Witness the Destruction of the Rush Creek Open Space & Waterfowl Preserve.
There was another RV fire over the weekend. We are well into the double digits of RV Fires on Binford Rd and below are some photo’s from Toni S. She has also created a FOIA request to find out how much it cost us to clean this mess up.
It’s hard to believe leadership can’t do better than to allow this to continue!
Between 8-9PM last night I looked out the window and saw a plume of black smoke billowing up from the east less than 2 miles from my home with many, many homes between here and there.
I saw no fire alerts anywhere on-line at the time, and oddly I have seen no reports about the incident since.
Turns out it was ANOTHER vehicle that had caught on fire on Binford Rd! Apparently the resident was “cooking” something…
In the area around Binford, our homes are all adjacent to the Open Space which is extremely dry this time of year and could easily be caught on fire.
I am very concerned that the Binford residents are going to catch the Open Space on fire and burn down our homes!
If you live anywhere near Binford you should be as well, this continues to go on, and nothing is being done about it.
Can you imagine the massive damage that might have occurred if this fire got out of control?
Below are clips offered by neighbors and concerned citizens.
From Toni Shroyer
BINFORD Road (City Side): The Novato City Council and NPD are allowing the wetlands to become a permanent garbage dump and are not enforcing the law. This should concern you.
The latest trailer full of garbage abandoned on the city side of Binford Road! How sad that our “leaders” have allowed our city to become a dumping ground.
Marin County has received the green light from a federal judge to keep managing an encampment of recreational vehicles along Binford Road by removing residents’ personal property for storage or disposal.
Legal representatives for encampment residents filed a request for a temporary restraining order last week seeking to stop the county from clearing the area.
The county contends it needs to ensure water quality at the Rush Creek Preserve and maintain safe public access to the two-lane road and its unpaved shoulder north of Novato. It runs parallel to U.S. 101, between the preserve to the east and businesses to the west.
A county program collects property that cannot be safely stored either inside, underneath, or on top of an RV at the site. Property is stored or destroyed with permission from the owner, according to the county.
“County staff removes dangerous or excess materials accumulated along the public right-of-way that present safety concerns or are environmental hazards,” said Marin County Sheriff Jamie Scardina.
County records show the encampment began with about a dozen vehicles in 2020 as people’s income and living situations were challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. By August of last year, it had grown to 115 residents and 150 vehicles, including personal vehicles.
Efforts to provide services and rehousing options were adopted by the Board of Supervisors in August. By December the encampment had been reduced to 101 residents and 132 vehicles. As of Friday, a county spokesperson said there were 90 people living at the encampment at 50 sites.
“Our goal all along has been to help individuals attain safe housing and provide key supports and services with a coordinated, compassionate and service-oriented response.”Lisa Warhuus, Marin County Health and Human Services
A grant in April for more than $3.7 million from the state’s Encampment Resolution Fund is bolstering the county’s plan to house residents. The county is seeking to rehouse at least half of the residents at the Binford encampment within two years and the rest within three years.
Lisa Warhuus, director of the county’s Health and Human Services Department, said the county has helped provide other housing for 25 former encampment residents since August, with 12 more already identified for other housing.
“Our goal all along has been to help individuals attain safe housing and provide key supports and services with a coordinated, compassionate and service-oriented response,” Warhuus said.
District 5 Supervisor Eric Lucan, who represents much of Novato, said the county was prioritizing both rehousing residents and protecting local water quality.
“We must focus on helping residents transition to safe housing while working to protect the sensitive habitat along the water,” he said. “We’ve made progress, but our goal remains to identify housing options with an open, collaborative and humane approach.”
Apparently there was a fire on Binford yesterday as shown in these photo’s.
They are cleaning up today.
She also called NPD to get rid of RVs and people sleeping in vans and cars. There were two out of state license plates.
Toni continues to keep the pressure on the local authorities to do their jobs. But it can’t just be Toni calling all the time, please make your voice heard if you see something illegal going on.
Please call NPD directly or use the “Report an Issue Website“
We appreciate Deputy Thompson’s efforts on Binford Rd.
Today, I took the below photos:
1) The RV on the city side of the road needs to be removed. I will call it in again to NPD. If you need me to have members of the public call it in too, I can have that done.
2) A dog (healer breed) is tied to some junk and is unattended. I cannot see if he has food or water. I no longer call the MHS, as Nancy who is a leader of the MHS wrote to me, “The people who live on Binford Rd treat their animals like family.” I don’t tie family members up to junk and I don’t know anyone who does.
3) I asked the man to not have his two dogs defecate and urinate into the wetlands. I purposely was on the phone with Dispatch when I stayed this so it would be on record. The man clearly didn’t think he was doing anything wrong by being in the wetlands with his dog.
I am respectfully asking again for the laws to be followed on Binford Rd. No matter the hardships or painful backstories of many of the residents living on Binford, that does not give them the right to neglect animals, have them defecate in the wetlands, litter, dispose of their human waste wherever they like and park wherever they do choose.
On a happy note, after church today, a woman said she appreciated all my social media posts on Binford Rd. I hear that all the time in the community. Time for me to crank it up again.
Peace,
As I was emailing you about the dogs on Binford, the below just happened.
A car moved out and at the same time this RV moved in.
From my understanding and what the public believes the county is telling them, no newcomers are allowed on Binford Rd.
If this is not a newcomer, he can find another place to go. His RV clearly works. Having two set of rules in this county —for those who follow the law and for those who don’t—-is infuriating the public.
You can use this to report any issues wrt Binford on the Novato side.
At the City of Novato, we use a coordinated service request process to ensure all departments work together to handle these concerns. I recommend using our service request feature on the City of Novato website, found at this link: https://www.novato.org/community/report-an-issue.
You may upload a photo of the issue to help city staff evaluate what services are needed and which staff members (police, public works, homeless outreach) would be best suited to handle it.
Jim Naugle, Novato Chief of Police
In a new push to remove illegal campers living in vehicles along Binford Road, the county will use $100K from the general fund for the purchase program.
Complete article in the IJ.