Marin is getting a new trail, courtesy a world-famous headbanger.
Metallica front man James Hetfield put up a heavy-metal fence around his San Rafael-area property in 2008 -- irritating a lot of the area's residents because it cut off some of the region's precious open space.
A new trail proposed to bypass the cut off area has now been approved.
County officials say an environmental review found no significant impacts from the trail. That allows them to avoid conducting a more detailed and time-consuming environmental study that would delay work on the trail.
The proposed trail would be about 5 feet wide -- up to 8 feet in some areas, and would connect the Terra Linda-Sleepy Hollow Divide and the Loma Alta open space preserves. It will be open to hikers, bikers and horseback-riders.
Work on the trail will start in late summer 2011.
