Plaintiffs were awarded more than $36 million in damages today in the case of Joyce Yamagiwa v. The City of Half Moon Bay and the Coastside County Water District, according to city attorney Adam Lindgren.

You can download the complete judgement from Coastsider.

There was a special closed session of the city council Thursday night at 5pm for the city council to consider its options and next steps. The city has one month to decide what to do next. Council member Jim Grady was out of town for the meeting and it was implied that no decisions would be made Thursday. The next schedule city council meeting will be Tuesday. We will have video of the public comment portion of Thursday’s meeting shortly.

The County Times has a very good summary of the case, with quotes from the winning side. For example:  "Keenan said he is open to discussing "creative" means of payment to ease the burden on the city. He said he would consider accepting the development rights for some other property in lieu of payment of some or all of the huge judgment."

UPDATE: Darin Boville has video of the public comment portion of Thursday night’s meeting over at Montara Fog. Darin says the mood of the city council and audience was somber.

Click below for a copy of the city’s press release outlining the history of the lawsuit from the city’s perspective.

The Half Moon Bay police are searching for an elderly man suffering from dementia. He was last seen at 2:45pm today (Nov 28) on the 200 block of Main St.  He’s 83 years old, white, 5’4" tall, 164 pounds. He was wearing a black hat, green jacket, checkered shirt, and green pants.

Please call 726-8286 if you have any information.

UPDATED: The man was found near Smith Field and is with his family.

Larry Vuckovich, called a premier West Coast Jazz pianist by bebop piano legend Barry Harris, brings his hard-swinging Jazz/Latin Quartet. His current piano trio CD Street Scene won acclaim from major jazz publications and received top radio airplay, hitting #1 on XM Satellite Radio for six weeks and the top 10 on JazzWeek and college radio, remaining on the national charts four to five months.

Vuckovich will include a program of creative post-bop and contemporary jazz plus hot Afro-Cuban/salsa/Brazilian and gypsy/Balkan flavors. Performing with him is the son of the great altoist Charles McPherson, the energetic East Coast drummer Chuck McPherson, who was part of Mr. Vuckovich’s recent quartet concert at Dizzy’s Coca Cola Room in Lincoln Center, New York.  Rounding out the group are the hot Latin percussionist Hector Lugo along with hard-driving bassist Buca Necak

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
$30.  Tickets at the door. Reservations for members.
Doors Open at 3 PM, Music from 4:30 to 7:30 PM, with intermission.

The Pescadero Tree Lighting is this Friday, Nov 30 at 7pm.

This year, prior to the tree lighting, Johnny Appleseed will be on hand for mule rides down Stage Road. The local 4H Club will be on hand with some homemade treats and pinecone Xmas trees for purchase.

As always, Hot Chocolate and cookies will be served by the "Wild Cats", a South Coast Children’s Services Youth program. And Santa will be delivered by firetruck. the Pescadero Tree Lighting is sponsored by The Pescadero Arts and Fun Festival Committee.

This event takes place at the corner of Stage Rd X Pescadero Rd, (at the Post Office) in Pescadero.

Nights of Light on Main St, Friday

The Half Moon Bay Downtown Business Association, Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce & Visitors’ Bureau, and the City of Half Moon Bay Recreation Division announces the 8th annual "Nights of Light".

"Nights of Light" in downtown Half Moon Bay begins with a tree lighting ceremony on Friday, November 30 at 6:00 p.m. followed by a night of family festivities. The beautiful tree donated by 4 C’s Tree Farm will be on display in the center of town at Mac Dutra Park on the corner of Main Street and Kelly Avenue. Decorations include ornaments made by local school children enrolled at Picasso Preschool.

After the tree lighting, the Prince and Princess of the parade will be crowned. The royal children are nominated by teachers and community leaders and chosen by a committee based on their acts of kindness throughout the year. Proud sponsors of the event are P. Cottontail, Harbor Seal Company, and the Half Moon Bay Recreation Division.

Hundreds of children twinkling in lights will march down Main Street in The Parade of Lights at 7:00 p.m. Floats and an old-fashioned fire truck will guide Santa to his special seat for photos and wish lists. Other events include snowflakes on Main Street, carriage/Segway rides, roasted chestnuts on an open fire and lots of old-fashioned, old town charm. There will be music in several locations including the Coastside Chorale and the Half Moon Bay Sit Down Marching Band. The Peninsula Scottish Fiddlers are sponsored by Reece Computer Systems as well as Sol Studio Tribal Fusion student dancers and street jugglers will also add fun to this magic evening.

Shelter Cove, just south of Linda Mar, was a popular public bathing spot in Pacifica for decades. Lately, it has been blocked by "No Trespassing" signs.  Pacificans have been tracing the history of the spot to prove to the Coastal Commission that it has historically been a public access point to the coast. Pacifica Riptide has a page devoted to the history of the use of the spot.

The County Times is reporting that the public may be entitled to access to the beach after all.

Under California law, all beaches are actually public property — but only to the mean high tide line, which usually means the wet area of a beach. The law is primarily meant to protect boaters who pull up on beaches, but also applies to swimmers and people walking in that area. Adding a public easement to a beach means ensuring public access to it, in this case along a pathway into Shelter Cove.
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Lizelle Saure, a Shelter Cove resident for over four years, says people regularly visit the beach on weekends and are often told to leave.

"They litter, they chase the birds. On sunny days, it happens all the time," she said.

The steep pathway residents use to get to their homes is the same roadway cars used to take to get to the beach in the 1930s and 1940s, but it is washed out and is difficult to walk on.

"We’d be so endangered by having people on our paths at night," Saure said.

If the Coastal Commission staff finds there is enough evidence to warrant a legal case, it won’t begin for at least a year. Only after it gets a ruling from a judge, can the Commission negotiate with the land’s owner.

You can read about beach access rights on the Coastal Commission’s website. Be sure to read Julia Scott’s excellent story at the County Times site for the full details.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reversed seven rulings, including a reduction of critical habitat for the California red-legged frog, reports the Associated Press.

The rulings came under scrutiny last spring after an Interior Department inspector general concluded that agency scientists were being pressured to alter their findings on endangered species by Julie MacDonald, then a deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service.

MacDonald resigned her position last May.

Rahall in a statement said that MacDonald, who was a civil engineer, "should never have been allowed near the endangered species program." He called MacDonald’s involvement in species protection cases over her three-year tenure as an example of "this administration’s penchant for torpedoing science."
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In her three years on the job, MacDonald also was heavily involved in delisting the Sacramento splittail, a fish found only in California’s Central Valley where she owned an 80-acre farm on which the fish live.

Today the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced the purchase of 204 acres of hillside land near El Granada. The property is surrounded by the magnificent 4,262-acre Rancho Corral de Tierra property, acquired by POST in 2001, that is destined to become part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA).

"This purchase helps complete an important and much larger conservation picture along this part of the San Mateo Coast," said POST President Audrey Rust. "It provides new options to connect Rancho Corral de Tierra to surrounding protected lands and greatly expands opportunities for the region’s network of scenic hiking trails."

In an agreement finalized November 19, POST bought the ridge-top property for $3 million from Daniel and Virginia Gregerson, who owned the land since the mid-1980s. The purchase fills in a natural gap along the eastern boundary of Rancho Corral de Tierra, which Congress voted to include within the GGNRA in 2005. POST is now working to secure $15 million in federal appropriations so it can transfer ownership of Rancho Corral de Tierra to the National Park Service, which owns and manages the GGNRA.

The new acquisition by POST is visible not only from Rancho Corral de Tierra but also from San Francisco watershed land to the east and POST’s 461-acre Wicklow property to the southwest. With more than 27,000 acres of protected open space in the area, this latest purchase helps prevent inappropriate development from occurring next to these sensitive natural lands.

In addition to its strategic location, POST’s newest property contains a portion of the Denniston Creek watershed as well as a tributary to Locks Creek in the Frenchman’s Creek watershed. The land’s natural resources are an extension of the unique and fragile habitats found on Rancho Corral de Tierra, where a number of threatened and endangered species have been documented.

The Peninsula Scottish Fiddlers (PSF) can be heard in concert next Saturday, December 1, at 7:30 pm.  The performance will be at the Sanchez Concert Hall, 1220 Linda Mar Boulevard, Pacifica.  Admission is $20 for adults 18 and over, and $15 for students and seniors.  For tickets and information call (650) 728-0862.
 
Joining the PSF for this concert are several distinguished guest artists:  Colyn Fischer, champion fiddler;  David Elias, popular singer song-writer;  Lynne Miller, master bagpiper;  and Erica Robenalt, Highland dancer.

The PSF was formed in 1990 by the late Colin Gordon, of Montara.  The group consists of approximately 20 musicians, mostly from the coastside between Pacifica and Santa Cruz They perform at many venues in the Bay Area, and have produced two CDs:  "Mists of Montara" and "At Home and Abroad."  The latter was recorded live during a concert tour of Scotland in the year 2000.  Excerpts from these CDs can be heard at http:/www.cdbaby.com.  The group specializes in Scottish and Irish music, but their repertoire includes French Canadian and American tunes as well.

The PSF also welcomes new musicians interested in playing the above styles of music.  Rehearsals are once a month, on Sunday afternoons, and alternate between Montara and Santa Cruz.  For further information please contact PSF Director, Shauna Pickett-Gordon, at (650) 728-0862, or [email protected].