By Gregory Thomas
January 23, 2024
The Richmond Ranch property in Santa Clara County includes sprawling foothills, grassy meadows, and forested canyons in a prime location where the Diablo and Santa Cruz mountains converge.
A 3,654-acre ranch near San Jose is slated to be converted into a major new nature preserve. The preserve will open new footpaths to hikers and serve as a critical link along the enormous Bay Area Ridge Trail.
On Monday afternoon, the Conservation Fund, a national environmental nonprofit, closed on a $16 million deal to purchase Richmond Ranch in Santa Clara County from Chinese corporation Z&L Properties, which had bought the site from a generational cattle family in 2016 and left the land largely untouched.
The Conservation Fund has purchased Richmond Ranch, a 3,654-acre property near San Jose that will be converted into a nature preserve.
Z&L has snapped up real estate around the Bay Area for years but has recently shifted to offloading its various holdings in San Francisco and San Jose. Its purchase of the ranch for $25 million eight years ago came as a disappointment to South Bay conservationists, who had hoped to lock in a deal that would set the area aside and shield it from development in perpetuity.
An attempt by Z&L to sell the ranch to San Jose company Terrascape Ventures recently fell through, according to the Mercury News, opening an opportunity for conservationists to pounce. “We were not expecting it to come back on the market, and we’re very excited the deal came through,” said Eric Ross, Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation senior real estate agent. “The price we’re getting is well below its appraised value … so when this came up, everyone jumped quickly.”
The Richmond Ranch property in Santa Clara County is a critical habitat for Tule elk, among other wildlife. The property will ultimately be transferred to Santa Clara County with the long-term vision of converting it into a nature preserve with hiking trails. It will be jointly managed by the parks department and the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency. On Tuesday, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved the notice of intent to buy the ranch—the first step in the process to formally acquire the
property that could take up to a year, Ross said.
He said that opening the area to public access will likely take much longer.
The 100-year-old ranch includes sprawling foothills, grassy meadows, and forested canyons in a prime location where the Diablo and Santa Cruz mountains converge. This area lies along the most complete 550-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail, which planners are piecing into a giant thru-hiking path encircling the entire region.
The property also borders the newly opened Máyyan ‘Ooyákma.
Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve is an essential habitat for ranging pumas and Tule elk as well as wild boar, badger, gray fox, bobcat, and turkey. Securing a wildlife corridor there “has been on every conservation group’s hit list for a long, long time,” said Conservation Fund project manager Dan Medeiros.
“It’s not every day the county gets a bargain like this for public access,” he said. From atop the property’s 2,464-foot-high Mount Misery, one can see the skyscrapers of downtown San Jose and the bay’s watery expanse beyond. “The views are just magnificent,” Ross said. “Once we get a few trails through there, it’ll be excellent.”
Reach Gregory Thomas: gthomas@sfchronicle.com