The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) will buy 1,719 acres of scenic land along the San Mateo County (Calif.) coast for $39 million, the largest such land-trust deal made in the Western U.S. While the agreement is significant in its own right, it also signals a victory for conservationists who have been trying to stop Silicon Valley urban sprawl from spreading along the Northern California coast, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

"This is thrilling because this is the premier property on the southern San Mateo coast," Audrey Rust, president of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based trust, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "This is the most expensive property we've ever purchased and certainly one of the most important -- and it's the most expensive property any nonprofit land trust has bought in the Western United States."

The land could have been developed into "51 very large, very expensive trophy homes," Rust stated. It was already being eyed by Silicon Valley dot.com millionaires for development, the Chronicle reports.

The land trust was able to get a purchase option by agreeing to pay the money during the next 18 months. A $13 million installment will come from the trust's land acquisition fund, which is raised through private contributions. After the purchase is complete, POST will turn the land over to either the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District or the California Department of Parks and Recreation, depending on which group is better-able to manage the land, the newspaper reports.

POST had been studying this purchase since 1997, when it bought an adjoining ranch.

Water rights were included in the deal and the trust wants to restore Coho and Steelhead fish habitats. Remaining coastal land could cost as much as $200 million, but Rust told the Chronicle her group plans to continue its efforts to preserve as much of the Northern California coastline as possible.

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