Metallica co-founder James Hetfield has submitted a plan to build four large homes and dedicate hundreds of acres on land he owns in Lucas Valley.

Related Articles Metallica singer James Hetfield escapes ‘elitist attitude’ of Bay Area Five years ago, Hetfield filed a pre-application with the county to build 27 to 34 homes on land he owns on the south side of Lucas Valley Road, east of his Rocking H Ranch, which was built in the early 2000s. However, he pursued that idea no further.

Now Hetfield has submitted a new pre-application with the county that calls for building four new single-family residences on the land. This plan would also result in Hetfield dedicating 230 acres of the parcel to the Marin County Open Space District, protecting it from future development under a scenic and conservation easement.

“There was just this inspiration of maintaining the ranch as a larger open space corridor, a complete inspiration. It was a change that happened over the Hetfields’ love of the land,” said developer David Warner of Fairfax, owner of Redhorse Constructors, a San Rafael firm with a roster of celebrity clients including Hetfield.

Warner, who is overseeing the project, said Hetfield purchased 1,150 acres of land in Lucas Valley in 1999. In 2005, Hetfield placed 440 acres of his Rocking H 1 Ranch in a conservation easement that he donated to the Open Space District. Then in 2009 Hetfield dedicated another 330 acres to the district with an agricultural conservation easement.

“I think what you’re seeing over time is James’ and his wife Francesca’s dedication to keep Marin great,” Warner said. “They enjoy the open space as much as anyone else. The family spends a considerable amount of time on their ranch.”

The second open space donation came as Hetfield was negotiating with the county to reroute a popular hiking trail that crossed his property. Hetfield sparked an outcry when he built a 300-foot-long metal fence to prevent people from hiking and riding through his ranch property. The county of Marin spent $650,000 building a new trail, the 680 Trail, to provide an alternative connection between the Terra Linda-Sleepy Hollow Divide and the Loma Alta open space preserves.

Warner, however, said Hetfield’s second donation of open space land was not tied to the county’s decision to build the trail.

Under the new proposal, Hetfield would build just four homes on 40 acres of his remaining land.

The homes would be built on 10-acre lots and limited to 5,000 to 8,000 square feet. The homes and ancillary buildings would not occupy more than 2 acres of the 10 acre lots; the remaining 8 acres of each lot would be designated as undevelopable private open space.

An existing road to a Marin Municipal Water District water tank would connect the new housing development with Lucas Valley Road.

The proposal also calls for preserving two historic family residences built by the Luiz family, which operated a ranch on the property before Hetfield bought it. The residences are on a 15,000-square-foot lot below where the new homes would be built.

Hetfield is proposing improving these two residences and deed restricting them to create two affordable units. County planners are weighing whether or not these units would satisfy the county’s inclusionary housing regulation, which requires that 20 percent of lots or dwelling units in residential subdivisions be developed or dedicated to affordable housing. The rule requires that affordable units contain on average the same number of bedrooms as the market rate units and that the units be distributed throughout the development.

Maggie McCann, president of the Lucas Valley Homeowners Association, said she was pleased by Hetfield’s decision to scale back his development plans.

“Four homes on 10 acres doesn’t seem like a lot; this is a small project,” McCann said. “I’m happy to hear he is donating open space.”

McCann said, however, that she and other association members consider the size of the proposed homes to be “a little excessive.”

McCann said most of the 538 homes in her association range in size from 1,500 square feet to 2,000 square feet.

“Why are we building 8,000-square-foot homes?” she asked. “Who needs that kind of space?”

Liz Dale, who serves on the board of the Lucas Valley Estates Homeowners Association, said, “We think it is a very thoughtful and intelligent approach for a piece of property that is so beautiful and so environmentally sensitive.”

Carl Somers, the Marin County Parks and Open Space District’s chief of planning and acquisition, said, “We’re certainly excited about the prospect of preserving that final tranche of open space in Lucas Valley.”

Somers said the agricultural easements that Hetfield has donated in the past have helped to sustain Marin’s ranching economy. He said the easements allow Hetfield to graze cattle on the land or to lease the land to others for grazing.

Somers said protecting an additional 240 acres from future development would also be a boon for native wildlife.

“Creating large contiguous corridors of open grassland and rangeland is hugely important for native wildlife populations,” he said, “because a lot of species require large migration corridors for movement.” —— (c)2016 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.) Visit The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.) at www.marinij.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. AMX-2016-08-22T08:15:00-04:00