Point Buckler Island Poised for Development Teardowns

A 50-acre island on the edge of San Francisco Bay is headed for a rebirth.

The uninhabited Point Buckler Island in the Suisun Bay estuary will be restored to its natural, marshy state after the nonprofit John Muir Land Trust purchased the property early this year for $3.8 million, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Point Buckler Island’s restoration ends a more than decade-long saga over its future. In 2011, entrepreneur and former America’s Cup sailor John Sweeney bought the island for $150,000 and began developing what he advertised as a luxury club for kiteboarders. While building a lounge and guest quarters, he allegedly illegally rebuilt levees and interrupted the island’s tidal flows, according to regulators. Sweeney denied the allegations and said that he only made repairs to existing levees. “Maybe 100 years ago it was a marsh, but in the last 75 years it was a duck club and dry land,” he said.

Solano County placed a lien on the property and ordered its auction in January after Sweeney listed it for sale for $75 million in 2023. That year, a Supreme Court decision created jurisdictional uncertainty by dictating which waters are federally protected. That prompted a legal battle involving Sweeney that is still ongoing, as he’s asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the decision that he harmed sensitive habitat under the Clean Water Act and is hoping to have the land returned. Sweeney also faces millions of dollars of fines from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Board and an unmet order to revive the island’s natural flows.

Ultimately, the John Muir Land Trust submitted the nearly $4 million winning bid.

The environmental nonprofit’s first move will be clearing the island of human-made debris, largely from the kitesurfing club, including two helicopter pads, a dock, trailers, shipping containers and fencing.

Once the site is cleaned up, the plan is to start restoring the island’s tidal flows. The revival effort is estimated to cost a total of about $3.5 million and take three to five years to complete.

— Chris Malone Méndez