Scrapped subdivision dashes plan to close Tiburon Ridge Trail gap

As seen from the eastern side of the Tiburon Ridge Trail in the Middle Ridge Open Space, access to the western side is blocked by gates and fencing for two properties. At left is the privately owned end of Hacienda Drive, which historically provided trail access until the owners installed the gate with a keypad lock in 2009, creating the only gap in the 5-mile trail spanning the length of the peninsula. At center and right is the fencing for the Rabin family property, which would have provided an easement for trail access as part of a subdivision plan the family applied for in 2007 and that won approval in 2023. But the family is now withdrawing the project. (Francisco Martinez / The Ark)

The owners of a 52-acre parcel that stretches from Hacienda Drive to Paradise Drive have scrapped a project to turn the property into a 14-lot subdivision, which also dashes longtime plans to close the central gap on the five-mile Tiburon Ridge Trail at the Middle Ridge Open Space.

The Alta Robles property, owned by the family of Irving and Varda Rabin as the Rabin Family Trust and Soda LLC, had won Town Council approval of its subdivision map in September 2023 to create the lots, 13 of which were to be for new single-family homes with one reserved for an existing home at 3825 Paradise Drive.

The subdivision had also included a public trail to be built starting just north of Hacienda Drive — a key connection to make up for one lost in 2009 when Tiburon in 2009 settled litigation with Wayne family, which owns the private road and permanently closed off access and installed a locked gate. The then-newly proposed Rabin subdivision had offered the solution, with the western edge of the property sitting at the very stretch of Hacienda needed to regain trail access.

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