Neri Sanchez Gomez, who killed Ernest Elliot, 53,, and injured his 40-year-old wife Nancy, in a hit-and-run accident on Highway 1 near Pescadero last year, was sentenced Friday to 364 days in jail. The Daily Journal reports that this was a day short of the one-year term which would ensure his deportation. The Mexican national still faces federal charges for fake US identity documents. He was released on Friday, having received credit for time served.

A ten-wheel dump truck reportedly hauling 12 tons of rock fell through a privately-owned bridge in the 7000 block of Hwy. 84 in La Honda at 8:52 this morning.

When La Honda Volunteer Fire Fighters first arrived they found the driver uninjured and the truck leaking diesel fuel into San Gregorio Creek. Firefighters placed floating booms across the creek, ahead of the spill in an effort to contain the expanding spill.

A special crane will be brought in to remove the truck Tuesday morning. Traffic may need to be controlled on Highway 84 during this operation.

Wavecrest’s owners attempted to disk the site of their proposed development on Friday.  They didn’t get very far before a letter from the California Coastal Commission stopped the disking.

The property has been under review since late August, when the US Fish and Wildlife Service found endangered frog habitat on it. The Coastal Commission removed Wavecrest from its September agenda on after the US Fish and Wildlife Service said the development would result in a “taking” of an endangered species. The Fish and Wildlife Service is working to determine what should be done next.

Julie Baigent, attorney for property owners Concar Enterprises, says that the mowing and disking is a return to the agricultural use of the property, “The owner had entered into a lease with a farmer. The land was being farmed as it had been in the past.” The property has been traditionally used to grow hay. “It hasn’t been farmed in a couple of years. But it has been taking longer than anticipated to get the permits to build,” said Baigent. Baigent says the owners tried to be sensitive to the habitat:  “We had a biologist survey the land and he was there the entire time to avoid killing frogs. We were trying to be extra-specially careful.”

But the disking was a surprise to the city of Half Moon Bay and the Coastal Commission. In a letter to the developer [PDF] that was copied to the school district, city planning director Jack Liebster, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the California Department of Fish and Game the Commission said:

Commission staff is concerned that disking this site at this time could compromise future habitat assessment by damaging or removing existing habitat. In addition, disking may result in direct mortality of the frog and/or snake, both of which are more likely to be active at this time due to the substantial rainfall that has occurred over the past several days. As such. we request that you delay any further actions that may result in damage or removal of environmentally sensitive habitat on the Wavecrest site pending review of these activities with the California Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Commission’s staff biologist. I have left messages for you on your office and cell phones stating these concerns, and we have contacted the USFWS and CDFG staff. Please call me at (831) 427-4863 to discuss this matter as soon as possible.

Baigent says, “When we received a call from the city attorney, we called the farmer and asked him to stop.”

Because the area being disked is the projected site of the new middle school, I talked to Deputy Superintendent B.J. Mackle at the Cabrillo Unified School District today.  She was with Superintendent Bayless on Friday and is covering for him while he is out of the office this week. Neither she nor the superintendent knew of the disking or the letter from the Coastal Commission on Friday and she had not see the letter from the Commission as of this morning.

It’s unclear how this incident will affect the review process that is still underway at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the city’s endorsement of Wavecrest to the Coastal Commission, or the Commission’s eventual review of the development.

Rate My Teachers gives students a chance to turn the tables and give their teachers a grade. There isn’t a lot of information there yet, so encourage your kids to reward their favorite teachers, or to warn their friends about the others.

• Half Moon Bay High


• Cunha Middle School


• Hatch Elementary


• El Granada Elementary


• Farallone View Elementary


• Kings Mountain Primary


• Pescadero Elementary


• Pescadero High

[From the press release] The San Mateo County chapter of Surfrider Foundation will be joined by founder Glenn R. Hening at the “Endless Winter” benefit event commemorating two decades of working to preserve our oceans, waves and beaches. 

The event will feature tasty fare, libations, a special presentation by Mr. Hening on the upcoming release of his new book Waves of Warning, and live surf sounds from local Bay Area bands. The event is sponsored in part by Pedro Point Surf Club and the Pacifica Beach Coalition.

Glenn is recognized for having earned a unique reputation as modern surfing’s most eloquent and incisive provocateur according to The Surfers Journal, the industry’s premier magazine. 

Click on “Read more” to see the press release.

Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) purchased a conservation easement, as well as a trail easement, on the 624-acre Redgate Ranch for $1 million. POST describes the price as “an amount well below market”. The land is immediately adjacent to another POST property, Driscoll Ranch [annoying but useful Flash map of POST land].

“When POST purchased the neighboring Driscoll Ranch, I decided to look into what this organization was all about,” said Greg Jones in the POST press release. “We found that POST’ s vision of land preservation and conservation is closely align with our own, so we approached them to explore how we might work together.”

According to POST, the Redgate Ranch is a highly visible stretch of land along Highway 84 that contains open grasslands, encompassing a major ridge and a narrow interior valley, , northern coastal scrub, coastal oaks, and mixed conifer woodland.  Part of the San Gregorio watershed, the property is bounded by two direct tributaries to San Gregorio Creek: Bogess Creek to the east and El Corte de Madera to the west [topographical map of the area]. San Mateo County has identified these waterways as containing habitats for a number of rare and unique species, such as the federally threatened steelhead trout.

Click “Read more” to see the POST press release.

SamTrans will offer round-trips to see northern elephant seals at Año Nuevo State Reserve.

The $13 trips leave from Albertson’s in Half Moon Bay from January 15 through February 27. People who hope to see the seals during their winter breeding season are urged to make reservations early. Reservations will be accepted beginning Nov. 15.

Pregnant seals come ashore to give birth from late December to early February. Mothers nurse their pups for about a month before mating and going back to sea. Most of the adult seals are gone by early March. The pups remain until April, basking in the sun and learning how to swim.

The two-and-one-half hour walk is conducted rain or shine. The entire trip, including the ride to the reserve, takes approximately six-and-one-half hours. Visitors traveling to the reserve by private car cannot use tickets purchased from SamTrans for their tour.

For more information or to request a reservation form [PDF], call the SamTrans Año Nuevo hotline at 650-508-6441. People with hearing impairments may call (TDD only) 650-508-6448.

Half Moon Bay kicked off the planning process for its new park at noon today with a tour of the property and a workshop. Almost immediately after arriving, more than fifty participants, including most of the City Council, Parks Commission and Planning Commission, were loaded onto school buses for a short ride to the site.

We were able to walk around the property for the first time since the plan was announced, guided by city staff and mayor Mike Ferreira.  Take a look at our photo album for pictures and details.  We got a good look at the creek, the buildings, the drainage system, and a sense of how the site sits on the land between the creek and Highway 92.

There are plenty of improvements on the site that make it more attractive for a park site, according the mayor. A number existing structures will make it easier to get permits for needed buildings, such as restrooms. An existing gravel road can be used as an extension of the city’s creekside trail. Other roads could make it cheaper to provide vehicle access, including a road that connects to Highway 92 that is currently fenced off from, but part of, the property. The drainage system is designed to capture runoff before it goes to the creek and pump it into the holding pond in the northeast corner, where it can be used for irrigation.

As we walked the site, a number of challenges also became clear.  The site is big, but not big enough to contain all the ideas for its use and parking to support them. The planned widening of Highway 92 will eat into the northern edge of the park, removing the Monterey pines that currently line the highway. You can see how close the park will be to many homes in the Cypress Cove development. There will need to be a 50 to 100 foot buffer zone north of the creekside trail.

The meeting that followed was enthusiastic and supportive. There are dozens of ideas for the site, including community gardens, picnic areas, meditation garden, horseshoe pits, soccer fields, amphitheater, playgrounds, nature areas, and creekside seating.

The principal challenges focused, predictably, on traffic, parking, lights, security, and noise.  Cypress Cove residents were especially concerned that their quiet cul de sac on Stone Pine Road would become a thoroughfare.

While it’s clear that wide community input is being sought, everyone in the city government is clearly ready to make this happen fast. Several people, including the mayor, expressed concern that if this project gets tangled up in process it might never result in a park. Or that if the land is left unused for long, “it could turn into habitat.” A request for proposal for landscape architects has been written and will be presented at the next City Council meeting.

The City Council will appoint a park committee at their next meeting on Tuesday, November 16. Their goal is to include at least two members from each precinct, representatives of other constuencies, as well as some midcoast residents. If you’re interested in serving on the committee, which will involve a pretty big time commitment over the next six months or so, call the Parks & Recreation Department at 726.8297.

Pescadero High School Girls’ Team won their playoff game 3 sets to 1. This the first PHS girls’ team to win a playoff, according to Catherine Peery. The Volleyball Team will be playing for the league championship tomorrow, Friday, November 5th. The game is at 4:30 p.m., in San Francisco at the Russian Center, 2450 Sutter St. [map]

I wrote a while back about rumors of thefts from cars in Montara. A couple of weeks ago, my next-door neighbor’s cheap stereo was stolen from his car.  I talked to the Sheriff’s deputy that answered the call.

That break-in coincided with a ridealong I took with deputy Eric Sakuma on the midcoast. John Quinlan set this up just before he left the coastside. It wasn’t very exciting, but really instructive.  Seen from the patrol car, the midcoast looks different. People notice you and often wave. You also realize that the midcoast, once you eliminate Half Moon Bay, isn’t all that big.

Every time I talk to folks at the Sheriff’s office, they tell me that there’s no wave of break-ins in the residential areas. That usually happens in the beach parking lots, and it’s usually the same guys every time. The more time you spend with our deputies, the more you realize how in touch they are with the community and its people. They have relationships with the people who are placing most of the calls and the people who are the reason for the calls.

The biggest effect of the time I spent with deputy Sakuma, was that I feel a lot safer. I have an offer to take a ridealong on the southcoast, but I’ve been warned that unless I go on the weekend, when the motorized scofflaws from the other side of the hill come to visit, I shouldn’t expect to see any action.