Quarry Park presentation at MCC Wednesday

Quarry Park Offered To County By Mark Noack [ mark@hmbreview.com ]

The Midcoast Park Lands has taken the first step toward ceding management of Quarry Park to San Mateo County. It’s the beginning of a larger plan to combine the park woodlands with other surrounding forest preserves to create a 500-acre natural park. By all accounts, the talks between county park officials and board members of the Midcoast Park Lands are still preliminary, but officials at both agencies agree that giving the county managerial control over the 40-acre Quarry Park will provide resources for maintenance and basic services for visitors.

“The rationale for wanting to return the park to the county is to reduce our costs,” said Jim Blanchard, president of the Midcoast Park Lands. “Quarry Park is only one of our projects.”

Midcoast Park Lands directors are active in an ongoing project to preserve the Burnham Strip near Surfer’s Beach. However, Quarry Park is the only property fully managed by the local nonprofit group. Blanchard says his group obtained the park through a lease agreement with the county in 1999, and since then the operating costs have skyrocketed, particularly the liability insurance. “It comes down to our own energy level,” Blanchard said. “We’d rather raise money for projects that people can see rather than just covering the insurance costs.”

Only one member of the board, Fran Pollard, voted against the proposal, reportedly because she was concerned about an increase in traffic to Quarry Park. Pollard could not be reached for this story. The plan to return the land to the county has been discussed in principle for about a year, but the board took its first vote on the proposal last week, approving a letter stating the terms for the turnover of the parkland. Board members requested the county expand the facilities at the park, adding features such as a drinking fountain, portable stage and tool shed, and supporting community activities at the park.

David Holland, parks director for San Mateo County, says that if the plan proceeded, members of the Coastside community would still have a strong role in the planning of Quarry Park.

“What we’ve talked about is transforming the Midcoast Park Lands into more of a ‘Friends of Quarry Park,’ and having the county take management off its back,” Holland said. “It’s sort of a negotiation. The Midcoast Park Lands has made an investment in how they’ve run the park, and they’d like to see some of that tradition maintained.” The plan to return the land to the county would need to be approved by the Board of Supervisors, which could happen as soon as July.

Holland says the county has also discussed long-term plans to obtain the surrounding 473-acre Wicklow forestland owned by the Peninsula Open Space Trust, which could be combined with Quarry Park to make one huge coastal parkland corridor in the next three or four years. “It’s certainly an interest of ours,” Holland said, “POST generally buys land and then they try to get that land to someone who can manage it in a public framework.”

Chris Detwiller, Conservation Project Manager for POST, says that the idea has been circulated among the land trust and is viewed as a possibility, but no actual numbers have been discussed so far.

Neighbors organize cleanup in El Granada By Greg Thomas [ greg@hmbreview.com ]

Residents near Balboa Circle in El Granada are organizing a neighborhood cleanup and planning event from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 10 as the first step of a proactive process to remodel the large median plot.

For years, eucalyptus and cypress trees have left strips of bark and layers of dry leaf debris on the streets and medians, and in front yards and on rooftops. The only cleanup service, save for the regular street sweeping, has been on the part of county Public Works officials, who mow the avenues about twice a year. But there has never been a planned design to develop the spacious median known as Balboa Circle.

That is about to change as a handful of proactive residents are rallying to collaborate on a comprehensive effort to clean and improve the area.

“The idea would be to bring the neighborhood together to meet and discuss what everyone would like to see happen in the island circle long-term,” resident Kerri Dorn said. “A playground, sports field or barbecue-picnic table combination — those are some of the ideas thrown out so far.”

The circle is a prime location to be developed in this way, Dorn said, It is flat, with few trees and, with five roads converging into it, is a central spot for neighborhood locals.

Dorn said that neighbors caught wind of the Midcoast Action Plan for providing community recreation services on the Coastside and jumped at the opportunity to effect change in their area.

“We thought we’d find out if it was truly a possibility to get involved on the ground level so that we could give input as to what happens,” she said, adding that Sunday’s gathering is just a starting point. Midcoast Park Lands President Jim Blanchard said a cleanup effort at the El Granada avenues has been on the back burner of his organization’s discussions for some time. He said he personally supports local efforts to establish potential “friends of” groups to care for, and maintain, community recreation areas.

“In my opinion, it’s workable,” he said. “The whole idea of having ‘friends of’ groups hasn’t been approved of yet — we need to check our bylaws and perhaps revise them. We’re just trying to make sure that we go forward with this — if no one else wants to step up, we may be willing to do this. But it comes down to money and resources,” which Blanchard said are always obstacles in situations like these.

“The boulevards are so pervasive throughout El Granada that they affect a lot of people,” Blanchard said, “so hopefully other people will want to get involved.”

What’s the hurry in giving Quarry Park to the county?

Quarry Park is the only community park in unincorporated Midcoast that is operated by Midcoast Park Lands (MPL) a local organization. MPL is in the process of transferring management of Quarry Park to the county and terminating a lease agreement with the county.

If 39.5-acre Quarry Park were combined with the adjacent 473-acre Wicklow property owned by Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) the Midcoast would have a much larger community park. In a recent interview Dave Holland, MPL Board Member and County Parks & Recreation Director suggested combining Quarry Park with the Wicklow property to make one huge coastal parkland corridor. With MPL currently in the process of transferring management of Quarry Park to the county it looks like the Midcoast will soon lose a community park rather than gaining a larger community park. What the Midcoast will soon end-up with is another poorly maintained county park.

Keet Nerhan sold Quarry Park to the county in 1995. In Nerhan’s deed agreement with the county he specified that the county would transfer the park to a public entity. Quarry Park and Moss Beach Park are the only community parks on the Midcoast.

At the July 21, 2008 MPL board meeting Fran Pollard moved to rescind the offer to transfer Quarry Park to the county. Fran suggested delaying the transfer a couple months to give Granada Sanitary District an opportunity to reorganize into a Community Services District that would provide recreation services in addition to current GSD services.

At the meeting board member Len Erickson explained that one of the fundamental reasons MPL has been pushing for the transfer is that Dave Holland said that the county would not take acquisition of the Wicklow property unless MPL transferred the Quarry Park lease to the county. Fran responded by saying she spoke with Rich Gordon recently and Rich said the county could take acquisition of the Wicklow property and not Quarry Park. MPL board members did not support Fran’s motion to resin the transfer.

More recently the MPL board has decided to focus its energy on working with Dave Holland on developing the El Granada median strips into parks. The county owns the El Granada median strip property.

If you don’t live in El Granada the overgrown media strips might be slightly less important than a larger park deeded to the county specifically for use as a Midcoast community park.

MPL meetings are not open to the public and the directors are not elected by the community. If they were and agendas were posted community members might have an opportunity to participate in meetings. Public participation might provide the energy needed to combine lower Wicklow and Quarry Park into one larger community park with active recreation features such as a large community garden, additional play equipment and improved bathroom facilities.

With the failure of Measure O the county might consider concentrating it’s efforts on passive recreation in the upper area of the Wicklow property and the upper area of Quarry Park. Allowing the local community to operate the lower areas of both Wicklow and Quarry Park specifically for active recreation and a community garden.

• Sabrina Brennan

Currently Quarry Park is the ONLY developed park on the Midcoast.

The unincorporated Midcoast should have approximately 111 acres of developed parks. This compares to the existing 4 acres of developed parkland at Quarry Park.

Moss Beach Park is not considered “developed” because it does not have water or a bathroom. The Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is a regional county park and not a developed community park.

Half Moon Bay should have approximately 123 acres of developed parks. This compares to the existing 24 acres of developed parks.

• This information is included in the 2008 Municipal Service Review