Locals are rallying to protect the Albion Headlands, their last path to the Mendocino Coast. (MLH Photography)

The Albion Headlands - 84 acres of raw bluffs, windswept hills and crashing surf jutting off the iconic Mendocino Coast - are on the market, and the sale has galvanized locals. With no house, no driveway and no utility hookups, the $6.95 million listing at 3400 North Highway 1 isn't your typical real estate play. It comes with something far more valuable to some: the chance to own and subdivide one of the last undeveloped oceanfront properties on California's North Coast.

Locals aren't having it.

Long considered the crown jewel of the unincorporated hamlet of Albion, population 150, the headlands are now being marketed as 16 residential parcels. Conservationists say that claim is misleading, pointing to failed subdivision attempts and zoning restrictions. Still, the fear remains: One deep-pocketed buyer could step in and close the gates for good.

"Some very rich person or developer could still swoop in and grab it," Conrad Kramer, executive director of the Mendocino Land Trust, told SFGATE in a phone interview. "We think that that won't happen right away, and I'm knocking on wood here."

Founded in 1976, the land trust has helped protect thousands of acres along the North Coast, mostly through conservation easements, Kramer explained. But with the Albion Headlands, they're going all in. The only way to save the property - and make it open to the public - is to buy it outright on the open market.

The Albion Headlands: A breathtaking NorCal treasure that locals are racing to save. (MLH Photography)

As a nonprofit, the land trust can't just outbid anyone. "We have to get an appraisal done and we can't pay more than that appraised value," Kramer said. He believes the current asking price is "considerably over the actual value." The land trust is moving quickly to finish the appraisal and hopes the seller will accept their offer. If not, "we might be out of luck," Kramer said.

The path to funding, Kramer explained, depends on a mix of state support and private donations. "We're really lucky here on the coast of California," he said. "The state of California has long had it be a priority to acquire lands for public access on the coast through the state Coastal Conservancy." He added, "We think that they'll come in and maybe cover half of the price of this property. And then the rest will have to come from somewhere else."

That "somewhere else" is where the community comes in. "We are hoping that, you know, the rest of it will come from private donors," Kramer said.

"There are a lot of people on the coast that feel passionate about their beautiful coast, and we're fortunate to have a number of them as donors," he added.

Support is already rolling in - even before the campaign has launched. "Donations for this property are starting to come in even though we haven't actually launched a campaign," Kramer said. "... That's really exciting."

The land trust's vision is modest: a small parking lot, an accessible bluff trail, and hilltop viewpoints where visitors can sit in their cars and watch the sunset.

"Albion has no public access right now," Kramer said. If the deal goes through, he hopes the headlands will finally be open: a place to hike, breathe, and, as he put it, "sit there and watch the sunset or, you know, take in the view."

According to Tom Wodetzki, a longtime Albion resident and environmental advocate, the stakes go beyond property lines. "Albion is about the only community on the coast that doesn't have its own headlands proper," he said on a phone call. He pointed out that neighboring towns - Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Little River, even tiny Cleone - all have public headland trails.

This iconic California coastline is for sale, and locals are fighting to make it public. (MLH Photography)

"People have not been able to go up there without trespassing," Wodetzki said. He said he believes it is "extra important for locals to get our way [that] we can go watch the sunset from the headlands."

He's also skeptical of the listing's claim that the 84 acres can be split into 16 parcels, telling SFGATE, "they won't stand up in court."

Justin Nadeau, the Sotheby's broker representing the listing, pushed back. Nadeau told SFGATE on a recent phone call that the parcels are remnants of workforce housing from the Mendocino Coast lumber boom - a patchwork of small, 5,000-square-foot lots created for mill workers.

"That's one of the unfortunate misconceptions from people in the community - that these parcels are not buildable. Well, according to Mendocino County building and planning, they are," he said.

From the moment Nadeau secured the listing, he said conservation was top of mind. He reached out first to the Mendocino Land Trust, then to nearby tribal leaders, and finally to a private contact he believed might help protect the property. "The first party, Mendocino Land Trust, stepped up right away and they've made this public," Nadeau said.

In his conversations with locals, Nadeau has met people who've lived in Albion for 50 or 60 years - "and yet they've never actually been out there." The listing, he said, has stirred up deeper frustrations about the lack of public ownership and open space.

"The campgrounds down below are privately owned. Albion Headlands are privately owned. The property to the north of Albion River and the Albion Bay there - it's all privately owned," he said. "It's a unique place. … Albion is one of the only communities that doesn't have public access to the water."

As both a Mendocino Coast local and the listing agent, Nadeau knows he's in a delicate position. "My intentions of this is not just, ‘Hey let's get this great listing and sell off this beautiful chunk of land,' you know, to make a bunch of money," he said. He said he believes the community is better served by a local broker handling the sale - someone operating with intention, care and compassion.

This wild stretch of the Mendocino Coast, the Albion Headlands, could end up in private hands. (MLH Photography)

Chris Skyhawk, a longtime Mendocino Coast resident and outspoken advocate for putting the headlands in public hands, told SFGATE over the phone that the land's beauty evokes something primal - a feeling "you can just feel in your soul when you sit up there and just get real quiet and look."

He took issue with the language in Sotheby's marketing video, especially the idea of "reimagining" the headlands. To him, that misses the point: "Let's reimagine heaven. How can we improve it?"

Nadeau challenged Skyhawk's characterization. "When I talk about reimagining the future of the Albion Headlands, I'm actually talking about reimagining it in a way for the public to be there and use it," he said. "The current imagination of the property is houses and condos."

From Skyhawk's perspective, developing the Albion Headlands "is about as popular as offshore oil drilling."

To him, the sale points to a deeper imbalance. "We're becoming kind of a Disneyland for rich people," he said. He called the privatization of such landscapes "part of the sin of capitalism." He questioned a future where only "rich people can be up there now and enjoy that view."

For many, the message is simple: This stretch of blufftop doesn't need to be transformed. It just needs to be opened.

Nadeau made the stakes plain: "If a private individual decides, ‘Hey, I'm going to buy the property and I'm going to build a single house,' the property is then basically lost to the public forever."

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