Cabrillo Unified School District (CUSD) board took no action on the deadline for Wavecrest at their secret meeting last Thursday. Despite rumors that the board has extended the deadline for Wavecrest to get its approvals, board member Dwight Wilson told me that they discussed the contract, instructed their attorney to look into the matter and took no action.  He says they’re waiting to see what the US Fish and Wildlife Service is going to do. 

The current contract with Wavecrest says the developer must obtain final approval of the development from the Coastal Commission and all challenges and appeals before the CCC must have have expired before October 31. If not, the district has the option of cancelling its agreement to swap its land in El Granada plus some cash for a school site at Wavecrest. Wavecrest has been removed from the agenda for the September 8 meeting of the Coastal Commission at the request of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the next CCC meeting is October 13 to 15 in San Diego. The next School Board meeting, the last before the election, is not scheduled until October 14.

There is a seat open on the board of the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District (RCD). You do not have to be a farmer or rancher to apply. The RCD is a Special District, first organized in 1939,  that partners with land owners, land users, individuals, agencies and organizations to conserve natural resources in the unincorporated rural lands of the San Mateo coast. The SMC RCD is one of the oldest environmental organizations in the county, first formed in 1939 in San Pedro Valley. The district presently covers over 157,000 acres of mostly rural, agricultural and open space lands in the western half of the county. The district runs nearly the entire coastline of San Mateo County and includes all watersheds draining into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

The RCD works in partnership with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in providing technical assistance and in delivering locally led conservation programs. To be eligible to serve on the RCD board, a candidate for appointment must reside within the district and either own real property in the district or alternatively have served for two years or more as an associate director, or be a designated agent of a resident landowner within the district.

Here are web links for legislative language on district directors and the general powers of the district.

The RCD Board members generally have a strong interest in conservation, community involvement, agriculture, ranching, working lands, erosion, runoff, wildlife, watersheds, water quality, and the environmen. RCD Board members serve voluntarily. District board meetings are held once per month and board members participate on committees and in projects.

To apply or find out more, contact the RCD at 650-712-7765 or [email protected]

Santa Cruz County Public Works Department eliminated two possible landfill sites that would have routed garbage through San Mateo County parks.  The difficulty of getting access to the parks was the reason for the decision, according to the SMC Times.

Superior Court judge Carl Holm rejected a request by opponents to either halt or put to a vote the annexation of the coastside to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD).

Annexation opponent Oscar Braun plans to take the matter back to LAFCO by incorporating the rural coastside as the town of Los Pueblecitos. His plan includes the transfer of all MROSD property in Los Pueblecitos to the new town.

The district says it has 60 days from the issuance of LAFCo’s Certificate of Completion to appoint an Ombudsperson, begin public participation, and plan for amending its Good Neighbor Policy. MROSD says it will solicit public input to determine how the District’s wards should be redrawn so that coastside residents are represented.  They say they’ll include workshops on the coastside.

A couple of days ago, I asked Oscar Braun if he’d like to comment once Judge Holm delivered his decision.  he replied in email:

As stated in the letter brief to the Court, we are already gathering petition signatures from the more than 5,500 disenfranchised Coastsiders to qualify the incorporation & detachment of Los Pueblecitos for the March 25, 2005 ballot.  Regardless of the determination of the Court regarding the LAFCO Protest balloting, the FINAL decision will be made by the voters of the Rural Lands (South Coast) area residents. In short, the Courts ruling will be moot.

UPDATE: you can now download the decision from Coastsider [pdf].

UPDATE:  Oscar Braun says he plans to sue. In Merc he says: "It’s neither a victory for us or them—it will continue on in court. The court has just said that, in order for us to challenge the annexation, we must do it a different way." In the SMC Times: "We’re off to court."

Click on the "read more" link to see MROSD’s press release.

There’s a better map of "Los Pueblecitos" at SF Gate. It’s much better than the hand-drawn one that accompanies the petition. It makes clear something that I missed in my original story: the town would be bordered on the east by either Highway 280 or Highway 35 from roughly north of Highway 92, including the Crystal Springs Reservoir.

It amplifies the important point that the town would incorporate (in both senses of the word) a vast amount of land that is not so much rural as it is uninhabited.

The meeting to discuss the location of the Santa Cruz County landfill will be 6:30 to 9:30 pm tonight. The two sites near Pescadero would require use and possible expansion of coastside roads, according to the Committee for Green Foothills.

The meeting will be held at the Henry J. Mello Center for the Performing Arts, 250 E. Beach St. in Watsonville. There’s a lot of information at the Santa Cruz County Public Works Department web site.

UPDATE: The SMC Times confirms that the two dumpsites near San Mateo county have been eliminated from consideration.

Supporters are circulating a petition to begin the process of incorporation for new town of Los Pueblecitos[PDF]. According to the petition, the town would have 3,600 registered voters and 1,000 signatures are required to move the process to the next step.  The organizers’ goal is to put the measure on the ballot in March, 2005.

Los Pueblecitos would be vast: stretching from Santa Cruz county in the south to Pacifica in the north, Skyline boulevard in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, carefully carving out the more-densely populated unincorpated areas of El Granada, Moss Beach, and Montara.

The petition also requests that all land owned by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District be given to the new town.

Voters in Pescadero and La Honda would have more control of the area surrounding Moss Beach, Montara, and El Granada than the people who live there. For comparison, here are the populations for some unincorporated coastside towns.  I have linked the town names to census information for the town or the ZIP codes.

• El Granada: 5724
  
• Montara: 2,950
  
• Pescadero: 2,042
  
• Moss Beach: 1,953
  
• La Honda: 1,610
  
• San Gregorio: 287
  
• Loma Mar: 128
  

This process is governed by Cortese-Knox Local Government Reorganization Act [PDF], which you can download from Coastsider. Warning: this document is 238 pages that only a lawyer can love.

Click on "Read more" to see the press release and letter to petition circulators.

I just discovered that Warren Slocum, San Mateo County’s Chief Elections Officer, has a blog. It’s mostly about elections and politics in Calfornia.  It’s a little weird because he’s reprinting full articles from newspapers without comment and without permission. But it’s an interesting glimpse into the mind of an influential public official.

Santa Cruz county is considering a couple of new landfill sites that would require garbage to be trucked through sensitive areas of San Mateo county’s coastside.

According to San Mateo county supervisor Rich Gordon, quoted in the SM County Times, both sites would require transportation of garbage through Año Nuevo State Reserve and Cascade Ranch State Park. Roads in landslide-prone areas would have to be widened and improved.

The bill to transfer the land for original Devil’s Slide bypass from Caltrans to California State Parks is now on the governor’s desk. The Coastal Commission is withholding its approval of the tunnel until the promised transfer is complete. There was some opposition in the Assembly from Republicans who felt the land, which is surrounded by park land, should be sold.