With all due respect to those who love to golf, I’m writing to urge Marin voters to let their voices be heard in delivering a resounding no to ballot Measure D in the March 3 election. It aims to serve a small population of golfers at the expense of the larger community and environment.
Beware of confusing language on the March 2020 ballot — the golf course initiative would amend the San Geronimo Valley community plan and county development code to mandate golf as the property’s primary use. Yet since the land is privately owned, the measure couldn’t force the trust to operate a golf course even if it passed, and would likely keep the property in its continued present limbo. Passing such a measure sets a dangerous precedent for community planning, where a small special interest group can hijack a planning process that is meant to serve the common good of the local population.
I live and work in the San Geronimo Valley community, am a parent of two children in our local public schools and work as an employee at Spirit Rock. I am also the author of “Sustainable [R]evolution,” a book on regenerative design with a foreword by Paul Hawken, and a contributor to his well-known Drawdown project, which documents hundreds of ways to reduce the carbon pollution causing our global climate crisis.
I have been a participant and advisor to VisionSGV.org, a group of locals promoting organic farming and food security in our valley. Our group has organized a popular speaker and film series, educating people about permaculture and examples of community agricultural sites worldwide that could serve as a model for a unique agro-ecological park that showcases regenerative design. My personal vision for the land would include something similar to Real Goods in Hopland combined with the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. And if you haven’t visited those places yet and are interested in learning more about sustainable solutions, I highly recommend it.
I am currently part of the community garden on the former golf course land and have a plot that I’ve been working there for 6 years, so it’s easy for me to imagine how much food could be grown there. An agro-ecological park could restore wildlife and fish habitat and create an incredible opportunity to work with the neighboring school and community center to have co-sponsored educational projects. Imagine the land being used to build both neighborly bonds and communal knowledge, through things like small-scale renewable energy projects, drawing down carbon through building soil, or the development of alternative farming techniques that advance local food security.
Time to wake up, friends. Clearly it is way past time to devote resources to promote sustainable solutions to our climate crisis, and this is an opportunity to do so. The Trust for Public land has requested community input and has a website detailing what they’ve heard so far and how you can get engaged.
Keep in mind that TPL has been around since 1972 and has been part of over 5,000 park and conservation projects, including our beloved Marin Headlands. Go ahead and check out ReimagineSanGeronimo.com or TPL.org. Both sites are wonderful antidotes to the steady drumbeat of heartbreaking news about our global environmental crisis, and to the misinformation being put forth by the ironically named Save San Geronimo, group behind Measure D.
Golf may be fun for some, but it’s certainly not going to save our valley, nor will it promote land use that regenerates, restores and educates the public about a future without fossil fuels. Vote no on this measure to bring the heart of the valley back to its people, wildlife and the generations to come.
Juliana Birnbaum, of Woodacre, is the author of “Sustainable [R]evolution: Permaculture in Ecovillages, Urban Farms and Communities Worldwide”