The city has been involved in a protracted legal battle with the California Coastal Commission, whose mission is to increase public access to beaches, over parking restrictions on Cliffside Drive at the edge of the Headlands. A mediated agreement between the city and coastal on a limited number of parking spaces was ditched last spring after vehement community protest.
State Parks purchased the bluff property decades ago from Roy Crummer for a reported $6 million and designated it as a preserve. It contains the state’s southernmost stand of native coreopsis. Since then, local conservationists have volunteered hundreds of hours to restore the native flora and remove the invasive iceplant that chokes out the young yellow-flowering coreopsis plants.