Half Moon Bay has issued a letter to its citizens explaining its plans to appeal the Yamagiwa decision.  The terms in the letter are not significantly different than those described in the County Times last Friday, with the possible exception of a paragraph that says it plans to negotiate with Chop Keenan.

The city is open to settlement discussions with Mr. Keenan while the appeal is ongoing and expects those discussions to start soon. The city decided to appeal before entering settlement discussions because a failure to timely appeal would have prevented the city from appealing the decision at all, causing the damages award to become due immediately.

The city plans a workshop on Tuesday January 22, at 7pm at the Adcock center "for the purposes of providing information and answering questions on the case, and listening to suggestions and opinions from the community."

NOTE: Use the controls on the embedded pdf to make it larger and more readable.

The National Weather Service forecasts that two strong Pacific storms will move into Northern and Central California Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon. There is a high surf advisory in effect from 4pm Thursday and coastal flood watch in effect from Thursday afternoon, specially during high tides.

The first system will bring winds 20 to 40 mph with gusts to 55 mph Thursday. The second, more powerful system will bring even stronger winds to 30 to 45 mph with gusts to 60 mph possible. Winds in the hills above 1000 feet could possibly gust to hurricane force: 75 mph on Friday. Winds will decrease Friday evening.

A high surf advisory is in effect from 4pm Thursday to 10am Sunday, with waves to 15 feet by late thursday afternoon, icreasing to 28 to 30 feet Saturday. High surf will likely cause rip currents and localized beach erosion.

A coastal flood watch has also been issued for Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning.

Adapted from National Weather Service reports.

The Granada Sanitary district has moved its website to http://granada.ca.gov

The Granada Sanitary District serves El Granada, Princeton, Princeton-by-the-Sea ("Clipper Ridge"), Miramar, and the portion of the City of Half Moon Bay north of Frenchman’s Creek.

Half Moon Bay’s new appeals attorneys have described the basis for their appeal of the Yamagiwa decision, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

Rather than dispute the facts in Walker’s judgment, which cites many instances of the Beachwood property east of Highway 1 containing standing pools of water before Keenan acquired it in 1993, the lawyers intend to use those facts to show that Keenan should have known the land had drainage problems before buying it for $1 million in a foreclosure sale. If the lawyers can prove that Keenan should have known of the risks of developing that property and chose to ignore them, they can argue that the judge was wrong to find against the city — or that the city, at least, did not deserve to be punished to the tune of $40 million, after lawyers’ fees and other expenses — four times Half Moon Bay’s annual budget of $10 million.
...
Keenan’s attorney, Edward Burg, called the city’s argument "ridiculous."

"The city itself decided in 2000 that new wetlands had developed on the property between 1990 and 2000. The city also decided in 2000 that what it knew in 2000 was not known or knowable previously," he said, quoting from the document the City Council drafted to deny Keenan a development permit in 2000.
...
The city’s lawyers must file a notice of appeal within 30 days of a final judgment Walker will likely issue in January or February. They hope the 9th Circuit Court will reverse Walker’s judgment. Failing that, they hope the case will be remanded to Walker’s court with instructions that he retry the case and apply the doctrine of equitable estoppel.

But in the Yamagiwa decision, Judge Walker lays out plenty of evidence that it was clear what was happening on the property when Keenan bought it, and in the period before Chop Keenan finally decided it might be a good idea to drain the land.

The County Times article does a good job of laying out the attorneys’ presentation of their case and you should follow the link and read the story.

"Honey, I just want you to know that I think you’ve made some pretty stupid decisions in the last couple of years. That’s why I think we should get married. If I had control of you, I could keep you from acting like such a bonehead. How about it?"

So begins the mysterious courtship ritual of Jim Larimer, County Coastside Water District director, in the Half Moon Bay Review this week.

Mr. Larimer wants to unify the Coastside under a single government. After all, he says, some of us have been acting like ninnies and someone needs to put a stop to it. But instead of arguing for a unified Coastside government, Larimer descends into sputtering irrelevance by confusing disagreement with anarchy. Take a look at some of his arguments:

• "This [Yamagiwa] ruling came about because the City Council legislated to expand the definition of a wetland beyond a reasonable common-sense definition in order to achieve political goals for more open space." First, the statement is false and the city has the court judgement to prove it.  Second, Larimer fails to expain what this has to do with unifying the Coastside government.

 

• "During the past 15 years, political factions have delayed replacing a worn out water main by nine years." In other words, if you disagree with Jim Larimer, you’re a faction, not a citizen.

 

• "A decade of opportunities for our children were squandered as we fought over building the first new school since the high school was completed in 1963."  This decade was squandered under our only Coastside-wide district: a school district with "Unified" in its name. How does support Larimer’s point that the Coastside’s goverment should be unified? It doesn’t, but it gives him one more opportunity to refight the battle that squandered a decade.

 

• "Disjunction has led to a monumental punitive legal liability for all of us - a bankrupting judgment against the city." Huh?  The road to Yamagiwa was paved with unanimous city council decisions going back to the first Reagan administration. Larimer blames legitimate disagreements today for the actions of a unified city twenty years ago. And he fails to explain how a unified Coastside government would solve the problem.

Here’s the crazy part: I agree with Larimer that the Coastside is a single community. But I don’t agree with him that legitimate civic disagreements are a problem we need solve. Call me romantic dope, but I don’t think you should begin a courtship by calling your intended a jackass.

Mike Niece, director of Coastside Catholic Worker in Half Moon Bay, is facing six months in jail for offering a client $500 for sex, rather than the 10 days for which he bargained. This follows a Superior Court judge’s rejection of the deal, reports the County Times.

 

• Report on proposals from attorneys and investment bankers in Yamagiwa case | Quicktime | Flash  | Doc |

 

• Oral Communications | Quicktime | Flash  |

 

• City Council reports | Quicktime | Flash  |

 

• Consent Calendar | Quicktime | Flash  |

 

• Amendment to Building Standards | Quicktime | Flash  | Docs |

 

• Report on 450 Wavecrest Road | Quicktime | Flash  | Docs |

 

• Inconsistencies in Open Space Reserve zoning | Quicktime | Flash  | Docs |

The results from "Lighten Up for Christmas" in Montara are in.  The judges spent almost four hours over two nights combing the city and looking at all the neat light displays.  You can see the results at http://greenhousemontara.com/.  Thanks everyone for participating.  Hop in your car and check out the winner - Hill Street is really worth checking out at night!

One of the judges counted over 280 houses with lights with lights on the "lower" Montara streets.

We had lots of fun judging this year.  We had some wacky, and not so wacky recommendations for new categories such as "most tropical", "most eco-friendly", "best soundtrack", and "best consistent theme". 

Have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

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