In a sliver of Marin County coastline, a single low-lying road now carries a price tag that rivals a small infrastructure bond. The ultra-rich homeowners who rely on it to reach their beachfront mansions are pressing neighbors to help cover millions of dollars in flood defenses, even as public officials warn that the entire area faces staggering climate costs. Their fight over one vulnerable stretch of asphalt has become a test case for who pays to keep luxury real estate livable as the Pacific keeps rising.
At the center of the dispute is a narrow access route that threads behind oceanfront homes in Stinson Beach, a town long known for its surf culture and, more recently, for eye-popping property values. As storms push higher tides across the pavement and into garages, the residents who benefit most from the road’s protection are trying to shift part of the bill to the broader community, arguing that letting it fail would strand billions of dollars in coastal wealth.
The mansion road that keeps flooding
The contested strip is Calle del Arroyo, a back-road spine that runs behind some of the most expensive houses in Stinson Beach and serves as the only reliable way in and out when the ocean pushes over the sand. The name, Calle del Arroyo, is not accidental: it translates from Spanish to “creek street” or “street of stream,” a reminder that water has always been part of its identity. Now, with seas rising and winter storms intensifying, that poetic label has turned literal as waves and groundwater repeatedly swamp the pavement and surrounding yards.
County engineers have warned that this road to some of the Bay Area’s priciest shoreline parcels will flood more often as climate impacts accelerate, and that routine patch jobs will no longer be enough. A social media post about a road to some of the Bay Area’s most expensive real estate captured the stakes succinctly, noting that when the county signaled it might not keep fixing the route, homeowners mobilized. For residents, the choice is stark: pay for major upgrades or watch their only dependable access road become unusable several times a year.
A $22.8million fix for a private lifeline
To stabilize that lifeline, consultants have sketched out a plan that would raise and fortify Calle del Arroyo at an estimated cost of $22.8million. The proposal envisions new drainage, armoring and elevation changes designed to keep the road passable even as tides creep higher. For a town where individual homes can sell for several million dollars, the figure is not unimaginable, but it is large enough to trigger a fierce debate over who should shoulder it…