Is anyone reading the hefty Terrace Avenue Signal DEIR? To be informed, I wouldn’t rely on a hurried skim of the summary or the overhearing of an “as told to” version by someone else.

Here’s an interesting nugget from page 13 of Appendix I (the Biological Resources Assessment Highway 1 / Terrace Avenue Signalization And Roadway Improvements Project San Mateo County, California) which is part of the Highway 1/Terrace Avenue Signalization and Roadway Improvements Draft Environment Impact Report. (Did I already mention it’s lengthy?)

5.1 SENSITIVE NATURAL COMMUNITIES
A single sensitive natural community, seasonal wetland, was observed within the project area. This community is present on the Beachwood site and within the median west of Highway 1 (Figure 2). The drainage ditches A-E are may (sic) also be considered sensitive natural communities as potentially state and federal jurisdictional wetlands.

Of course, the definition of wetland in the City of Half Moon Bay is not the same as it is for the state and feds…so “potential wetland” could be an understatement.

This might be a good place for a discussion of the DEIR and the impact of the signaization project on the local wetlands (or anything else for that matter).

And don’t let not having read the document keep you from jumping in with an opinion!

I love it! A smelly weed & garbage infested ditch is considered a wetland. Remind me not to create any puddles in my backyard lest i be evicted for the likes of the sacred frogiee & snakie or woodland rodent!

Mary I suggest doing the poor critters living in the polluted garbage weed infested ditchs a favor & move them to the Ritz Carlton this will improve thier sex lives they will multiply & no longer be endangered. Then we can go on to the next item in everyone’s worry file . How about the endangered coastsider?
From an endangered old decripit guy. Have a great Turkey day eat a lot for me Doc sez can only eat oatbran & metamucil. I think the wife is making me a Oatbran & metamucil turkey. Yuck To The Max!

Why does it have to be so complicated.  It is our Local community, and I would hope that the principles upon which WE decide what is best for our community is stated in terms understandable to us all. If not, we are all in deep doo doo.

Instead of having multiple definitions of wetlands.. Why not distill it down to one definition for decisions to be used by our local HMB City Council and SMC Board of Supervisors for all of SMC coastal areas?  That then would be our position when dealing with the Coastal Commission regarding OUR LOCAL Coastal Program.

What is wrong with the concept of ONE law for all of us… for citizens, for local elected officials, and for our agencies, including the CCC—-California Coastal Commission?

Charles Gardener, in this discussion in the main area of Coastsider, posted a link to Coastside Community First’s comments on the Terrace Avenue DEIR.

My comments:

The discussion of a wetland in the Caltrans “median” is confusing, especially
since the biological map shows that this wetland is—basically—the CCWD
trench line into which CCWD has, in recent years (2004, I believe), installed its long sought 16” pipeline.  Given all of the environmental analysis that went into CCWD’s protracted efforts with the Coastal Commission, said
analysis not showing such a wetland, how could it be that this could have been a wetland prior to the Coastal Commission’s issuance of a permit for that installation?  Surely there would have been considerable mention of this in the Commission staff reports if a wetland needed to be mitigated.  There is no such mention.

Could it be that a wetland has formed since the pipeline was installed?
That’s a bit hard to believe because wetlands are based on a combination of three indicators, at least one of which needs to exist in order to create a rebuttable presumption for delineation: ponding (10 days), wetland plants, and hydric soils.
 
  1.  There’s no significant ponding in that area after rainfalls and
        certainly not for ten days.
  2.  There are no “obligate” or even “facultative” wetland
      plants in “predominant communities.”
  3.  I could not find a discussion in the DEIR regarding hydric soils
      having been detected.  Had I found it, I would ask
      questions as to how such hydric soils could have come into
      existence in the relatively short interim since the pipeline was
      installed, such short-term development being unlikely.

In summary, if the median wetland citation in this DEIR is
to be taken seriously it needs to overcome the significant lack
of supporting data.  Indeed, it needs to overcome significant
contraindication.