Grant enables Park District to launch Point Molate plan, but Guidiville Rancheria see it as a land grab

There has been a decades-long battle over Point Molate, a picturesque parcel containing hundreds of acres on Richmond’s shoreline, about a mile north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. The city, state and Guidiville Rancheria tribe have laid claim to all or part of the property. Soon the sourthernmost portion will be turned into a state park, which the tribe has begrudgingly agreed to.

Last month, the State Coastal Conservancy granted $36 million to the East Bay Regional Park District to develop 52 acres into public park and recreational space. For many, it was a cause for celebration.

“We’ve worked 20 years for this project, and it’s the culmination of a tremendous amount of effort from the entire community,” said Robert Cheasty, executive director of Citizens for East Shore Parks, which opposes commercial development on the San Francisco Bay coastline.

But not everyone is happy with the plan. Guidiville Rancheria representatives equated the sale with a land grab, saying they were not part of the negotiations.

“The whole concept was conceived behind the Tribe’s back,” Scott Crowell, the tribe’s attorney, wrote in a public comment before the Nov. 21 meeting in which the East Bay Regional Park District board approved the grant. “The State, including the Governor’s office and the State Legislature, should be committing resources and working to get lands back to the Tribes, not take more land away,” he added.

Negotiating the grant appropriation without the tribe’s input violates the state’s consultation policies with tribal government, Donald Duncan, chairman of  the Guidiville Rancheria of California, told Richmond Confidential in an email.

In July, the Guidiville Rancheria and the city agreed to sell 82 acres owned by Point Molate Futures LLC, an entity of the Guidiville Rancheria, to the Park District for $40 million. In addition to the grant from the Conservancy, the Park District will pay $4 million to cover the cost.  The sale enables the district to further its dream of creating a “world-class park” at Point Molate, said Elizabeth Echols, president of the East Bay Regional Park District board.

The park will cover the southern part of the tract, permanently prevent residential and mixed-use development.

Under a previous agreement, the tribe and the city were to split $45 million in a sale to developer SunCal, which had planned to put 1,200 residential units on the site and preserve the historic warehouses, Navy facilities and cottage barracks there. That plan fell apart after litigation over the development’s environmental impact and the city’s contention that the plan was not financially viable. A newly elected City Council rescinded the deal in 2022, paving the way for the land to be returned to the tribe and for negotiations to begin with the Park District.

The tribe would only agree to the new sale if it could keep all the proceeds, city attorney Dave Aleshire said in July. The city agreed to give up its share, letting the tribe keep the entire $40 million.

‘Feels like 1851’

But the tribe says it never had a seat at the table, and had no choice but to accept the deal. “Nobody chatted with us. They just wrote whatever they wanted in the report,” Michael Derry, a tribe representative, said at the November meeting.

“That feels like 1851 all over again — states using their massive resources to pick on a little tribe that has no land and no resources to take their land away,” Derry said.

The federal government terminated the tribe’s status in 1958, selling its trust lands. The tribe ultimately sued the government and won back its status in the early 1990s.

“We had to fight like hell to even get to this point,” Derry said. “This is the other side of the coin from the celebration you see today, and we ask you to consider our comments seriously.”

The tribe chose to move forward with the transaction, Crowell said, because it was the only option available.

Marilyn Latta, a project manager with the State Coastal Conservancy, said the city had communicated with the tribe throughout the process, and noted that the tribe signed the agreement of sale in July. Latta said the tribe’s concerns would be considered as plans continue.

Former Richmond Mayor Tom Butt has questioned the decision, considering that the city purchased Point Molate from the Navy for $1 and has spent nearly $30 million cleaning it up. He said he’s worried that the Winehaven Historic District, an old winery that is part of the sold tract, will be neglected.

Winehaven, once the largest winery in the United States, was established in the early 20th century and was gone by the time the Navy set up a fuel depot on Point Molate in 1942. The Navy closed the site in 1995 and began transferring it to the city in 2003, along with the responsibility for environmental cleanup and historic preservation. Since then, Richmond City Council proposed two major development plans for Point Molate, including the casino development with the Guidiville Rancheria, but neither materialized.

According to the staff recommendation for Point Molate, there are no specific plans yet for the 30 parcels north of the planned park, which includes the Winehaven district.

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