Municipalities throughout the world are graced with waterfronts—oceans, rivers, streams, and even creeks—but have too often turned their backs on these significant environmental assets. The recognition of these precious natural resources as irreplaceable has led to the dramatic revitalization of waterfronts throughout the world.

Now it is San Anselmo’s turn…

San Anselmo Creek bisects the Town. While it courses through its downtown, it has never been integrated as an asset or capitalized upon as an important feature of the Town. In concert with a significant flood mitigation construction project, San Anselmo has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform its downtown into a truly vibrant environmental and recreational civic space and regional destination unlike any other place in Marin.

Creek Park is an underutilized open space in the center of San Anselmo. San Anselmo is seeking to reimagine Creek Park as Creekside Commons.

The Process

  • Opportunity – The Town of San Anselmo is seizing this opportunity to reimagine Creek Park and the expanded area that will result after the county’s flood mitigation work is complete.
  • The San Anselmo Town Council approved the formation of a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) of local expertise to advise the Town Council in this process.
  • Community Surveys – sent out to the local community to determine how and why they use the Creek Park area and find out how they might use a common space in the center of Historic Downtown San Anselmo.
  • Design Competition – engaged professional landscape architect firms to enter a design competition to help us reimagine the transformation of our Creek Park to Creekside Commons.
  • Young Imagineers – asked our local K-8 students to dream big and participate in a student design project about Creekside Commons.
  • Fundraising – obtaining local private investment to support this community common space vision for the Town.
  • Implementation – seamlessly working with the County’s planned 2022 San Anselmo Flood Risk Reduction Project (SAFRR) schedule of building demolition (done in 2020), staged in Creek Park, to create the Reimagined Creekside Commons professional & community-inspired design. Installation immediately starting after the completion of the county work.
  • Enjoy – a reimagined common
space that is a memorable and vibrant signature civic place for the Town of San Anselmo.