By Frank Egger
Born, raised and educated in San Francisco, my family Summered in Cazadero, Sonoma County. My Grandparents had immigrated from Bozano, Italy to the City in 1905 and in 1918, they bought a small ranch in Cazadero. I fished for steelhead, Coho & Chinook salmon in Austin & Ward Creeks and the Russian River & rock fished on the Sonoma Coast as a kid.
While my uncle Johnny Walden, a Mill Valley resident, fought in the South Pacific during WW II, my auntie Elsie worked at Marinship as a welder. My mother would bring me over to auntie’s house on the weekends with my fishing pole and I would fish the small streams in Mill Valley, Fairfax and Lagunitas. Our family visited Marin regularly. Chicken Ranch Beach in Inverness was a favorite as well as Camp Taylor before it became Samuel Taylor State Park. When Johnny returned home after the War, a Veteran who fished, was offered a USN Landing Craft for $25. He purchased one, brought it to Sausalito and converted it to a salmon trawler. I was able to go on fishing trips with Johnny & his crew. We would go out under the Gate and head north, drop crab pots on the way up the Marin coast, fish for salmon & on the return to the Gate and pick up the crab pots along the way. Johnny would then return to Sausalito and sell his catch of Crab & Salmon off of the Dock where he berthed his boat.
Ronita, a Santa Rosa resident, & I from the City were married at St. Rose Church in Santa Rosa in 1959. We moved to San Anselmo and then bought a little cottage in Fairfax where we still live. Along the way, I was elected to the Fairfax Town Council where I served seven terms as Mayor. Having spent so much time on the coast, I joined up with the Coastal Alliance and when the movement to Save the Coast gained momentum in Marin & Sonoma counties, I carried petitions to qualify Proposition 20. We qualified Prop. 20 for the November 1972 ballot. It was a hard fought battle, but we won. Next came the formation of 6 Regional Commissions & one Statewide Commission. I was in my 2nd term as Mayor of Fairfax and applied to be a Commissioner on the North Central Coast Commission and was appointed by the Mayor’s Conference on December 7, 1972.
A statewide meeting was called at a San Francisco Airport hotel the 2nd week of December in 1972 to discuss how the State would implement Prop 20. I attended and sat towards the front. A number of politicians and bureaucrats, both those that supported and opposed Prop 20, sat up on the podium. The opposition was throwing their weight around. After a bit, I walked up to the podium and asked to speak. My hair was kind of long with long sideburns (around the SF Bay Area, I was called the Hippie Mayor of Fairfax). The person chairing the meeting said, sorry, this meeting is just for officials and we are discussing how commissioners will be appointed. I stated my name is Frank Egger, I’m the Mayor of Fairfax and a California Coastal Commissioner. The Chair tried to blow me off saying no one has been appointed yet. I said, excuse me, I was appointed to the North Central Coast Commission by the Mayor’s Conference and sworn in on December 7th. It turned out that I was the first of the 84 Commissioners appointed. I was able to say a few words about all of the subdivision sites for sale along the North Coast that concerned me and how the State had to quickly gear up to protect, preserve and restore coastal resources and provide public access to much of the coast’s 1,100 miles. A photographer named Michael Alexander approached me and offered his services. We traveled the North Coast taking photos of the For Sale signs for subdivisions and timber sales. Once the Commissioners were appointed, those photos helped with setting temporary Moratoriums for coastal developments until we could put in place proper safeguards.
The North Central Coast Commission went through a State process to hire an executive Director to lead our Regional Commission. We selected Michael Fisher who guided us through turbulent times. Here it was 1973 and the people of California had just put in place the toughest land use agency in the USA. Next, I used my contacts with Attorney General Eville Younger and his newly formed Environmental Unit in San Francisco to bring the AG’s Office onboard to represent the Commissions. We worked for 9 years defending Prop 20 and regulating development along the coast and requiring public access that coincided with development applications.
Here’s just a few of the battles over the first 8 years on the North Central Coast. We took on every major developer in CA. Sonoma County had approved the Castle & Cooke Sea Ranch subdivision with 5,000 units on the Sonoma Coast adjacent to the Gualala River at the Mendocino County border. After many public hearings, including an unforgettable one in Gualala, when the Coastal Staff asked to call a recess and empty the building. We walked outside and there were CHP, Mendocino & Sonoma County Deputy Sheriffs, Calfire (then CDF) & Gualala VFD vehicles. It turned out they had had a credible threat that the building was wired with dynamite and they were going to blow up the Commission. After a thorough search with cops and dogs, no dynamite was found and we returned to the building to finish the meeting.
We eventually cut the density at Sea Ranch from 5,000 to 2,500 units. Next, we took on Transcentury Potlatch in Bodega Bay. The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors had approved 2,400 units and we eventually ended up allowing 1/2 the density, 1,200 units.
In the early 1970’s a major gravel mining operation up to 60 feet deep in the Russian River, a marina and subdivision was proposed by Utah Construction between Jenner and Duncans Mills. Local residents showed up at the hearing and we defeated that proposal.
There were battles in Marin County too: Full Name: Frisco Land & Mining Co. v. State of California, Citation: 74 Cal. App. 3d 736, Date: November 7, 1977. This was a subdivision approved on 650 acres in West Marin called Oceana Marin. There were 5 units approved but a number of lots were not built on. The Courts decided each new house needed a separate Coastal Permit to be built. The subdivision was never completed.
Steep Ravine Cabins on the Marin Coast: There were 9 cabins owned by the State of CA when they bought land along the Marin Coast. It turned out that certain State officials were able to secure the use of the cabins for friends & relatives. A major San Francisco newspaper ran an expose’ on the abuse of power and favoritism over the use of Steep Ravine Cabins. The CA Parks Department decided the way to defuse the situation was to apply to the CA Coastal Commission for a Demolition Permit to tear down the cabins. They applied, the Public Hearing hearing.
As the first Prop. 20 California Coastal Commissioner appointed (on Dec. 7, 1972) after voters approval on the initiative, I was always at the forefront of the issues of the day. At the commission meeting held in San Rafael, I questioned the removal, stating the cabins provided low-cost overnight accommodations and they should be kept and we should require the State Parks Department to put them on the state’s list of campgrounds for first-come, first-serve basis for reservations.
After much public discussion, where the State Parks Dept questioned the right of the Coastal Commission to tell them to stop demolition, other commissioners joined me and on a split vote the permit to remove the cabins was denied. The head of State Parks jumped up, grabbed the mic and said I’m the head of State Parks, who do you think you are? I, as Vice-Chair, replied, “Sir, we are the new Sheriff in Town, the California Coastal Commission.”
Fortunately, my motion passed and the Steep Ravine Cabins were saved. Today they are one of the most sought after campground reservation sites in Northern California.
We also had Caltrans spraying pesticides along the coast of West Marin. Donna Sheehan from Marshall wanted to stop Caltrans from spraying and we determined they needed a Coastal Permit to spray. They applied and at the hearing, I questioned their use along the Coast that adversely impacted coastal fishery resources. In the end, much to chagrin of Caltrans, we issed a conditional permit that prohibited their use of pesticides that could leach or migrate to a stream, river, Bay or the Pacific Ocean. After I left the Commission, Caltrans was able to over-ride that condition.
Next came the Coastal Act of 1976 to continue the Commissions. My re-appointment was up and the development lobby tried to stop my appointment. It got so bad that then State Senator Peter Behr called me and said it the Mayors Conference did not re-appoint me, he would have the President Pro-Tem of the State Senate appoint me. The Mayors’ Conference re-appointed me and I served through most of 1981.
Did the CA Coastal Commission Save the Coast? You bet we did! With some of our legislators supporting the creation Miami Beach West with highrise housing along the California Coast and the Initiative heading to the November Ballot to gut CEQA, the Coastal Commission will need all the support that we can muster for the next Chapter to Save the Coast.
By Frank Egger, current Vice-Mayor of Fairfax
In addition to being the original Co-Chair of the Friends of the Eel River and the current President of the North Coast Rivers Alliance, Frank also serves as the Co-Chair of the Sierra Club’s S.F. Bay Chapter Water Committee.
