The late 1960s was a time of rapid growth in the Bay Area. As tract housing and commercial development began to dominate the “Valley of Heart’s Delight,” concern for the preservation of the Midpeninsula’s irreplaceable foothill and bayland natural resources mounted among open space advocates.

Through the determined and heart-felt efforts of local conservationists, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District was created by successfully placing a voter initiative, Measure R, on the ballot in 1972. Measure R’s sentiment is as powerful today as it was more than 30 years ago.

Measure R will preserve open space by creating the Midpeninsula Regional Park District (currently named the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District). Open space is our green backdrop of hills. It is rolling grasslands - cool forests in the Coast Range – orchards and vineyards in the sun. It is the patch of grass between communities where children can run. It is uncluttered baylands where water birds wheel and soar, where blowing cordgrass yields its blessings of oxygen, where the din of urban life gives way to the soft sounds of nature. It is the serene, unbuilt, unspoiled earth that awakens all our senses and makes us whole again … it is room to breathe.

At that time, the District was created in northwestern Santa Clara County. Fulfilling the conservationists’ original dream to include portions of San Mateo County within the District’s boundaries, the voters expanded the District in 1976 to include southern San Mateo County. And in 1992, the District further expanded by annexing a small portion of Santa Cruz County.

Most recently with the final approval of the Coastside Protection Program on September 7, 2004, the District’s boundary was extended to the Pacific Ocean in San Mateo County, from the southern borders of Pacifica to the San Mateo/Santa Cruz County line.