Coastal Commission legislative director answers HMB’s “misinformation and inaccuracies”


Coastal Commission legislative director Sarah Christie has taken on what she calls “misinformation and inaccuracies” in Half Moon Bay’s response to her initial letter on the deficiencies in AB1991. In a sharply-worded letter to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Protempore Don Perata [pdf], Christie rather contemptuously takes apart the city’s counterattack, making the following points:

  • The city “ignores the obvious fact” that the process of AB1991 creates a precedent for future legislation.
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  • The city makes the “insinuation ... that it is somehow the Commission’s fault that the City finds itself in its current predicament”,  because it consulted the Commission before it denied the 85-parcel subdivision of Beachwood and the denial was upheld by the state appeals court.
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  • The city’s assertion that the Commission’s approval of 19 parcels on Beachwood was illegal because the Commission lacked juridiction is “incomplete and therefore misleading”.
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  • The city “derisively dismissed” the Commission’s offer of assistance, because the Commission didn’t offer to pay its bond or legal fees—which it does not have the authority to do. However, says Christie, the Commission offered an amicus brief represented by the Attorney General’s office.
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  • The city said that the inclusion of Glencree in the settlement was not arbitrary, “because… most importantly, the plaintiff, ‘Chop’ Keenan, demanded it. We think the City’s response speaks for itself and makes our original point quite well.”
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  • The city’s claim that the property would be built out by now, but for the city’s sewer moratorium, is not only “unlikely, it is irrelevant. The City might as well point to all the development that would already be built out today if the Coastal Act had never been passed, or CEQA, the Endangered Species Act, or any General Plan law”.

The Commission’s legislative director concludes by saying that the legislature should “let the bill die, so that the City can pursue the escape clause it agreed to in the settlement…and…work with the community and interested stakeholders”.

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Poetry Night at HMB Library, Fri, Sept 10

Letter by Joe Toschik on Wed, Sep 1 at 07:41 pm • 0 comments; click to add your own

Everyone is invited to a night of poetry at Half Moon Bay Library on Friday, September 10th at 7:00PM.  Join us as we celebrate the participants in our 13th annual Teen Poetry Contest.

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A ballot measure to increase HMB sales tax?

Letter by Bob Poole on Mon, Aug 30 at 01:43 pm • 4 comments; click to add your own

What insanity is this? Raise the sales tax by 1% and drive even more shoppers over the hill. I think that this will kill Main Street shopping for good. Rather than save Half Moon Bay from bankruptcy, I expect it will create a ghost town. Just my opinion.

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Pacifica DUI checkpoint

Letter by Tim Payne on Fri, Aug 27 at 10:50 pm • 3 comments; click to add your own

I want to start by saying that I think DUI checkpoints are great. They remove dangerous elements from our roadways. What I didn’t like today was being asked to show my drivers license at one tonight.

Under normal circumstances if I commit an infraction and get pulled over I fully understand why I would have to show my papers to an officer in the course of being ticketed. Tonight I was asked to show my papers just because I was on the road. It irked me. I wanted to know if this was legal and

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African Hybrid Cat (Savannah) Roaming in Montara

Letter by Margot Lowry on Mon, Aug 23 at 09:14 am • 3 comments; click to add your own

In the past month my housecat has been severely sliced up twice.  I wondered if a bobcat and he now had overlapping territories.  Then yesterday afternoon I found this hybrid cat, (I believe it is a Savannah cat which is a hybrid between a Serval and a housecat) just outside my front door. 

The cat has a blue collar with a bell attached.  No normal cat could stand a chance against him.  Triple check your chicken enclosures and do not leave windows open.  I read in Coastsider someone in

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