More than $4 million raised so far for Coastside Adult Community Center

This project is an excellent example of how to go about creating a facility that will serve an important, special-needs community without having to: (1) trample environmental laws, (2) strong-arm local politicians, or (3) exploit people’s natural compassion for those with special needs.

The developers of “Big Wave” should take note.

“trample environmental laws”

Did they REALLY do this? When was it?

The developers and their lawyer have been pushing the County Board of Supervisors to grant priority water to the project by inserting a special clause to benefit the project as part of the County LCP amendment process. This is an attempt to trample over the Califoirnia Coastal Act which reserves priority water for essential public services (libraries, hospitals, schools, etc.) not things like profit-oriented office buildings which are being proposed as part of the huge Big Wave complex. Moreover, the residential component of the Big Wave project would not qualify for priority water as “affordable housing,” because the Big Wave developer does not wish to legally restrict the housing component to remain affordable. In other words, they want (more like demand) priority water when the law says the project doesn’t qualify for it.

http://coastsider.com/index.php/site/news/1612/

Now if we can only get a boys and girls club facility here on the coastside.

Mr. Olsen,

I understand that the Boys and Girls Club does indeed operate here, and that plans are afoot to build north of 92, west of 1, on land now in possession of the B&G Club folks.

Furthermore, I recall that this was orginally explored as a place for the Club to be built prior to switching to the Wavecrest development, where (along with the proposed new middle school), the kids were left high and dry for many years because the project did not conform to state requirements/law.

I’ve heard two different reasons why the Club was not built at the original site - where, apparently, they now plan to build. One reason is said to be NIMBYism; the other is said to be that they would have had to pay to for the installation of a traffic light at Hwy 1 to safely accomodate the traffic they would generate. If the latter is true, well, at least the traffic light is available for free now (assuming the current “city mothers” will accept it) thanks to the Ailanto settlement, which commits Ailanto to paying for exactly that traffic light as a condition of building all but 40 of the houses in Pacific Ridge (above Terrace Avenue).

And in a new NIMBYist movement, some folks are trying to turn down the traffic light and highway widening that - according to the traffic studies included in the recent draft EIR on the Terrace Avenue light - would (a) improve the traffic to varying extents at all other intersection, (b) make the highway safer, and (c) provide the residents of Casa del Mar to the new intersection by extending the frontage road south to it.

I’m not sure that the Boys & Girls Club advocates have noticed the free traffic light as being something that would benefit their project yet - normally, we would see B&G Club advocates out in force in support of our local kids.

Hal M. Bogner Half Moon Bay

PS - I should also mention that there appears to be another out-of-town developer advocating against the free traffic light that would benefit the B&G Club: a man called Chop Keenan, who made sizable donations to losing HMB City Council candidate George Muteff - now the loudest voice against the light at Terrace. My best guess is that Keenan hopes to cause as much trouble as possible for the Ailanto/Pacific Ridge project, perhaps with the idea that he will be able to change the deal to help him find a way to get the so-called Beachwood subdivision approved. In a sense, Chop Keenan may be thought of as the “Bill Barrett of the North”, causing acrimony in HMB north of Hwy 92, just as Bill Barrett’s Ocean Colony Partners did south of Hwy 92, when he snookered the school district and the B&G Club folks into tying their wagons to his now almost-abandoned Wavecrest project. Barrett’s land development scheme could not fly at the state (Coastal Commission) level; the school district lost millions of tax payer money and local kids lost out on having a new middle school and a B&G Club years ago.

Mr. Bogner thanks for your comments. Am looking forward to our “free” traffic light & extension of the frontage road it will also increase the “seasonal wetlands” for our sacred froggie. Can barely find the entrance to Casa Del Mar these days its so dark been driving into it for 37 years & now older i could barely see it when i was younger.Repainting it sure would help.STREETS DEPT HELP! No one wants new homes in their neighborhood. I feel for the Terrace people. Homes were built to West & East of me & no one cared.This was before the sacred froggie snake & wetlands were invented. One of the streets in my neighborhood got traffic calming bumps that moved the calmed traffic to my street so they could un-calm themselves by speeding on my street. Hey, getting senile already whined about this in another post. NIMBYS OF THE WORLD UNITE!

Hal, your statement - - “the Ailanto settlement, which commits Ailanto to paying for exactly that traffic light as a condition of building all but 40 of the houses in Pacific Ridge”- - is probably based on an erroneous statement in the Executive Summary of the Draft EIR for the Widening/Signalization permit.

The Agreement actually requires that no (zero) Certificates of Occupancy will be issued until either the widening/signalization is installed or until one year has passed after Ailanto has given the City the full amount of money to complete the installation. There is no 40 home scenario in the Agreement. Unfortunately, there are probably a good number of folks who have been misinformed by that error.