Please don’t wait. Fax your letter to 415-904-5400 before 5 pm TODAY - Friday, December 4.

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December 4, 2009

RE: Agenda Item TH18.a
Bonnie Neely, Chair & Members
California Coastal Commission
c/o North Central Coast District Office

Charles Lester, Senior Deputy Director
45 Fremont Street, Suite 2000
San Francisco, CA 94105-2219

Via Fax: (415) 904-5400

Subject: San Mateo County LCP Amendment No. SMC-MAJ-1-07 (Midcoast LCP Update)

Dear Chair Neely and Members of the Commission:

As a resident of the Midcoast, I am writing in response to the County Staff report on the few remaining points in need of resolution between the County and the Coastal Commission in the Local Coastal Program Update process. I appreciate the Board of Supervisors keeping the public involved over the past ten years.

a. Growth Rate

Building and Planning Department’s acknowledges that “…over the past five years (2004-2008), an average of 38 units have been approved annually.” In light of this fact, and the strain on resources already pushing road and highway infrastructure beyond their limits, I do not find a compelling basis for raising the growth rate beyond the CCC’s proposed 40 unit limits.

I do not support the Building and Planning Department’s request for “deletion of the requirement that second units document an affordable sale or rental price in order to be exempt from the growth limit.” The argument that “…second units can be assumed to be affordable due to limits on their size, and because documenting and monitoring the affordability of second units places unnecessary administrative demands and challenges on limited staff resources” falls flat because the County has not yet accounted for the number of existing second units, permitted and unpermitted. While these future units may be affordable, they still create infrastructure demands that must be met.

b. Private Wells

I support the Coastal Commission staff recommendation for a temporary moratorium on private wells in the urban area extending from Miramar through Montara. Half Moon Bay does not allow new private wells to be drilled for residential development. The Midcoast Ground Water Study, Phase II shows that all of our aquifers are at risk from saltwater intrusion and overdraft from the 946 wells that have been drilled since 1989. There are over 1,000 if we count those that existed previous to 1989. Families dependent on wells have no guarantee from the County that their water supply is reliable. I recommend that the County work with Coastside County Water District and Montara Water and Sanitary District to create a sustainable supply to meet all the planning needs at buildout.

Yes, it’s true, the season of sharing is full upon us and thank goodness for that.  Big News this year is that it seems that local legends Farmer John & Eda, the Giusti’s and the lovely Ariel of Green Oaks Creek will be with us for the duration of the season, which means we’ll be privy to an abundant supply of brussels sprouts, artichokes of all sorts, amazing spinach and some indescribably delicious apple butters and jams, in case you don;t have time to make your own in the next couple of weeks.

There is rather a lot to do at this time of year, and so many ways to go off the rails with all the wing-dings and festibilites, but I reckon that if you spend the week chowing down on Natures Little Brillo Pads ( my Grandad’s word for brussels sprouts and all things cruciferous) you’ll come through the season trim and sassy as you were going in. It’s a theory, anyway, and one I have been testing with varying degrees of success most of my adult life. 

But I gotta tell ya, it is so much easier lately to keep your self on an even keel as it seems that the days of going from one soiree to another with nothing on offer but trays laden with absurdly rich appetizers and gargantuan wedges of brie are a thing of the past in this neighborhood.  And I am thrilled because truly, as one of those gals with an hourglass figure that tends to head for late afternoon, I have never been thrilled to find the only appetizer alternative with anything remotely nutritious to be bucket of cheezy-spinach dip with a bowl of carrot-bullets, which was the standard fare - along with chinks of all kinds of cheesecake - at just about every family gathering and wing-ding I attended for a while. So I started making stuff up to take with me to holiday whoop-de-la’s that are easy, inexpensive and look as great on the plate as they do on your, well, exit strategy.

I’m passing on a message from Gary of the Montara Mountain Trail Volunteers, please help if you can.

“In the face of budget cuts and their resulting threats to parkland, several people are floating the idea of resurrecting Trail Day (TD). You’ll recall this local effort to put in a few hours, one Saturday morning each month, to help repair the trails, clean up brush and do whatever needs to be done to help maintain McNee Ranch. TD was a terrific community effort and great fun.”

“If you use this incredible resource to hike, bike, walk dogs, ride horses why not give a few hours of easy labor each month to help maintain it?  Even if you don’t use McNee often but value its capacity to preserve nature and give wildlife a place to thrive, please join us. In a real sense, McNee is our commons—we all benefit from it.  How about giving back just a little and getting a lot in return.”

Since then, representatives of the Montara Dog Walkers, the Coastside Horse Council, and the Montara Mountain Chain and Sprocket Society, along with park officials, have met and put together a plan. The consensus is to meet on the first Saturday of each month to join in a community effort to maintain the trails, facilities and other resources at McNee.  With the state’s crushing budget shorfalls, few funds remain to keep the parks from ruin.  We need to step in here if we hope to enjoy continued use of McNee, a valuable community resource for all to enjoy.

Details for the first Trail Day

Date: Saturday, December 5, 2009
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Place: McNee Ranch by the pump house (next to the trail bridge over Martini Creek behind the horse ranch)
What to bring: A thermos of coffee and work gloves
What will be supplied:  Coordinators, tools
What we’ll work on: 1) Trail prep for the rains 2)  Signs – installation and restoration
Transportation: The gate to Hwy 1 will be unlocked, you can drive in and park or better yet, hike or ride a bike

Questions: Contact Gary at [email protected]

We also will have a brief discussion about meeting times and coffee/lunch options for future TD sessions.

Please help if you can, Montara Mountain needs you!

Fax Your Letter of Support by 5 pm this Friday, December 4

After nearly 7 years of local public hearings and meetings, boxfuls of written testimony from citizens, and just plain hard work on the part of countless public officials and others, the California Coastal Commission will consider on December 10 whether to approve a major amendment to the Midcoast Local Coastal Program (LCP). This comprehensive planning document will shape the future of Midcoast for the next several decades.

Your help is needed to urge the Coastal Commissioners to adopt the recommended document prepared by the Commission’s professional planning staff. A sample letter that can be faxed to the full set of Commissioners for inclusion in their meeting packets can be found at the end of this article.

Anyone who cares about preserving California’s coast for future generations can and should weigh in, not just residents of the Midcoast.

The Coastal Commission staff’s recommendations include the following:

• An allowable growth rate for the Midcoast of 1 percent, as recommended by the San Mateo County Planning Commission on the basis of numerous local public hearings, and consistent with Half Moon Bay’s 1 percent growth limit.
• A requirement for traffic analysis and mitigation for new development.
• A prohibition against new private residential water wells and new private septic systems until San Mateo County adopts a comprehensive groundwater management plan for the Midcoast.
• A rezoning of the Burnham Strip in El Granada to allow public parking, trails, and public restrooms with an appropriate permit.

A December 2, 2009 article in the San Mateo County Times by Julia Scott describes how the County Board of Supervisors is objecting to the 1 percent growth rate recommendation. The Supervisors, acting in response to heavy lobbying by realtor/developer interests, are seeking to overturn the will of the people and the recommendations of the County’s own Planning Commission. This is wrong.

As stated in the executive summary of the 403-page Coastal Commission staff report:

"The County’s [namely, the Board of Supervisors’] proposal does not sufficiently address the significant public services issues that have arisen since original certification of the LCP in 1981, including physical changes to the environment resulting in significant adverse effects on public health and safety, coastal resources, and coastal access. These changes include significant cumulative development over the last 20 years; increasingly inadequate public works capacities; new water supply issues and constraints, including failed private wells in the urban area; systemic sewage overflows and water quality problems; and severe congestion on the major coastal access routes that is adversely impacting public access to and along the shoreline."
 
A sample letter follows.

If you’ve been wondering what happened to our rainy season, the National Weather Service has your answer.

A very wet and windy weather pattern is setting up next week beginning late sunday night and lasting into the latter part of the week. A series of storms will set up over the pacific and push into california throughout the week.  The result of these storms will be strong winds with copious rain amounts…Along with large waves near the coast and heavy snow accumulation for higher elevations. Potential impacts from these storms include:

• Urban and small stream flooding along with possible flash flooding and debris flows.  
• High winds that can down trees and power lines producing power outages.  
• Hazardous driving conditions due to very slippery road conditions.  
• Dangerous near shore conditions due to high surf from large waves.

Local boys and girls will become part of a human-sized Board game when the game "Candyland" comes to life at the Ted Adcock Community Center on Saturday afternoon, December 12.

Hosted by the Boys and Girls Club of the Coastside and the HMB Recreation Division, more than 100 children of all ages, from toddlers through elementary schoolers, are welcomed by King Candy (Palmer), Queen Frosting, and Molasses, plus a number of gaily dressed fairies and elves from the HMB High School Interact Club.

The Ted Adcock Center is transformed into a virtual board game, full of balloons, candy, ice cream, and festive decorations.

Participants in the game stop at each station along the way as King Candy calls out the moves. Each station has a toy or candy surprise and the entire game takes roughly 20 minutes at a time.

Children who successfully navigate the board game have an opportunity to take their picture with Santa Claus as they express their holiday wishes. Another tasty treat awaits them, as they receive peppermint ice cream flown in from the North Pole, usually dished out by Prince Kandy, aka Kennedy Palmer.

The Interact Club, a group affiliated with the HMB Rotary Club, assists at the bilingual event to ensure a fun experience all children.

Where: Ted Adcock Community Center, 535 Kelly Ave in downtown Half Moon Bay.

When: Noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12

Cost: $4 per child

For information, call HMB Recreation at 726-8297.

On Saturday December 5th, The Visionary Edge will screen Playing for Change: Peace Through Music which documents an unparalleled international collaboration.  The event will be co-hosted by and presented at the Community United Methodist Church in Half  Moon Bay.  Doors will open at 7:00pm, event begins at 7:30, 777 Miramontes Street (at Johnston), HMB. The event is free; donations will be   accepted to cover the costs of screening. Call 650-207-3440 for information and reservations.  

Mark Johnson’s brainchild germinated in a New York City subway when two performing monks mesmerized a morning rush hour crowd by playing their simple music. Taking that concept further, Johnson realized that music was bringing all these various types of New Yorkers together, even luring them away from the rigidity of getting to work on time.  Out of this observation, the idea for Playing for Change was born. 

Playing For Change: Peace Through Music is a story of hope, struggle, perseverance and joy. Directors Mark Johnson and Jonathan Walls traveled the globe with a single-minded passion to connect the world through music. "Playing For Change came out of the idea that we have to inspire each other, to come together as a human race, and that music is the best way to do this," Johnson explained. "The project started four years ago on the streets of Santa Monica, California. We recorded a street musician, Roger Ridley, performing the song Stand By Me. We then traveled all over the world, through streets, subways, Native (American) Indian reservations, African villages, Himalayan mountains…we went to Dublin…recorded and filmed Bono. None of these musicians had ever met in person. It was the music that brought them together, and the belief that we can do a lot more for this world if we work together than we ever can apart." Beyond Bono, Johnson’s cause has attracted such heavy weight activists as Keb’ Mo’ and Jackson Browne, and Los Angeles’ The Knitting Factory recently hosted a concert in which all of the band’s members—previously recorded in various international locations—finally met and played together simultaneously for the first time.

“W” zoning stands for Waterfront, not Wellness Center

The Big Wave Wellness Center parcel is zoned “W” for Waterfront, marine-related light industrial.  The only residential use allowed is a limited number of caretaker units included in industrial buildings which require “written statement from property owner acknowledging that marine and general industrial uses are the primary land uses and residents of caretaker’s quarters may be subject to inconvenience arising from such business.”  A purpose of the Waterfront zoning is to “protect the functional and economic viability of the working waterfront area by restricting incompatible land uses.”  Older “grandfathered” houses in the “W” district, if demolished, would not be allowed to be replaced.

Big Wave asks for a Use Permit for the Wellness Center on grounds that the housing component is a Sanitarium, defined as an institution for rest, recuperation, treatment of the chronically ill, or therapy for rehabilitation.  County zoning allows Use Permit for Sanitarium “in any zoning district in the urban Coastal Zone, when found to be necessary for the public health, safety, convenience or welfare. “

County Zoning for “RM” district (open space) has Tsunami Inundation Area Criteria (6326.2):  “The following uses, structures, and development shall not be permitted: …schools, hospitals, nursing homes, or other buildings or development used primarily by children or physically or mentally infirm persons. ...”  This clearly points out the County’s intent not to locate projects such as this in a hazard area, but industrial zoned districts don’t have this wording.  Perhaps that is because sanitariums are not a compatible use in an industrial zone?  Perhaps the County’s long overdue update of coastal light industrial zones will reflect the now completed tsunami zone mapping and address this issue? 

In any case, it is hard to understand how the County could decide that a Use Permit for Sanitarium in an industrial zone in a Tsunami Inundation Area, next to an earthquake fault is “necessary for the public health, safety, convenience and welfare.”

On the other hand, the developer claims special priorities for the Wellness Center as Affordable Housing, not an allowed use in the “W” zone.  Housing does not fit the definition of Sanitarium.  Nor is this housing necessarily affordable.  Big Wave residents would buy into a co-op and pay ongoing association fees.  There are no enforceable income or affordability restrictions.  This project is neither a Sanitarium nor Affordable Housing.

A large part of the Wellness Center is a community center, pool, fitness center with open-ended retail commercial component (dog grooming, etc.) all open for business to the public.  They propose charging for “event” parking (and office parking).  Retail use is not allowed in the “W” district.  It draws more traffic to the narrow local streets and charging for parking encourages parking along those streets.  County commercial zoning (C-1, C-2) allows uses such as hospitals, sanitariums, pet grooming establishments, community centers, professional & business offices.

One of the Big Wave Project Objectives is “to adhere to existing zoning laws that allow for special needs residential and commercial use on the same site … and … to be consistent with local General Plan goals.”  Commercial zoning may allow for residential on upper floors, but “W” is industrial zoning. 

There are no requirements or assurances that the Wellness Center will open or succeed financially.  Without that, the project looks like a hotel/condo/ conference center with shops in a visitor-serving coastal area conveniently near the airport.

Resolution authorizing the closure of Los Banos Avenue to through traffic between Park Avenue and Ocean Boulevard, Seal Cove-Moss Beach. Board of Supervisors Agenda Dec 1st 2009:

MEMO

RESOLUTION

ATTACHMENT

Lisa McCaffrey has called off the recount of ballots in the Granada Sanitary District election after less than one day of counting. Ric Lohman, Gael Erickson, and Leonard Woren have won the election.

Because the recount was not completed, the original count for the election stands, according County Elections Manager David Tom.