MROSD approves purchase of Lobitos Ridge, 340 acres near Purisima Creek

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s board of directors approved the purchase of a 340-acre property from the Peninsula Open Space Trust at public meeting in Half Moon Bay last night. 

The property, known as Lobitos Ridge, is adjacent to the District’s existing Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve near Half Moon Bay, and is an important link in the goal of connecting “Purisima to the Sea” by preserving a corridor of public open space and agricultural land from Skyline Ridge to the San Mateo County coast. The District purchased an adjacent 260-acre property from POST in June 2009, and an adjacent 450-acre property from the University of California in August 2009. The District hopes to add one final piece of land to complete this project in 2011.

“Lobitos Ridge is a key link connecting public lands together that provide all of us with scenic beauty, as well as vital necessities like clean water and locally produced food,” said District General Manager Steve Abbors.

The District is a public agency whose mission is to preserve open space and agricultural land, protect and restore the natural environment and provide for ecologically sensitive public recreation and education. Under District ownership, Lobitos Ridge will continue to be grazed and farmed, and will remain closed until a public planning process looks at opportunities to balance public access with environmental preservation and agriculture.

POST is a private, non-profit land trust that protects local land in order to preserve it as parks and open space. When POST acquires a piece of land, the organization’s goal is to transfer it to an entity who can manage it in perpetuity, often to public agencies like the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.