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POINT SAN PABLO

Point San Pablo / Terminal 4

Point San Pablo is a regional landmark. With Point San Pedro in Marin County, Point San Pablo defines the San Pablo Straits separating San Francisco and San Pablo Bays.  While exploring from Mission Dolores in 1811, Father Abella wrote in his diary “gave to Point Huchones the name Point San Pablo and to the opposite point (Abastos) that of San Pedro”. Thus, the name of the local Huichin Ohlone people was erased from modern maps in the process of honoring Saint Paul and Saint Peter.

The flame of the City of Richmond’s Terminal 4 burned brightly at Point San Pablo early in the 20th century but has since flickered and burned out. The whaling station — the last operating in the United States — shut down in 1971 followed by closure of Pacific Molasses operations and Paktank’s vegetable oil and petrochemical product business. No longer viable economically as a marine terminal, the old  commercial wharf structures and most of the tanks shown in the photograph at right have been removed with the result pictured below.

The San Francisco Bay Plan of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) calls for recreational uses at Point San Pablo Terminal 4 when no longer needed as a marine terminal. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission and BCDC officially recognized that Terminal 4 no longer was needed as a marine terminal by removing it from Port Priority Use in their Seaport Plan.

The San Francisco Bay Trail Plan adopted by the Association of Bay Area Governments calls for a multi-use, non-vehicular trail from Point Molate along the shoreline of Point San Pablo between Point Molate and the Point San Pablo Harbor.

Richmond General Plan 2030 designates the shoreline areas of Point San Pablo for Parks and Recreation uses whereas the uplands are designated for Marine and Waterfront Commercial specifically to encourage uses that serve the general public such as food service, lodging, recreational services and recreational equipment rental. The Plan also calls for an overlook park in the uplands above Point San Pablo. The yacht harbor east of Point San Pablo is designated as Marine and Waterfront Commercial to promote recreational and water-oriented retail and commercial uses. The Plan also states that the remaining areas could include open space and ecologically sensitive development to protect natural areas for recreation and habitat.

The San Pablo Peninsula Open Space Study prepared by an LSA-led team with participation by the City of Richmond, EBRPD, California State Coastal Conservancy, Chevron, Muir Heritage Land Trust and TRAC recommends that the City’s former Terminal 4 at Point San Pablo should be “developed for recreational use as the key to success of an open space plan for the Peninsula”. East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) Measure WW line item 49 – Point San Pablo Peninsula is consistent in promising to “Acquire, preserve and make accessible new shoreline open space to acquire and restore shoreline and complete Bay Trail spur north of the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge to provide new public access to this scenic north bay shoreline.”
 
For all of these reasons, Point San Pablo should be combined with Point Molate when EBRPD begins public outreach for developing a Land Use Plan for a new Regional Shoreline park.