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BREAKING NEWS:
Fairfax Town Council to consider looking into acquiring Wall/ Marinda Heights Property- Closed Session Tuesday Morning, August 29th
Please contact your council members before & let them know what you think
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Wildlands Photographer George Osner taking photos of the vistas at the Wall Property | |
Hi Folks, it's been a long time coming but we are finally at a place where we can try to make this happen. The property sold at auction and the current owner is open to selling it to become Open Space - but we need the town to be on board first.
In order to feel confident in this course of action, and to commit to doing due diligence, they need to hear from their community, from you and the time is now.
So, if you have been hoping to make a difference, please act now! Below is a wonderful write up about this property by our board member, Jack Judkins, with some great talking points:
"The spectacular 100-acre Wall property rises dramatically above the north side of Ross Valley, the valley in which the Town of Fairfax sits. The property, in the shape of an upside-down horseshoe, frames a good portion of the northern hillsides of the Town. The arms of the horseshoe ascend from the valley along prominent ridgelines on the western and eastern sides of the property and the top of the horseshoe rests at the highest northern ridgeline above Fairfax.
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The property is undeveloped and abundant with native vegetation, notably coast live oak woodland, California bay forest, and mixed native grasslands and chaparral. The coast live oak woodland area covers half of the 100-acre site and is dominated by coast live oak, and also contains Pacific madrone and big-leaf maple, California bay and California buckeye. The California bay forestland is also large, encompassing approximately 20 acres, intermixed with madrone and maple trees. In addition to the more common species (deer, racoons, mice, coyotes, lizards, woodpeckers, crows, ravens, hummingbirds and vultures), special status species have been observed or are expected to utilize the property, including raptors (peregrine falcon, white-tailed kite, loggerhead shrike), monarch butterflies, bats, and dusky footed woodrats.
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Hiker documents diverse flora and Fauna on Wall Property as part of FOSC-led BioBlitz | |
Coyote in Open Space, Photo by Jonathan Braun | |
The property and its ridgelines, trees and grasslands are important visual resources, seen from many locations in Fairfax: from the gateway to downtown Fairfax at the eastern end of Broadway Boulevard; from Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, a scenic highway which forms one of two transportation spines into and out of Fairfax and from a multitude of public parks and public spaces including the Town Pavilion and Ballfield. Likewise, the views from the three ridgelines on the Wall property are spectacular, spanning about 290 degrees and encompassing the entirety of Mt. Tamalpais, most of the northern slope of Mt. Tamalpais State Park, much of the Corte Madera Creek watershed, and a large slice of the Ross Valley, including the downtowns of Fairfax, San Anselmo and Ross, and the hillsides and mountains to the west and to the east. | |
View from the Labyrinth on Wall Property | |
Looking down on Fairfax; Wall Property is highly visible from all around | |
For many decades, the property has provided the community with passive recreational opportunities. The fire road and connected trail on the property, which starts at the end of Marinda Drive, a developed street just west of downtown Fairfax, has been used by several generations for hiking along the ridgelines and, in the more recent 40-plus years, mountain bike riding. At the top of the ridge, the property connects to public roads and from there provides access, along easements, publicly owned land and short segments of streets to a slew of dedicated local and regional open space lands and trails systems to the west, north and east, These include: the Bay Area Ridge trail, the County-held Loma Alta, Terra Linda/Sleepy Hollow, Lucas Valley, Ignacio Valley, and Pacheco Valle Open Space Preserves, and a number of open space areas owned by the Towns of Fairfax and San Anselmo. | One of many well defined Trails that criss-cross the property | The Wall property has been the subject of recent development efforts. Because of its invaluable natural, visual, recreational and biological resources, it is now critically important to take advantage of any opportunity to preserve this property as undeveloped open space. " | |
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Please take action now if you want to make this happen; contact your council members to let them know how important this is to you, and, when possible, share your personal reasons for that.
We can make this happen!
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Also, Please Share this as widely as possible
Let your friends and others know , time is critical, and if you can...
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You can now donate online to FOSC! Click on the donate button on the right side of the page - by doing so you will ensure that FOSC will have funds available to preserve and acquire open space in Fairfax! The Fairfax Open Space Committee is qualified to receive charitable contributions pursuant to Section 170(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.
Please donate to FOSC so we can acquire and preserve open space!
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Fairfax Open Space Committee
http://fairfaxopenspace.com/
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