The county’s proposed update to its Local Coastal Program will be presented to by Interim Deputy Director at San Mateo County Planning and Building Department at a special meeting of the Midcoast Community Council. The LCP is the planning document for the unincorporated Midcoast and has been negotiated between the county and the California Coastal Commission since the Coastal Commission rejected the county’s original rewrite.

UPDATE: The MCC will also review the action the county Planning Commission takes at its meeting on Tuesday morning.

The meeting will be Tuesday, Nov 23, 7:30pm, at the Granada Sanitary District office, 504 Avenue Alhambra (across from Avenue Balboa), Third Floor.

After the presentation, the MCC will work on a comment letter on the proposal.

Auto burglaries at Montara State Beach and in Pescadero, a vacation home break-in on the 10000 block of Hwy 1, reckless driving, drugs in a car, an public intoxication in Princeton:

Deputies were on routine patrol when they noticed a female involved in a heated verbal argument with two male subjects. The male subjects told the Deputies that they were just walking down the street when the female started yelling at them. The female was interviewed and found to be too intoxicated to care for herself. She was arrested and taken to the county jail.

I’ve written before on how the Montara Water and Sanitary District (MWSD) new rate schedule is unfair to families but I will go into that in more detail later. Let me update you on the results of the proposed changes and remind you that the new rate will be set on Thursday, November 18, 2010 at the regular schedule meeting at 7:30PM at 8888 Cabrillo Hwy, next to Pt Montara Lighthouse and Hostel. It’s never to late to voice your opinion on this topic.

First, I will update you on the adoption of the new rates at the MWSD November 4, 2010 meeting. About a dozen people attended and expressed their opposition to the proposed rate schedule but it was to no avail. If you read your notice, sent out September 10, 2010, it said “If written protest are submitted against the proposed fees or charges or against a particular fee or charge by the owners of a majority of the parcels identified by the District as receiving water service from the District, the protested fee(s) or charge(s) will not become effective”. Of course, the chances of a majority of the owners ever taking such an action are nil. Something about Newton’s First Law of Motion and overcoming inertia.

You may recall the old rate schedule for most residential houses was a monthly meter charge (5/8”) of $35.5 and a water consumption rate of $5.24 for 0 – 19 HCFs and $7.393 for 20+ HCFs. The new rate lowers the monthly meter charges, so now a standard residential meter (5/8”) is $25.59 per month. The new water consumption rate is divided into four tiers. The following are the maximum charge for each tier. Tier 1 is 0 - 6 HCFs at $7.43/HCF which is 25% less than the average rate. Tier 2 is 7 – 13 HCFs at $9.91/HCF which is the average rate. Tier 3 is 14 – 27 HCFs at $12.39/HCF which is 25% more than the average rate. And finally Tier 4 is everything over 27 HCFs at $17.35 for a whooping 75% penalty. Ouch.

There were many reasons given for the increases and new rate structure. One, which we all have a vested interest in, is the increased rates are need to protect the solvency of MWSD. Obviously cost are going up and I don’t have the data at this time to challenge their argument that they have cut expenditures to the bone. However, their reasons for the meter charges and tier changes were questionable.

First, MWSD claimed that by lowering the meter charges and increasing the consumption rate they would put a greater emphasis on conserving water usage. The problem is they don’t meter conservation. They only measure the water usage of a connection so a single person could waste water and pay less than a family who conserves water because of the punitive measures induced by the new tier rates.

They also pointed out that a single person on a connection was paying a higher percentage of the service cost than a family with more people per connection. Transferring the meter cost, which is supposed to be for the service charge, to the consumption charge isn’t fair. The cost of servicing each connection of the same size for the overall system is negligible for normal residential usage. There is basic infrastructure needed to service each connection whether there is one person or ten persons on that connection. Maybe there is some extra storage capacity needed or the pumps have to run longer, but again these numbers were not provided to see if the service charges actually reflect the cost.

Both of these changes have the effect of less affluent families subsidizing the more affluent single’s and couple’s households. This was pointed out by all the speakers and also in a letter from the Midcoast Community Council. However, all the Directors, Paul Perkovic, Jim Harvey, Scott Boyd, Bob Ptacek, Treasurer and Kathryn Slater-Carter voted for the increase. Keep that in mind when you get your new water bills.

Bill Kehoe

Many thanks to professor Karl Cohen, the famous animation archivist, who choreographed this Friday’s night of classic cartoons. Karl dug into his film vault and provided the Society with original prints for a dozen of his personal favorites from the 1920’s, 30’s, 40s, and 50’s.

Karl’s picks from the 20’s and 30’s feature characters that were famous back in the days when all cartoons were black in white.  Felix the Cat plays with shadows in the twilight.   Tom and Jerry (soon to morph into the now familiar cat and mouse) are human cops trying to save a beautiful singing mummy.  Betty Boop has recently morphed from dog to her familiar human form, but still pals around with her old boyfriend Bimbo the dog and his sidekick Koko the clown. Little round headed Oopy is kidnapped and bratty brother Scrappy rushes to the rescue.  Flip The Frog battles a creepy magician.

The characters from the 1940s and 1950s are in color, are more familiar to a modern audience , but still retain an edge that was lost in later years.  Porky the Pig and Daffy Duck mix up the deliveries of baby animals.  James Mason narrates a creepy version of the Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart”.   Daffy Duck is tormented by a sadistic off-screen animator. Bugs Bunny outwits a mad scientist and his furry orange monster.
Don’t miss this once in lifetime chance to share these classic cartoon with Karl.  Stick around after the screening to ask Karl questions or get him to sign one of his books.

Friday Nov. 19, at 7:30 pm
Suggested donation  $8.00 adults, $3.00 kids  
Community United Methodist Church Sanctuary
777 Miramontes Half Moon Bay

More info: www.HMBFilm.org

After hearing about five hours of testimony from more than 60 Big Wave supporters and opponents—and not hearing testimony from another couple of dozen members of the public who gave up and went home to bed before they got their turn to speak—the San Mateo County Planning Commission adjourned its hearing on the Big Wave development until Tuesday, Nov 23. About 120 members of the public attended the 6pm hearing at El Granada Elementary School.

The commissioners voted to continue the hearing until they and the public had a chance to review a study of Big Wave’s latest traffic plan. County planning staff had just received a draft of the study at 4pm Wednesday, the day of the hearing. Staff was unable to promise the final study until Friday, Nov 19.

Traffic was one of the consistent themes of the meeting, with Princeton and Pillar Ridge residents testifying that the only two roads connecting Big Wave to Highway 1 (Prospect Way in Princeton and Cypress Ave in Moss Beach) are already bottlenecks, particularly during major events—or simply on sunny days.

Other issues raised by Big Wave opponents included its location in a tsunami zone, its location in an area near the airport where the county had contractually committed to restrict development, the fact that neither Montara Water and Sanitary District nor Granada Sanitary District were consulted in the EIR’s development, and Big Wave’s impact on nearby residents. Many opponents noted that they didn’t object to the wellness center for developmentally disabled adults, but had serious problems with the plan for the office park.

Supporters stressed the fact that many of them have been waiting for ten years and it was time to build Big Wave. Big Wave partner and attorney David Byers drove that home by repeating his threat to sue the county if the commission did not approve the EIR by December 7.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the Commission could potentially vote not just on the EIR, but on a use permit for the wellness center as a "sanitarium", a subdivision of the property, a Coastal Development Permit, a Design Review Permit, a Grading Permit, and a Development Agreement for the project.

Most of the commissioners said that they would be prepared to vote at next Tuesday’s meeting.  They implied that once they had an opportunity to talk to staff in the interim, they’d be ready to vote without a lot of discussion and seemed committed to keeping next Tuesday’s meeting short.

The only nationally-known 14-piece big band headquartered in SF, the Rex Allen Big Band celebrates the Swing Music hits of the 1940’s. Starring the trombonist/vibraphonist bandleader Allen, and featuring ex-Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey vocalist Johnny Martin in concert, Rex’s orchestra remembers 60 Years of Swing, marking its second appearance on the Bach stage, and its own 33rd anniversary as one of America’s last working Big Bands.  After a beginning listening set, the center chairs will be cleared for one hour of dancing.   
 

Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010, 4:30, $35
Rex Allen Big Band
with vocalist Johnny Martin and dancing second set

www.bachddsoc.org
At the Douglas Beach House
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA
650 726-4143
http:/www.bachddsoc.org

The Midcoast Community Council is holding two special meetings on Wednesday, Nov 17, to discuss the MCC’s draft letter to the planning commission.

The first meeting will be at noon at the Three-Zero Cafe at the Half Moon Bay Airport. The second will be at 5:15 in the El Granada Elementary School parking lot at 5:15.

The Planning Commission will meet at 6pm in the El Granada Elementary School multipurpose room to discuss the Big Wave Final Environmental Impact Report and the County planning staff recommendation.

The County Planning and Building Department has released the 67 comments (676 pages) on the Big Wave Final Environmental Impact Report, as well as 254 comments and responses (1134 pages) from the Draft Environmental Impact Report.

Comments included in the package will be distributed to planning commissioners at Wednesday’s hearing on the EIR. However, community members may still bring comments for the commissioners to Wednesday’s hearing or address the commission at hearing.

You can download all comments and responses (1810 pages, 45mb) from Coastsider.