Galleon Heights
During my research I found many of the articles (At least 246 unique articles) in the Sentinel were from the 1970’s when Bracken Brae was the focus of a huge controversy. A 265 unit housing development (originally they wanted 320), named ‘Galleon Heights’ had been approved by the county planning department. Everything to the north and west of Bracken Brae, 165 acres total, belonged to Galleon Properties and its millionaire owner, Bill Nugent.
From the beginning of the project, Bracken Brae and others in the community had expressed concern that building homes along Bracken Brae creek threatened our only source of water. In addition, one of the rarest trees in the world was on the property, the Santa Cruz Cypress. Nugent had little regard for the hippies of Bracken Brae and their environmental concerns.
The story has abundant twists and turns from Bracken Brae’s ominous warning about its water system and its destruction, criminal charges against Nugent, under-the-table political dealings, land thievery, violent court outbursts, and political recalls. It is a David and Goliath story with Bracken Brae ultimately prevailing.
There were so many articles I could not possibly post them all, so I have chosen the ones throughout the 10 year span of the project that tell the story as it related to Bracken Brae. I have summarized it in the captions so you don’t have to read the entire article to understand the story.
A newspaper announcement states that someone is formally protesting Bracken Brae’s water rights. Stanley Skeehan is a water rights consultant out of Santa Cruz.
A new housing tract above the Boulder Creek golf course is submitted for approval to the county planners. The new tract will have 265 houses on 165 acres leading up to the property line of Bracken Brae. From the beginning, Bracken Brae has serious concerns about the effects of this development would have on our water system and our water rights.
Galleon’s environmental impact report is released. The debate is heated, so they decide to delay consideration of the report for 60 days. This angers Nugent. One supervisor says he wanted to have enough information about the effect of drainage, erosion, and rare plants and animals to make a comprehensive decision. A technicality is in favor of Nugent.
