Pond compromise worth considering

Marin Independent Journal
Monday, November 21, 2005

TO SOME, the owners of the Corte Madera Inn are proposing to pave paradise and put in a parking lot.

The motel, however, has a persuasive argument that the small pond that has stood since the motel was built more than 50 years ago was man-made for flood control and local birdlife have ample baylands nearby to resettle.

The inn says it needs to fill and pave over the half-acre, four-foot deep pond, to create 23 parking spaces needed for the nearby restaurant. The motel's plans include landscaping.

Town planning staff says the restaurant does not meet the town's parking requirements, and the additional spaces would help bridge that gap.

Staff also has studied the issue and has determined that the pond is no longer needed for flood control and it's a less-than-ideal natural setting mostly fed by a drainage pipe.

It is more of a man-made snippet of nature than the baylands that we in Marin have worked so hard to preserve and protect.

But the Marin Audubon Society counters that the pond constitutes wetlands and has reminded the council of its land-use policy that prohibits filling of wetlands.

Marin Audubon's legal questions could require the town to do more extensive studies needed to support a rare amendment to the town general plan.

That work would drive up the cost of the parking spaces for the landowner.

The bigger picture here is the inn's owners' willingness to purchase a half-acre of wetlands near Gnoss Field, saving a slice of actual natural baylands and adding it to the Burdell Ranch Wetlands Conservation Bank.

The pond has been part of the area's landscape for years and would be missed, mostly by the birds. But they can move and resettle in better wetlands environs very close by.

While there are those who refuse to compromise on environmental issues, there appear to be sound reasons to do so on this plan.

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