The District’s Reclamation Area and all trails are CLOSED to the public for the duration of the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order. This action is being taken to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, for the safety of the public during the shelter-in-place period.

I apologize for this inconvenience, and all of us at the District empathize with your frustration. We know how important it is, especially under these unprecedented circumstances, for people to get outside, get some exercise, and refresh their spirit.

We have explored the possibility of prohibiting vehicle access and allowing only neighborhood pedestrian access (which is the only type of access allowed under the health order), but there are several factors involved which make that impractical:

1. Per the County health directive, it is currently illegal for vehicles to park at the District’s reclamation parking area.
2. There is no feasible way for us to prohibit vehicle parking without also stopping pedestrian access.
3. When regional parks have implemented closures, the public demand for recreational access shifts to wherever people can find similar places to go. If we re-open the reclamation area to neighborhood pedestrian access, that information would no doubt spread to non-neighbors, with the likely result of people bringing vehicles – illegally, per the health order – to the District’s reclamation area
4. Even under normal (non-pandemic) circumstances, it is not feasible, in light of current workloads, for LGVSD staff to monitor parking areas or follow up on violations, nor do we have the ability to issue citations
5. The Marin County Sheriff’s Office has recommended that the District’s reclamation area remain completely closed per the county restriction on parking. Sheriff personnel do not have time to routinely patrol for illegal vehicle access to our reclamation area due to their own pandemic-driven workloads. Further complicating enforcement is the fact that the access points to our reclamation area are not visible from a long-distance, therefore any patrols would have to actually go directly to the site.

Again, we apologize for having to take this extreme action – we are all doing our parts to follow County health directives and help reduce the spread of COVID-19. Like you, we hope this helps us all move toward a time when we can return to a more normal situation. When that time comes, we will be pleased to welcome visitors back to the District’s reclamation area (please note that after the public health orders are lifted, there will still be periodic closures of the reclamation area due to ongoing construction activity on the property).