Cathy Osugi

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

911 NE llth Avenue

Portland, OR 97232-4181

RE: Marin Baylands National Wildlife Refuge

Dear Ms. Osugi,

Our family has operated and owned Silveira Ranches for 101 years. We are proud of our land and are vigilant of our responsibilities and rights as landowner. Over the years, we have been attentive and responsive to public policy that appropriately relates to our land in the context of the bigger picture -- one that addresses balance of interests. Recently, we were dismayed to learn that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had circumvented the process, making no attempt to respectfully engage the property owners in an issue that involves our property.

We understand that a Marin Baylands National Wildlife Refuge has been proposed, including the Silveira land. But the proposal was implemented without our input or participation, and that is very wrong and very inappropriate. The Mann Board of Supervisors’ recent involvement with the refuge proposal is equally as disturbing.

We object to the inclusion of our property for several reasons.

We believe it is important for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to realize that many, many years of broad-based land planning activity have been focused on the Silveiras’ San Rafael property. In 1972, the county decided to cancel our Williamson Act contract, thereby designating our property as developable land. Despite the burden and difficulty of the resultant property taxes (based on market value), even we had to admit there was sense in the “environmental solution” designated by the Mann Countywide Plan --- conserve open land in the inland rural corridor and the coastal corridor and concentrate development in the city-centered corridor along the 101.

During the 1980s, both the Mann Countywide Plan and the San Rafael General Plan reaffirmed that the Silveira property was a major housing and jobs site. A task force studied the property from 1991 to 1994 and again from 1997 to 1999. All of the studies/plans included input from various interest groups. And time after time, the majority opinion supported the long-standing importance of our land as a major housing and jobs site proximal to the 101 Highway.

Frankly, my family is tired of being harassed with ongoing efforts to cloud our property. Over the last 14 years, we’ve had to deal with overtures by the BCDC as well as individuals who wish to undermine the Countywide Plan by redefining the city corridor and creating a new baylands corridor. And just last year -- after five years of agony -- we finally were able to fight off the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District’s eminent domain action. The land grab was supported by the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society, and was finally put to rest when an impartial jury delivered a verdict that asserted our land’s value as a housing/jobs site in the city-centered corridor. The district was unwilling to pay what the land was worth and abandoned its action.

We consider the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal to designate our property within the refuge as a contradiction to balanced, sensible planning. We object and want our property removed from the refuge designation list.

Sincerely,

Renee silveira

Renee Silveira

On behalf of the Silveira Family