CRONKITE
Growing up, Rodeo Beach has always been a special place for me, with the cold sting of the saltwater refreshing me after a long day or waking me up in the early morning. There, where the south swell generates some nice surfable waves, I spent my formative years learning to surf. I've always appreciated how open the countryside was behind the beach since it gave me the freedom to retreat completely and feel at peace. Early mornings on the water, when the sun rises behind the bare hills and the sky glows with pastel pink, reflecting on the water, are the moments when I am truly breath taken by how beautiful this place is and recognize how lucky I am to have grown up here. And it really puts into perspective just how much the individuals who successfully fought Marincello have influenced us even today to think that this state of pure happiness that this site offers to so many individuals could have been taken away.
The Golden Gate Headlands Committee, a tiny group of activists, submitted a petition with 6,000 signatures opposing Marincello, but it was declared invalid, and the Board of Supervisors went on to approve the project in November of 1965. Thomas Frouge and Gulf Oil immediately began construction on Marincello once it was approved, but had to stop construction later that month due to misappropriation and false representation as the entrance to Marincello trespassed private property and would bring in tons of commuter traffic.
Private homeowners were favored for a preliminary injunction, which caused development to halt. This allowed attorneys Douglas Ferguson, Bob Praetzal, and Marty Rosen to strengthen their attack against Marincello. They went on to launch a lawsuit claiming that Marincello was wrongly zoned back in 1964, which led to a number of other zoning faults to come to light. Soon after, Thomas Frouge died of a heart attack, leaving Gulf Oil with the news that the entire Marincello project had been illegally zoned and that the Marin County Board of Supervisors would no longer support the project. With this information, Gulf Oil agreed to sell the site to The Nature Conservancy in 1972 for $6.5 million, who then gave the land to the newly established Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Marincello project was abandoned before any buildings could be constructed, and by 1976, the community's entrance gates—the only surviving component of its architectural legacy—had been destroyed. So, with the full removal of all architectural remains, came a lovely gift that defines Marin and has given people, before and after us, a place of pure bliss.
