Supervisor Rich Gordon’s office will be holding their monthly office hours this Thursday, February 25, from 10am to Noon at the Sheriff’s Coastside Substation in Moss Beach.
This is a good opportunity to get a message to the Midcoast’s local government.
The county’s 16-member Charter Review Committee met Wednesday for the second time, reports the Mercury News.
The biggest issue before the committee is district elections for the Board of Supervisors. San Mateo is the only county in California that elects its supervisors at large.
Other topics proposed Wednesday by committee members include:
- Consolidating county departments
- Redrawing supervisor district boundaries
- Establishing new campaign finance rules
- Revising or creating qualifications for certain elected offices
- Eliminating redundant boards and commissions
The committee will hold meetings every other Wednesday now through June and is expected to eventually forward its recommended changes to the board of supervisors, which could then choose to place them on the ballot. Charter changes require 50 percent voter approval.
The committee’s next meeting will take place Feb. 10 at 5:30 p.m. at 455 County Center, Redwood City.
The charter was last reviewed in 2002.
Blogged live from the Supervisors’ Chambers in Redwood City
The Pelican Eye: Jan. 27, 2010
Gail Slocum, Commissioner, Fourth District had questions for County Counsel regarding the sale of the four proposed office buildings.
She is attempting to better understand what will happen to the office buildings, the storage building and parking lot once they are sold.
Camille Leung, County Planner said the Wellness Center and Office Park construction will be based on demand.
The developers plan to rough grade the whole site and put up one building at a time. The parking lot would also be phased to provide parking for the building constructed.
Building A would be built first (building closest to Pillar Ridge) and parking lot to the north of building A (closest to Pillar Ridge).
Scott Holmes, Engineer for the Big Wave development said building A is for mixed use, light industrial so it might need less parking? He also said agricultural farming would continue while construction is in progress.
- Hard to imagine how all this multitasking would work for the farm.
Holmes said they plan to switch to organic farming and plan to continue farming during construction.
Camille Leung said, "The agriculture is proposed for the Wellness Center site." Holmes said, "The farming would continue on both the Wellness Center and Office Park site."
Dave Byers of McCracken, Byers and Richardson said, "A banker will decide how the sites will be used. The construction loan will decide how the land is farmed during construction. We intend to keep farming the land during construction."
Leung said that if the office park was a flop the Wellness Center would still be built but would not serve low income developmentally challenged people. Leung then went on to say, "Those living on just SSI payments are below the poverty line."
Holmes said, "The cost to lease office park space would be $3.00 per sq. ft. and the purchase cost would be 1.5 times higher."
Holmes, "A tenant will be secured before the structure (Building A) is built. The building would be customized to fit the tenant/customer. Each building permit would shift depending on the needs of the tenant."
Leung said, "The developer will start construction of the story poles next week."
Supervisor Rich Gordon’s office will be keeping their regular Coastside office hours today from 10am to noon at the Sheriff’s substation in Moss Beach. As always, it’s a good opportunity to raise issues with our county representative.
Those 243 comments on the Big Wave Draft Environmental Impact Report also came with a stack of attachments, including presentations from previous planning commission hearings and technical appendices. You can download the appendices to the comments from Coastsider [64mb].
The presentations from November 18 Planning Commission hearing (Appendix B) are particularly interesting, and contain some excellent feedback about the development from community members.
Click below for the detailed list.
You can now download a copy of the the county planning staff’s report on the Big Wave development from Coastsider. We don’t yet have the attachments, but wanted to get this piece into the public’s hands as soon as possible.
On Wednesday, Jan 27, at 8am, the San Mateo County Planning Commission will hold a study session on the proposed development. The attached document covers some areas of the project, such as: the project description, the business plan, subdivision of the property, why no story poles have been put up, what utilities and districts are involved, tsunami hazards, effect on population and housing, and the need for police support.
The staff document doesn’t address zoning, effects on local biology, traffic impacts, or other issues that have been raised in more than 200 comments filed with the county.
The Planning Commission has also apparently not been sent copies of the public comment on this project [Download or read individually on Coastsider].
We’ll have more on this document and the upcoming study session, but this will get you started. Post your comments and questions here.
A petition drive is underway to help get a statewide initiative on the November 2010 ballot to use an $18 vehicle license fee surcharge instead of the California general fund to finance State Parks. In exchange, all vehicles subject to the surcharge would be entitled to free, unlimited day use access to all 278 State Parks.
Please add your signature if you see these petitions when you are out and about and are a registered voter anywhere in California.
This is needed because State Park funding has been cut back so severely that some Parks are now closed part of the year and may be shuttered entirely. The Parks budget has become a political football. If parks close, these lands will be occupied by folks who present a serious local law enforcement challenge.
If you would like to volunteer gathering petition signatures, there will be a training session this Saturday in HMB at 4pm. Other training sessions are being scheduled in the unincorporated area. Stay tuned.
Please note that all volunteers NEED TO BE TRAINED to pass these petitions. You do not need to table at specific locations. You can just gather signatures from among family, friends and neighbors.
This next training session will be this Saturday, Jan 23, at:
Bloom Lane Clubhouse
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Bloom Lane is in HMB, one block south of Cetrellas off Main St and one block north of Arnold. Turn onto Bloom Lane and immediately turn right into the parking lot by the club house.
The petition drive will end about April 10th.
The County Planning Commission will hold an open study session to discuss the items on the Planning Commission agenda for the Big Wave project and Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). The session will be Wednesday, January 27, at 8am in the Supervisors’ Chambers, 400 County Center, Redwood City.
Members of the public are welcome to attend the Study Session. But because this is not a public meeting or hearing, speakers will be limited to one minute and to "remarks to questions that they believe should be addressed by staff or the Commission at the hearing on the item".
The session will be followed by the regularly-scheduled meeting of the Planning Commission at 9am.
You can download 243 comments on the Big Wave Draft Environmental Impact Report in one 17 MB zip file, or browse and download individual comments by the name of the sender.
Click the link below for a complete list of comments by sender.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS