Marin supervisors OK $23 mil bond sale to buy Tiburon open space

Marin has officially authorized $23 million in funding to help buy and preserve 110 acres of private property on the southern Tiburon ridge as open space, putting the land trust leading the effort in position to finalize the deal in June.

The county Board of Supervisors, meeting as the Marin Open Space District board of directors on May 7, approved the bond sale in a 3-0 vote. The sale was authorized by Belvedere and southern Tiburon voters as Measure M on the November 2022 ballot, backed by a 30-year, $335-per-parcel tax with an annual 2% escalator.

Southern Marin Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, whose district includes Tiburon and Belvedere, and colleague Katie Rice were absent.

With the bond sale secured, the nonprofit Trust for Public Land is now waiting on one pending $5.5-million grant to complete its fundraising efforts and allow it to buy the land for $42.1 million from owner the Martha Co., which has the right to build homes on at least 43 lots.

The trust then plans to sell the land to the county for $29.2 million — Marin’s share of the fundraising — which includes the money from the latest bonds, two others from the 1990s and a $6-million distribution of Measure A sales taxes that support parks and open-space maintenance.

“There’s so many ways this project could have failed, but it didn’t,” Tiburon Open Space President Jerry Riessen said during the meeting. “And today, we’re on the verge of creating a world-class conservation zone to be enjoyed by all.”

Erica Williams, a senior project manager with the trust and a Tiburon Planning Commissioner, said in a text message that while there was still work to be done, the group was “closer than ever to the finish line.”

“I’m thrilled that we’ve reached this critical milestone and so grateful to county staff and especially the community for their tireless commitment to this project,” she said.

The Trust for Public Land and Tiburon Open Space have been fundraising over the past couple years to close the $12.9 million gap between its purchase price from the Martha Co. and its sale price to the county. Under the purchase agreement, they have until June 14 to show the owners they have the funding to complete the deal.

The final piece of the funding puzzle is a $5.5 million grant from the California Wildlife Conservation Board that still needs to be approved at a May 23 meeting, though that agency’s staff has recommended the funds be given. That funding would put the trust over the required purchase price by $925,000.

Williams previously said any excess funds raised would go toward reducing Tiburon’s pledged contribution of $2 million. Belvedere has pledged $125,000 toward the effort.

The trust has also secured $3.2 million in private donations, $1.5 million from the California Natural Resources Agency and $1.5 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Some $10,000 of private donations came from the Tiburon Peninsula Foundation, and the Belvedere Community Foundation has pledged up to $100,000 via $50,000 in matching grants.

The trust can continue to fundraise up to the June 14 deadline to prove it has the funds and then throughout the 60- to 90-day escrow period that will follow.

Several locals who spoke during the May 7 meeting expressed their enthusiasm and support for the purchase and preservation of the land, including Tiburon resident Bill Lukens, who acknowledged that many people have been working “and hoping and wishing for” the Martha property’s acquisition since he co-founded the Sierra Club’s Marin chapter some 50 years ago.

“This is a huge event in our life, and we’re looking forward to it,” he said.

Tiburon Mayor Alice Fredericks said she was first inspired to run for the Town Council decades ago by the local effort to preserve the Martha property, noting that it’s not only recreational space but “an educational resource.” She pointed to her daughter, “who tromped the ridgelines with” late Marin naturalist and educator Elizabeth “Mrs. T” Terwilliger. She is now a biology professor focusing on wildlife changes following habitat loss, a career choice in part inspired by her childhood experience with Terwilliger.

“This is what open space produces,” Fredericks said.

Supervisors were quick in their approval of the bond sale and in a separate 3-0 vote to approve a slew of procedural actions related to the acquisition of the property, which will become part of unincorporated Marin’s 18,400 acres of county-managed open space. Some 80% of the county and its municipalities is dedicated to open space and agricultural lands.

“It is a wonderful, lovely property,” said board President Dennis Rodoni, adding the Martha parcel “certainly will be another treasure in Marin’s many treasures of property and open space.”

Reach Tiburon reporter Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634.