Program, which maintains roads and parking on land operated by the National Parks Service. When the lot reopens, it will have 66 locations, which will not be enough to meet demand. In 2021, 250,000 people visited the Tennessee Valley.

The Tennessee Valley parking lot is one of many major projects leading up to the GGNRA’s 50th anniversary, which will be celebrated in late October. The restoration of Muir Woods Creek and the renovation of the China Beach Bathhouse in the Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco are also under construction. Each of these projects is budgeted at $20 million.

There’s another Marincello relic in Marin aside from the overgrown sidewalk: the Rodeo Avenue exit off Highway 101 heading south out of Mill Valley. The green road sign indicates that an exit ramp only leads to a dead end.

This exit to nowhere would have led directly to Marincello.

Sam Whiting is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.comTwitter: @samwithingsf