From: Sally LaMont
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2026 2:30 PM
To: Distrib- City Clerk <[email protected]> Subject: Concerns About Environmental Impact on Starkweather Path Dear City Clerk,
My name is Sally LaMont, and I'm an original homeowner, since 1998, in the Baypoint Lagoons neighborhood. I'm writing to express my concerns about the environmental impact of the proposed "Peoples of the Canal" art installation and trail lighting projects on the Starkweather Path.
Because the Starkweather Path runs directly adjacent to sensitive salt marsh habitat, one of the Bay Area's most fragile ecosystems, the proposal to install permanent placards and artificial lighting would:
• Disturb nesting shorebirds and migratory species that depend on this corridor • Introduce artificial light into a naturally dark environment, disrupting nocturnal wildlife and natural circadian rhythms
• Proposal to increase foot traffic on a shared use path with constrained widths leading to pedestrian safety issues
While I understand and appreciate the value of public art and cultural storytelling, I believe this particular location, a nature corridor with documented wildlife sensitivity, is not the appropriate setting for permanent infrastructures of this scale.
I respectfully request that the city reject both proposals in their current form and stand with the residents who are directly impacted by these decisions.
Sincerely,
Sally LaMont
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Comments on San Rafael City Council Agenda Item 3(a) [meeting date March 2, 2026]:
CEQA Exemption for Canal Neighborhood
Active Transportation Enhancement Project
_____________________________________________________________ I request the City Council exclude any lighting improvements for the Starkweather Path city park from the proposed Canal Neighborhood Active Transportation Enhancement Project [item 3(a) on the City Council’s agenda for its March 2, 2026 meeting].
My name is Carolyn Lown, and I own the property identified by APN 099-411-12 and located within the Baypoint Lagoons neighborhood.
The portion of the Starkweather Path for which lighting is proposed is simply not a transportation corridor within the meaning of the CEQA exemption under Public Resources Code Section 21080.25(b)(1) and State CEQA Guidelines Section 15301).
That area of the Path was specifically reserved by City of San Rafael Ordinance No. 1562 (adopted in 1989) as a private reserve to be used only for “parks/open space/conservation”.
Ordinance No. 1562 also required this limitation on use be specifically included on the final recorded land map — in order“to make clear the status” of the area.
Consistent with Ordinance No. 1562, the final recorded land map contains a dedication of that area of the Path as being simply for public use as a “shoreline park” (and not a transportation corridor). This land map is titled “Map of Baypoint Lagoons,” and was filed for record on April 23, 1990, in Volume 20 of Maps at Page 81, Serial No. 90-23937, in the Marin County Recorder’s Office, State of California.
Starkweather Path is a city park. As such, it is subject to Section 19.20.070 of the San Rafael Municipal Code, which limits the public’s use of parks to between sunset and sunrise unless a special permit is issued for use beyond regular hours. Nighttime lighting of the Path, which is a City park, would invite prohibited night-time use.
Night-time lighting of any portion of the Path adjacent to the lagoon system that lies to the west of the Path would interfere with the use of the lagoons by migrating as well as resident birds for nesting and foraging. This section of the Path is less than one mile from the Marin Islands National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge is located along the pacific flyway for migratory birds and supports the largest heron and egret rookery in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Respectfully submitted,
Carolyn A. Lown