Comments by Steven Hyman
August 07, 2009
HMB doesn't need another park. We need money and lots of it. We told the State give us money and we'll put anything there just give us money. Well unfortunately the ill-timed pay raise to the part-time city manager killed that idea. So we don't owe anybody anything. We paid $18 million on borrowed money for this weed infested turkey and we can do dam well anything we want with it.
I say disc it and sell it any PRAY somebody actually wants to buys it.
August 07, 2009
Leonard I think we half agree although your proposal punishes people with no proof that there is a problem. With water connection prices dropping in the HMB and El Granada area most people building will opt for city water over wells. So now we are talking about building in Moss Beach and Montara. Again there's not a lot going on to have a problem. But if MWSD and possibly Granada Sanitary District think this is situation is so bad, why don't they offer vacant land owners money to not develop their…
August 07, 2009
The City should prep the land for sale. Most likely they should update the extensive reports that have been previously done so they know what they have and can do. they also should clear this parcel to clearly delineate the little patches of our costly wetland weeds. They can also decide if they want to excercise or extend their option. The City needs to unload this property to try and pay for several years of the bond debt we will have for 30 years. I think its foolish to make this a park since…
August 07, 2009
Thanks Rick for spelling things out so clearly. But the real question is where do we go from here. The City should prep the land for sale and decide whether or not to involve the adjoining parcel they have an option on. Once its cleared, everybody will see clearly, just like in N Wavecrest, what all the fuss was about and then figure out how many homes they can put there. That will help determine the value. But the real question in my mind is who is going to want to take on such a project with such…
August 07, 2009
The bottom line is that the City drained water onto the property and created the wetlands. We were wrong and had to make right. Settling this 10-15 years ago was the smart and right thing to do. Rolling the dice on the legal system shows how badly things can go when you put you're fate in some other person's hands. You loose control and now we are paying the results of that poor decision. That decision costs the residents of HMB over $40 million!
August 07, 2009
Its my understanding that the City ran a drainage pipe from the Highland Park/Terrace Ave neighborhood onto Beachwood. Are you saying no such pipe was placed there? And if it was, did they have the permission from the property owner? Where I do think the owners were at fault was in that they should have disced, groomed, mowed their property just as the other vacant land owners who own similar sized properties just up the street have and continue to do. This should be another wake up call to ALL vacant…
August 07, 2009
Mike the City was wrong here from the start by illegally dumping water on private property without permission. We also need to stop beating the appeal dead horse. That decision was made and we need to deal with how to pay for the damage we did. Since some fought the State trying to help us were blocked, we had to borrow money. The lesson that should be learned here is that lawsuits don't work and can be ruinous if you loose. The sad reality is that we are a little town with very limited resources…
August 06, 2009
What people are angry about is all this wasted money on endless lawsuits. Nothing gets done here and everybody suffers. Beachwood should have been settled 10,15, 20 years ago. And just as we are trying to close the book on this long running expensive nightmare, here come more threats of new lawsuits. Many people want our money to go for positive things, not lining the pockets of lawyers. We just deeded back the 92 Park we bought cause we are broke and need to pay for losing a lawsuit we should have…
August 06, 2009
My point in mentioning Wavecrest was to show how small the patches of weeds look among all that land. When we clean up Beachwood, it will be the same thing. Then everyone can see what this fight was really about. $40 million to protect a few patches of man made wetland weeds. That's why people are really angry.
August 06, 2009
Discing, harvesting, mowing, its all the same. What this cleared field shows is how small those sensitive wetland weed areas are. Its truly an outrage to think a small group of people held the community hostage depriving us of a new school and a Boys & Girls Club for nothing. I can't wait to see Beachwood cleared. It too will show how a small group of people have blown this wetland weed thing out of proportion. Big difference between Beachwood and N Wavecrest is the staggering amount of money this…
August 06, 2009
I hope the City the day they take title to Beachwood start prepping it for sale by discing the property so prospective buyers can walk it. They should do exactly what POST continues to do to the N Wavecrest property they bought a few years ago. Also this way everyone can see what all the fuss was over and the few patches of wetland weeds that will cost HMB over $40 million after we pay off the debt from the bond. What an incredible waste of our money. Let's hope we have learned a valuable lesson…
August 06, 2009
I don't see how banning a few new wells skatered all over the place stop salt water intrusion? I guess the same question could be asked of MWSD since all your water comes from wells. What are you doing so that your wells don't get contaminated? As far as Highland Park goes, they had salt water there from day one and this was when wells just popped up on the coast. They are also the only residential area that I know of that has that problem. I know of a ranch in Tunitas Creek that hit salt water but…
August 05, 2009
Kathryn, I'm not speaking for the builders but the long time property owners. Some of my clients have owned property here for decades and have been abused by the system by having their property rezoned. Spec building has really fallen off here over the past few years because of the long permit approval process and rising fees. Personally I think when do you the math, it doesn't pencil out, especially if you want to make a profit. Its so much easier and cheaper to buy a home than build one. As far…
August 05, 2009
I've seen meters on wells now for more than 10 years on many homes. What the County does with that info or anything is another matter. I can see this being a labor intensive process where people would have to go and read and record the gauges and then tabulate the data. I don't have a clue if the County does anything with this. I just know they made people install the gauges to monitor well production. As far as wells with salt water intrusion goes, the only urban area that comes to mind is in the…
August 05, 2009
I found the report inconclusive so there is no reason to punish all the landowners with a moratorium. Also over the past few years only 25 or so well permits were taken out. So this is much to do about nothing. In the CCWD area at least landowners have another option with so many unused water connections. That's not the case in Moss Beach and Montara. If there's more information later that says there's a real problem, the subject will be revisited. Unfortunately with budgets being stretched thin,…
August 05, 2009
I think the County acted prudently in not putting a moratorium on well drilling on the Coast based on a study that had inconclusive results. To ban well drilling would have placed an undue financial burden on all vacant land owners on the coast and specifically in Moss Beach and in Montara where there is no alternative. I've been around since the beginning of well drilling going back to the mid 80's and out of the 1100 current wells, only a handful have had problems. Many underproducing wells in…
July 02, 2009
I'm no attorney either. I know when I sell land with a ccwd water connection, I specificially include that in the contract. Also the mls would say whether or not a parcel has water. I can see why when the deal with the City was reached, water was excluded because of the Plan A & B settlement. It could also have been an oversight by the City in not thinking about this valuable asset. CCWD lets people transfer water connections for a nominal fee to other parcels since they are paid for in full…
July 01, 2009
The Review covered it a few weeks ago. The cost was $100k. That amount does not include HMB's legal fees.
July 01, 2009
There is nothing expedient about Beachwood dragging on for 25 years.
July 01, 2009
Hard to see how something dragging on for 25 years can be called political expediency. Then go add how much time and money was spent on other projects like N Wavecrest, Pacific Ridge, water pipeline, new Cunha, Boys & Girls Club, etc and you can see why people are getting angry at how poorly our government works.
Its very frustrating to spend a lot of money and watch nothing happen year after year.
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