THE ISSUE:  The property formerly owned by Eben Gossage/Zacks Inc. is contiguous to Dunphy Park and spans the waterfront from the temporary Police Station on Litho St. to Pelican Yacht Harbor on Pine St.  In anticipation of a publicly-announced foreclosure auction , the City Council voted, in closed  session, to bid a maximum amount of $4,125,000 to purchase the property.

At the auction on February 19, 2009, a development consortium comprised of  "Bridgeway Marine Corp." & "Jack Yanoff, LLC," purchased the property for $4,140,000 -- $15,000 above the City’s bid. 

If the City's bid had been successful, Dunphy Park could have been enlarged and this last stretch of open waterfront could have been protected for future generations.  The Bridgeway Marine Corporation has not yet announced its plan for development of the property.

SEA’S POSITION:  SEA's position is that this last remaining open waterfront must be developed in accordance with present City Zoning Ordinances, the California and United States Environmental Protection Acts, and in accordance with the Public Trust responsibilities imposed on the City by State and Federal Law.  Fragile ecological systems must be protected including the bed of eel grass on the property.

BACKGROUND: The Friends of Dunphy Park, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Marine Fisheries Service, the State Department of Fish and Game, the Romberg-Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies (UCSF), and the Marin Audubon Society have supported SEA’s broad environmental goals. In 2004, during the preparation of a legally required Environmental Impact Report ("EIR"), all of these groups, plus more than 1,000 individual Sausalito Residents, made their positions known.

The EIR that stimulated this massive response was a requirement of a proposal by Zack's Inc. (the former owner) to increase the marina's size to a total of 195 berths. The increase would have desecrated one o the largest herring spawning areas in San Francisco Bay. The entire EIR, with all public and agency responses, is available at the Sausalito Library or from the City's Planning Files.

SEA’s position (to preserve the open waterfront) is well supported by such Ordinances as the 1985 Citizens Initiative (the "Traffic Initiative") which limits berth-densities in Sausalito marinas to 20 berths per acre. In addition, the State/Federal Public Trust Doctrine asserts the City's absolute authority to decide which uses of the surface waters are in the public's best interest. In 2005 the Friends of Dunphy Park retained the firm of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, environmental law specialists, to prepare, and submit to the City, a very detailed opinion letter regarding the Public Trust.