Riptide brings news blogging to Pacifica

Pacifica Riptide thanks Coastsider for the warm welcome. We hope to follow your inspiring example in bringing an open forum of ideas and news to our community north of the Slide. Onward!

Pacifica and the Coastside are more intertwined than many of us might think.

We both deal with Coastal Commission issues in development, Montara is closer to Linda Mar than it is to Half Moon Bay, and the tunnel is going to bring us both a lot closer.

And, Pacifica has been a lab for a lot of bad development practices that we can take lessons from here on the Coastside.

Amen to that!

Barry wrote

And, Pacifica has been a lab for a lot of bad development practices that we can take lessons from here on the Coastside.

On the other hand, Pacifica isn’t zoned for a 3 story wall of hotels between the highway and the ocean as El Granada is. The County could take a lesson from Pacifica on waterfront zoning. Notice that with a few exceptions, you get a pretty good or excellent view of the ocean from nearly the whole length of SR 1 through Pacifica. Yet the County’s stupid (that’s with a capital STUPID) zoning will result in the “Malibu syndrome”, where you know the ocean is just over there, if only there was a way to see or get to it. HMB’s zoning for the cherry stem, otherwise known as the El Granada waterfront, is just as obnoxious as the County’s.

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!

Thanks, Leonard, we feel your pain. And that’s why we fought so hard up here to defeat Measure L, which would have allowed Miami developer Don Peebles to build 330 houses in the quarry by the sea.

Pacifica continues to push the bad ideas forward. For instance at todays Pacifica Planning Commission meeting is a project called the “Prospects”.

It consists of 34 units: 17 condos and 17 townhouses. Besides adding even more traffic to an already congested road in the morning and evening there are other problems associated with this. Even at that, staff recommendation is for approval. Please come to Pacifica City Hall Planning Commission meeting tonight.

All parking for complex is in an underground garage which requires lots of excavation. The land where the projcet is to be built is currently zoned open space residential with one house per five acres. The owner has two adjacent but not legally linked lots and according to draft eir will not be legally linked. The upper lot, which is harder to build upon, is zoned for 33 units. so the idea is to take the housing unit total, flip the zoning and build on the spot that was designated in the 1980s general plan to be open space residential.

If you are driving up Fassler the project’s driveway would be where the unofficial driveway is now blocked off on the northside of the street. There is a big promo on community gardens, trails, picnic area, amphitheatre, meeting space but there are only two regular and one handicapped parking spot for non residents. Asked about this and the response was that this is all for the residents despite this being pushed as one of the benefits for Pacifica….(If they won’t be honest about this, wht can you count on?)

Building on this property requires the City Council to do a general plan amendment. Of course if the zoning can be changed here to suit the developer’s desires, I am sure you can imagine what else can be changed…Pacifica has been doing planning by piecemeal changes to its general plan - clogging the roads, ignoring the need for additional job creating business, and creating the ultimate residential tax burden for a city with a surplus of housing compared to available jobs.

http://www.cityofpacifica.org/depts/planning/environmental_documents/801_fassler_avenue/default.asp

The above is the link to the pages showing the various documents to this project. by reading the answers pages.

Kathryn, you rock! Thanks for the heads-up. I posted it front and center on Pacifica Riptide. I hope all concerned Pacificans and Coastsiders will attend the Pacifica Planning Commission meeting tonight at City Hall to fight for open space on Fassler. Beware the buildout! Beware the Fassler Fubar!