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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

October 6, 2004

Bay lands funding secure

$7.9 million grant caps Land Trust bid for Sears Point-area site once slated for casino

WETLANDS IN SIGHT

The land along San Pablo Bay will ultimately be converted into wetlands and public open space, said Ralph Benson, executive director of the Sonoma Land Trust, a nonprofit group that is acquiring the property.

The final piece of funding dropped into place Monday when a foundation started by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore awarded a $7.9 million grant to acquire the site proposed for a casino and the adjacent 648-acre Dickson Ranch, Benson said.

"It's fabulous," said Benson. "It's a recognition of the value of this property to the whole region. It's part of a multiyear effort on the part of lots of agencies to restore the shoreline of San Pablo Bay."

The trust plans to complete the Dickson Ranch acquisition within a month and finalize the purchase of the neighboring site by the end of the year.

The two properties straddle Highway 37 in southern Sonoma County west of Infineon Raceway. Much of the land is diked and used for hay farming.

The Sonoma Land Trust will now set out to raise another $6.5 million to restore tidal wetlands on the property and create a 4-mile extension of the San Francisco Bay Trail, enabling hikers and bikers to travel from the Petaluma River to Tolay Creek.

"That whole landscape, where Sonoma County meets the bay, is going to be protected land," Benson said.

A North Coast Indian tribe targeted the site to build a casino in 2003, sparking an outcry from preservationists who feared the project would destroy environmentally sensitive bay lands. In response, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria backed away from the site and moved the project to Rohnert Park.

Station Casinos Inc., a Nevada gaming company that acquired an option on the 1,679-acre site for the Graton Rancheria, donated its option to the Sonoma Land Trust in November. Station Casinos retained ownership of 321 acres, which it has pledged to donate in the future to the Land Trust.

Representatives of the Graton Rancheria did not return calls Tuesday. However, Benson said he believes the tribe will follow up on its commitment to donate the remaining land.

The Sonoma Land Trust will purchase the casino site from North Point Joint Venture, an investment group that owned the property. It will also acquire the Dickson Ranch .

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of San Francisco awarded $5.9 million to acquire the properties and $2 million to plan for future use of the land.

Previously, the state Wildlife Conservation Board donated $8 million for the project, while the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors contributed $2.6 million to acquire the Dickson Ranch.

Individual contributors gave $1.5 million, Benson said.

"We received hundreds of individual contributions. It was a demonstration of public support for these acquisitions," he said.

Frank Jordan, the former San Francisco mayor who is now the San Francisco Bay regional program director for the Moore Foundation, said his group is interested in efforts to restore the wetlands around the bay, which have largely been filled in over the past 100 years.

"It's a pleasure to reverse the trend," Jordan said. "We're doing it in the South Bay. Now we're doing it in the North Bay."

Two years ago, the foundation donated $8 million to acquire more than 16,500 acres in the South Bay owned by Cargill Salt, he said.

Local officials and environmentalists were pleased the Sonoma Land Trust had obtained the large grant.

"This is another piece in the puzzle in trying to preserve the bay-lands property in south Sonoma County," said Sonoma County Supervisor Mike Kerns.

"We've all been working on this for some time," he added. "The fact that now the funding has been formally committed to the project is very beneficial."

"We are thrilled," added Kelly Brown, Sonoma-Marin field representative for the Greenbelt Alliance in Santa Rosa.

"I think this is advancing a community goal," she said. "It's been a community goal for several decades. It's an important moment."

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