Comments by Kevin J. Lansing

HMB settlement gives Keenan 129 houses on Beachwood and Glencree—and more

Here’s the other thing. Where did that figure of $18 million come from Steve? It came from our own four City Council members after Keenan whispered it into their eagerly awaiting ears.

Basically, these four are trying to blackmail the entire state of California into giving their buddy Keenan the sweetheart deal of a lifetime.

HMB settlement gives Keenan 129 houses on Beachwood and Glencree—and more

Just because wetlands may exist close to existing development does not mean they deserve less protection than any other wetlands.

Over 90 percent of California’s coastal wetlands have been destroyed. Those that remain are increasingly near the borders of exisiting development, which keeps pushing relentlessly into all available open space.

Realtor Steve Hyman’s idea would be to protect only those wetlands where no houses (or McDonald’s) are nearby.

But then when people try to protect those wetlands say, like in Wavecrest, they are accused of stopping construction of a new middle school for his son.

HMB settlement gives Keenan 129 houses on Beachwood and Glencree—and more

Steve Hyman wrote:

“The City [Council] thought enough of the judge’s ruling that they decided to settle the lawsuit rather than appeal it.”

Actually no. The City Council didn’t think about anything before they decided to settle---they just did what the developer Keenan, who owns them, told them to do.

Why else would they settle for more houses than the original lawsuit was ever about?

Why else would they ok the idea of building 129 houses not just on top of man-made wetlands (if there are any, as Carl notes) but also on top of natural wetlands that always existed on these two parcels?

Why else would they drop their appeal after already having paid a top-notch lawyer hundreds of thousands of dollars to prepare and submit it to the 9th Circuit?

The answer is very simple. Because Muller, Patridge, Fraser and McClung care more about the developer’s interests than about the interests of the citizens they are supposed to represent.

And Assemblyman Gene Mullin cares more about doing political favors than about standing up for his principles.

Beachwood and AB1991: The view from Sacramento

Asssemblyman Gene Mullin describes himself above as a “liberal democrat.” Then why is he sponsoring a bill that is a dream-come-true for right-wing property rights Republicans? Answer: because the right-wing dominated HMB City Council asked him to. Thanks for standing up for your principles Assemblyman Mullin.

Below is another recent article by Julia Scott at the SM County Times. It notes the “blank check” that our esteemed City Council gave to “Chop” Keenan and also the fact that the Council gave away far more than the original lawsuit was ever about.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_8849152

Basically our City Council allowed Keenan to write his own terms for the “settlement” and now they are calling in political favors to make it happen. An believable betrayal of the interests of HMB citizens by Muller, Patridge, Fraser, and McClung.

HMB settlement gives Keenan 129 houses on Beachwood and Glencree—and more

Steve, since you are a REaltor, maybe you can offer your opinion on this scenario: What if AB 1991 goes down in flames because most state legislators see it as the abomination it is? 

How might you explain to prospective home buyers that our current City Council sold the City down the river for $18 million by withdrawing their appeal unconditionally? Are you required to disclose that the “settlement agreement” signed by Naomi Patridge & Co. has severely crippled the ability of the City to provide services for the next, say, 30 years?

Actually, I believe one of your local colleagues has recently commented on this point. He said:

“Should the city go bankrupt, as REALTORS, we will most likely have to disclose it. But, in the meantime, we are not and we will just hope for the best and hope that this certain property owner gets what he wants...the opportunity to build.”

http://www.trulia.com/voices/Market_Conditions/Half_Moon_Bay_may_go_bankrupt_Without_city_servic-16408--

Well, Keenan and the Realtors got what they wanted.

“...Should the city go bankrupt, as REALTORS, we will most likely have to disclose it.”

Gee, do ya think?

HMB settlement gives Keenan 129 houses on Beachwood and Glencree—and more

After having read through the documents, it is starting to sink in just how monumentally bad this so-called “settlement” is for HMB citizens.

Let’s review what we are looking at:

1. The City grants the developer the right to build 129 houses on 2 parcels, whereas the original lawsuit was about building 83 houses on only 1 parcel.

2. The City promises to persuade state Assemblyman Gene Mullin to use his influence to change numerous environmental laws so that the developer can build houses on top of wetlands--something that is totally illegal everywhere else in California.

3. The City withdraws its appeal of Judge Walker’s unfair judgement after having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for a lawyer (John Knox) to prepare that appeal, and after having Mr. Knox himself tell HMB citizens at a public meeting that the City’s case for overturning Walker’s judgement on appeal was “very strong.”

4. If, for any reason, the City fails to convince Gene Mullin and the rest of the state legislature to enact the insane legislation mentioned in #2 above, the City must pay the developer $18 million in cash.

This is a settlement? I swear my 5-year old could have negotiated something better. This is not a settlement. It is a complete and total sell-out by 4 local politicians who are in the pocket of the developer: Muller, Patridge, Fraser, and McClung. The fact the first two were born and raised here reveals how little they seem to actually care about protecting the character of the place where they grew up.

The Chronicle cartoon got it exactly right:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/04/EDRUSSELL.DTL

HMB settlement gives Keenan 129 houses on Beachwood and Glencree—and more

Let’s put some names on the people in the cartoon that Vince linked to above, shall we? From left to right, we have McClung, Muller, Fraser, and Patridge---four who will go down in the history of HMB as completely selling out. Only person missing from the cartoon is Assemblyman Gene Mullin, who is the guy doing the dirty work for developer Keenan (the guy standing on the chair).

HMB settlement gives Keenan 129 houses on Beachwood and Glencree—and more

Well, now that you brought up the NAR…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lereah

But I digress. Yee and Mullin are the real bad guys here. The local polticos who agreed to this ripoff settlement are just clueless. Yee and Mullin know very well what they are doing.

HMB settlement gives Keenan 129 houses on Beachwood and Glencree—and more

Steve, What I meant was R = Republican.

HMB settlement gives Keenan 129 houses on Beachwood and Glencree—and more

What? Leland Yee and Gene Mullin are going to pass a bill that overrides the Coastal Act? A widely-supported, statewide environmental law is going to be abrogated to broker an expoitive deal that wil make millions for a developer? Mullin and Yee should be ashamed of themselves. They should start putting an (R) after their names.

HMB announces Beachwood settlement decision with note tacked to bulletin board

Regarding the way the City announced it: perhaps our esteemed Mayor is having a hard time feeling proud about selling out the City. Apparently, the developer held a party on Friday to celebrate his favorable settlement terms.

Stop SB 1295: Defend Coastal Commission

Ken you are exactly right about what happened with Mr. Gale’s project.

Some additional little known details: When the project came before the HMB Planning Commission in 2006, the plans submitted by Mr. Gale did in fact conform to the 100 foot setback from wetlands. We were set to approve it.

But then Planning Commissioner Tom Roman took it upon himself to convince Mr. Gale to go back to the original non-conforming plans that the City had denied a year earlier. I was sitting right there when this happened.

Tom Roman did a tremendous disservice to Mr. Gale and I would hope he’s chipping in for Mr. Gale’s many legal expenses (but I doubt it).

If Mr. Gale had ignored Tom Roman (appointed by Marina Fraser), then Gale would be living in his house on Terrace Avenue right now.

Stop SB 1295: Defend Coastal Commission

Greg Ward writes:
“...and who was the Staffer that filed the pre-signed appeal, which I have a copy of?”

Greg, get a clue. That piece of paper you have a “copy of” is the Notification of Appeal which the CCC staff is required by law to send out whenever any private citizen files an appeal.

Maybe you should do a little homework before spouting off on a process that you obviously don’t know much about.

Stop SB 1295: Defend Coastal Commission

Greg Ward is dispensing factually incorrect information, as usual. The CCC staff did not appeal his project. A private citizen, a resident of the MidCoast, who had submitted multiple written comments to the local hearing board (and was ignored) filed the appeal. The Coastal Commission later made a finding of substantial issue about the project.

Stop SB 1295: Defend Coastal Commission

Sen. Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego) is the one guilty of arrogant conduct here, trying to rewrite state-wide law for the benefit of some locals in her district, many of whom would make lots of money from less-regulated coastal development. Reminds me of Richard Pombo (R-Tracy) who got booted from U.S. Congress in 2006.

Stop SB 1295: Defend Coastal Commission

Right again Carl. Greg knows all about projects that violate the LCP, like this one:

http://talkabout.hmbreview.com/topic.php?t=587&c=1&d;=

Unfortunately, Greg’s clients’ ugly monster house in the historical HMB cottage district was not appealable to the Coastal Commission because the rules that govern those appeals are already extremely narrow.

Greg & friends want to narrow the appeal rules even further. Nothing would please them more than to eliminate the idea of Coastal Commission appeals altogether. That way, they could just concentrate on what they do best: manipulating local rube politicians to give them whatever they want.

Supervisor Gordon holding office hours in Moss Beach Thursday

Gotta love Rich Gordon. He holds office hours during the middle of the work day when the only people who can come by and talk to him are local builders and realtors. Fits in well with his and Jerry Hill’s plan to double the number of houses in the Midcoast. By the way, what happened to Gordon’s plan to disband the MidCoast Community Council? Maybe MCC member (and builder) Neil Merrilees can update us on that.

Photos:  Bobcat stalks and gets his gopher

I wish my cat would do that. The comforts of domestic life has dulled his natural instincts.

Stop SB 1295: Defend Coastal Commission

George, my SEC analogy is correct.

Who do you think initiated the SEC investigations that uncovered the massive accounting frauds at Enron, Worldcom, etc? It was the SEC staff who are career professionals, not political appointees who csn be sacked at any time for not doing what their political patrons want them to do. Same goes for the CCC staff. 

Regarding your link to Zumbrun. I found this link posted on the HMB Review site to be quite informative. Your hero Zumbrun is one of the founders of the Pacific Legal Foundation. They defend big Tabacco firms and are about as anti-environmental as you get get.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pacific_Legal_Foundation

Stop SB 1295: Defend Coastal Commission

Don’t expect an apology Anneliese. This is how these guys operate. Greg Ward’s comment reminds me of ex-CUSD Board Member Ken Jones, who in 2002 labeled anybody opposed to Wavecrest an “Eco-Terrorist.”

Thankfully, Wavecrest is now protected for future generations. But Greg Ward (and one well-known local mogul he works for) care only about one thing: making money by any means possible. Carl May has it exactly right. Developers and corrupt politicians will keep trying to chip away at the Coastal Act until there is nothing left to protect. People should write and fax letters to make sure this bill never sees the light of day.

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