The Sausalito Landscape Beautification Initiative began in July 2013, when longtime resident Shelby Van Meter and several friends approached the City Council about the need for addressing long-deferred care and maintenance of Sausalito’s public landscapes. City staff quickly responded with a number of positive changes, and a mood of optimism began to grow.

Soon afterward, a Beautification Study Group was formed to research other cities’ programs and to identify Sausalito sites most clearly in need of restoration. In April 2014, a Planning Team began laying the groundwork for a new nonprofit organization called Sausalito Beautiful, which would be dedicated to the improvement and ongoing care of Sausalito’s public green spaces.

The Study Group identified three high-visibility locations: the landscape surrounding the Sausalito Civic Center, Caledonia Street, and the Bridgeway corridor. In June, 2014, the City Council earmarked $30,000 to be applied to Civic Center and Caledonia Street trees. The Council subsequently named Beautification the City’s top project priority.

Sausalito Beautiful was launched as a not-for-profit organization in January 2015, with a structure built to last for decades. Led by a diverse Board of Directors, founder Shelby Van Meter served as Board President and recruited eight other board members.  Sausalito Beautiful formed a strong relationship with the City of Sausalito, notably the Department of Parks & Recreation and Department of Public Works.

The first major project was revitalizing the landscaping at Bolinar Plaza. Our Green Thumbs program was launched in March 2015 when Linda Lee suggested Sausalito Beautiful have a regularly scheduled, small-scale maintenance program. An Advisory Board with the diverse skills needed to advise a young non-profit was formed with eight members whose skills included fundraising, marketing, and urban planning. 

We are proud to follow in the footsteps of other organizations and neighborhood groups committed to landscape beautification through the decades, including the Sausalito Woman’s Club, the Sausalito Rotary Club, the Sausalito Lions Club, the Sausalito Foundation and Blooming Bridgeway. We are the only organization, however, that focuses on mobilizing the community to ensure that Sausalito’s public green spaces are healthy, sustainable, and resilient.

Sausalito’s most visible public landscapes have shown extraordinary improvement in a short period of time, which happened as a result of our partnership with the City along with broad support from residents, businesses and local organizations. For example, the trees along Bridgeway, the succulents at the Post Office, the shade of the trees while shopping on Caledonia have all been enhanced through the direction and/or actions of Sausalito Beautiful. 

Although we have a special affinity to planting trees, our projects are wide-ranging from small scale neighborhood organizing (Second Street Garden, Poet’s Corner), to fundraising (MLK Park, Southview Park landscaping), to hands-on planting (Daffodils in the Park, MLK Park planting). Our on-going efforts range from education (e.g., gardening lectures) to advocacy (general plan, City Council, Planning Commission). Even more projects are in the planning and development phases

With support and donations from community members, numerous landscape improvements have been made since the beautification initiative began. A hearty thank you to all who have contributed and encouraged us thus far. We need your continued support.

Looking toward the future, we believe that Fire-smart Landscaping, the Downtown Design, and Sea Level Rise are the major issues in which Sausalito Beautiful will become involved. 

Climate change has caused fires in Northern California to become hotter and more destructive, while starting much earlier in the year. Water-conservation and fire-smart landscaping are issues that Southern California started dealing with decades ago, and now these issues are moving north. Ensuring that our landscaping is fire-smart is a nearer term issue that we can help address.

With the Ferry Landing redesign and acquisition of the Bank of America property, our City has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink and replan our downtown area.  Sausalito Beautiful serves as an informed and creative voice for a thoughtful re-imagining of the space at the heart of our city, one which we hope will become more people-centric (as opposed to car-centric).

Sea Level Rise is a slow-moving but existential threat to much of Sausalito’s waterfront and business areas. Importantly, it also affects most of Sausalito’s current public green spaces. Sausalito Beautiful aims to play an active role in educating the community about Sea Level Rise and encouraging participation in identifying and implementing solutions.