POST Acquires "Diamond H Ranch" 409-acre Property Used for Horse-Breeding
January 26, 2005
The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced today that it has acquired 409 acres of scenic ranchland on the San Mateo Coast known as the "Diamond H Ranch."
The property is located in San Gregorio about two miles southeast of the junction of highways 1 and 84. The ranch features picturesque rolling hills, grassy meadows and farmland and offers signature views of the entire coastal landscape. It was purchased from private owners for $3.385 million.
The acquisition is part of POST's $200 million campaign, Saving the Endangered Coast.
"This property combines a sense of history and serenity that we experience all too rarely these days," said Audrey Rust, POST president. "When you drive down the country road onto the ranch, you feel like you're entering another century.
"With the existing number of parcels on the property, this ranch could have been developed into at least four luxury estates. Now it will remain a working ranch with a horse-breeding operation and cattle grazing. The open, rural character of the land will be preserved. You'll still see bobcats and herds of deer in the middle of the day. In the future, we'll have the opportunity to create public hiking trails."
POST purchased the Diamond H Ranch from Gary and Dian Holtum, who raise prize-winning quarter horses on the property. The couple acquired the land in 1986 following Gary's retirement from United Airlines.
In recent years, as the price of land on the Coast escalated dramatically, the Holtums considered selling their property. They first put the ranch on the market in 2001 and attracted considerable interest from potential developers.
"After considering our options, we decided we'd prefer to sell the land to someone who'd conserve it and not develop it," Gary said. "We're familiar with POST's work on the Coast and felt confident they'd take good care of the ranch."
The terms of the sale, which closed today (Jan. 26), include a 10-year lease that will allow the Holtums to live on the land, continue their quarter-horse breeding business, and sublease a portion of the upper meadows to a small cattle grazing operation. Currently, they are raising 10 horses on the ranch, including a world-champion stallion.
The Diamond H Ranch lies within the quiet and pristine Pomponio Creek Valley. The landscape is marked by steep hillsides rising to 800 feet, rolling meadows, canyons and hillside springs. The property features a narrow stretch of prime agricultural land and rich wildlife habitat for a number of species, including the endangered San Francisco garter snake and San Mateo wooly sunflower. The high ridgelines feature grand, 360-degree vistas of the Pacific Ocean, San Gregorio and Pomponio valleys, and distant mountains.
The property is bordered to the south and west by the Arata Ranch, recently protected by a conservation agreement between POST and the Arata family, and to the north and east by other privately owned lands.
The acquisition adds to the growing network of protected lands along the Pomponio Valley. In the future, public trails may be created on the ranch with potential connections to the Arata Ranch, POST's San Gregorio Farms and Seaside School Ridge properties, and Pomponio State Beach.