Senator Yee withdraws as a co-author of Beachwood settlement bill

State Senator Leland Yee has withdrawn as a co-author of the AB1991, the bill to guarantee Half Moon Bay’s settlement with Chop Keenan by expediting development of Beachwood and Glencree. When the settlement was announced at Tuesday’s city council meeting, Yee was listed as a "sponsor" of the bill (he actually agreed to be a co-author).

Yee says he will not support the bill until he has had more opportunity to study the settlement and its consequences for the property, the city, and state law. He says he could wait until after hearings on the bill, but that he is still concerned about the possibility that the city could bankrupted.

The settlement and Senator Yee’s sponsorship were announced on Tuesday evening at the Half Moon Bay City Council meeting.

I spoke with Senator Yee on Wednesday evening.  He told me that he didn’t know the details of the agreement until he saw the city’s press release on Wednesday. He had already heard from constituents about their unhappiness with his name being on the bill.

Yee acknowledged that he had not seen the settlement before he agreed to sponsor the bill, saying he had been "privy to the essence of the settlement" and had been very concerned that the city avoid bankruptcy.  He did not know that the city had promised Keenan $18 million if AB1991 did not pass or that the settlement included permission to develop the Glencree property.

AB 1991 would allow the development of Glencree (as well as Beachwood) without review by the Coastal Commission, the state Department of Fish and Game, or other state and local environmental and planning agencies.

On Wednesday, Yee described the city’s $18 million guarantee to me as a "fallback plan", saying "there seems to be another alternative" to bankruptcy or the passage of AB1991.

Half Moon Bay mayor Bonnie McClung declined to comment for this story.