This year, San Bruno Mountain Watch celebrates a landmark anniversary: 50 years of people-powered movements to save San Bruno Mountain.
Fifty years ago, the mountain was privately owned and the target of drastic proposals that would have caused tremendous harm to its environmental and cultural resources, and decreased the amount of space available for public parks.
One scheme in the Sixties aimed to remove 200 million+ cubic yards of rock and soil from 600 acres of the eastern ridge of San Bruno Mountain for use as bayfill. This would have transformed 10,000 acres of the San Francisco Bay into 27 miles of real estate along the San Mateo County shore.
Another plan in the Seventies would have transformed much of the mountain into a mix of high rise apartment buildings, commercial areas, offices, civic centers, homes, and schools set among parks and an18-hole golf course.
These proposals sparked a lively and enduring movement that successfully fought for a different vision of the mountain — a wholesome and expansive public park.
