This is a highly edited version of the county’s press release. 

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to accept a small parcel of land from Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) as the future site for restrooms and parking. The parcel is located south of Pillar Point Harbor, on Magellan Avenue at the southern end of the Mirada Surf Trail.
  
The project is expected to be complete by late summer 2010 and fulfills the San Mateo County 2007 Midcoast Action Plan’s call for restrooms.
 
POST in 2009 bought the 0.07-acre parcel for $20,000 to support recreational activities along the coast with the plan to donate it to San Mateo County.
 
“Sometimes protecting the smallest bit of land can make a big difference, and POST is pleased to assist the County in providing a place for these necessary facilities at Mirada Surf,” POST President Audrey Rust said.

NOTE: An open letter from Darin Boville to Jim Eggemeyer, Interim Director of San Mateo County’s Planning Department. Jim recently took over as acting head of the department after the resignation of Lisa Grote.

Dear Jim Eggemeyer,

At a Planning Commission meeting in late March of this year you made the startling announcement that you would be allowing Big Wave to help complete its own environmental report and that your staff would assist in this effort. This was necessary, you said, since Big Wave was unable to pay the independent consultant to answer the hundreds of questions submitted by citizens upset with the scale of the Big Wave project and with the secretive-seeming process by which it was being moved forward.

You did not explain how a project budgeted at over ninety million dollars could have run out of money so early in the process.

You made this announcement on a highly controversial topic with no notice to the public—there was no agenda item concerning Big Wave at the Redwood City meeting.

Since the resignation of Director Lisa Grote and since your assumption of duties as Interm Director, your office has become unresponsive to public inquiries. This is unfortunate since as a public servant you have an obligation to serve in your position, however temporary, in a way that meets the standards of good government.

Immediately after your announcement Montara Fog submitted five questions to you. Since then I have received a few e-mails from your staff assuring me that the answers were on the way, that you were busy, that the questions were under legal review.

That was one month ago and still no answers.

It is reaching the point now, Jim, where Big Wave will be finished with its controversial review of itself before the public even knows what is happening or why. This is a poor example of open government.

Here are the five questions:

1)  The arrangement with Big Wave to help answer the public questions without a consultant seems unusual. Has this arrangement ever been used by your office in the past? If so what were the projects and dates?

2)  This arrangement regarding Big Wave was announced by Eggemeyer last week—but it seems to have already been in progress. When was this arrangement agreed to? When did the work begin?

3)  Scott Holmes, of Big Wave, is saying that he expects to answer only 10-15 of the questions. Is that your understanding as well?

4)  If so, who will be answering the remainder of the 245+ questions? County staff? If so, how many hours of staff time is that expected to take?

5)  Will there be any indication to the public on who answered which questions?

If you choose to answer I will happily print your responses here.

Darin Boville
Publisher, Montara Fog

NOTE: This letter has been updated by the author.

Board of Supervisors Meeting - April 13, 2010
Agenda Item 11: Midcoast LCP Update

At the Board of Supervisors meeting today Supervisors Adrienne Tissier, Rose Jacobs Gibson and Mark Church showed their collective unwillingness to consider California Coastal Commission suggested modifications to the Midcoast Local Coastal Program.

Supervisor Tissier said, "Growth limits are a catch 22, it’s a no win situation." One wonders why that is a "no-win situation"; certainly there are gains for an entire community, and not just for a few developers, when growth is subject to intelligent controls.  Mark Church said, "The Coastal Commission recommendations are a subjective interpretation of the Coastal Act." This is a no-brainer; all interpretation from whomever is subjective because interpretation is a product of the human brain and imagination. The question that begs to be asked is: Are CCC’s suggested modifications responsible and intelligent.  Supervisor Jacobs Gibson supported Supervisor Tissier’s suggestion that the Board resubmit the LCP Update without any additional modifications.

Board President Rich Gordon, District 3 said he is very concerned about lot retirement leading to weed filled lots in residential areas. He did not evince any concerns about storm water flooding, salt water intrusion, water pollution in Pillar Point Harbor, sea-level rise, coastal erosion and limited traffic capacity on Highway 1. Supervisor Gordon shows due diligence to surface niceties; he cannot tolerate unsightly weeds growing in a few lots but he can, apparently, tolerate avoiding the significant challenges facing the Midcoast.

Supervisor Carol Groom said she would like to have one more meeting with Coastal Commission staff before making a decision. Supervisor Rich Gordon supported Grooms request for one more meeting.  Hopefully the two Supes will use the time with Coastal Commission staff to discuss ways to move the process forward rather than focusing on weed abatement. 

Supervisors Adrienne Tissier, Rose Jacobs Gibson and Mark Church made it clear that they were not interested in meeting with Coastal Commission staff.  Perhaps if they had attended the December 10, 2009 California Coastal Commissionhearing in San Francisco they might be better informed. To help them grasp the complexities of the LCP Update process, all three would benefit from meeting with Coastal Commission staff. If they had asked more specific questions of County Planning staff today they would have learned that resubmitting the LCP Update without any additional modifications is not a reasonable or appropriate next step.

The Supervisors’s fear of lawsuits initiated by developers was punctuated and highlighted by the angry tirade and finger pointing of local land use attorney David Byers. Intimidation is a standard tool in the lawyer’s bag of tricks.

The Supes habitually site the fear of lawsuits as an excuse to turn a blind eye to environmentally responsible land use policy. Fearful thinking is likely to continue ruling the decisions of the Board due to the loss of over 150 million tax payer dollars to Lehman Brothers.

Kicking coastal resources to the curb has short-term benefits for developers and real estate lobbyists. Enhanced coastal ecotourism, recreation, environmental education, and proactive sea-level rise planning provide long-term benefits to California residents.

The environmental catch 22 Supervisor Tissier invokes may be a win-win proposition for developers and supervisors with political aspirations, but it’s a losing proposition for thousands of County residents.

This Sunday, March 28th, in a David vs. Goliath face-off, a group of children and concerned citizens will be gathering in a Pacifica, California neighborhood for a book recycling and fundraising effort to save 11 century old palm trees from being cut down by PG&E. Kids 4 Change, a non-profit children’s group which performs charitable services and funding, voted unanimously to make saving the palms their current cause.  They will be rallying Sunday with other children and adults to raise awareness about the fate of the trees they love.

The trees, Canary Island Palms, were planted in this urban forest, circa 1906, more than 50 years before the city was incorporated.  Stunning in appearance with large fronds that drape majestically from the crown, the trees are threatened not by disease but by poor urban planning.  Though they are only one third of the way through their estimated 300 year lifespan, on Tuesday night, Pacifica’s Parks, Beaches, and Recreation Commission voted to allow PG&E to kill the first 3 of these trees because the city does not have the money to move the utility poles or underground the wires which are at risk of becoming a safety hazard.  The core issue is that the trees have now grown close enough to PG&E’s high voltage lines to present a fire and electrocution hazard.  Citizens have argued that this was a foreseeable consequence of placing lines directly above these trees, which have, naturally, grown taller.  As of now, PG&E is not willing to fund environmentally friendly solutions such as redirecting lines, extending poles, or undergrounding the wires

In the past 50 years, hundreds of trees have been removed from the rarefied tree-laden neighborhood of Vallemar, many of which were sick, or at the end of their lifespans.  Now the remaining healthy palms are at risk only because PG&E placed power lines directly in their line of growth, and the severe trimming required would kill them.  Concerned citizens and Kids 4 Change are now joining with a local non-profit, the Vallemar Conservators, which has been working for decades to save and replace the lost grandeur, has been working hard to raise awareness of this situation in hopes of finding a solution other than removal of the trees.

Anyone who is interested in tree conservation is invited to join Kids 4 Change and the Conservators on Palm Sunday, March 28, for the kick-off event, from 12-2pm at the corner of Reina del Mar and Nataqua in Pacifica, where kids and adults will gather, collecting donations of books and money for the cause.  The book sale will take place on April 17th, in the same neighborhood, and all proceeds will go towards saving the trees.

To learn more about the palm crisis go to http://www.vallemarpalms.com.  And to donate or learn more about Kids 4 Change please visit their website http://www.kids4change.org   All monies raised between now and April 17th will go to saving the palm trees.

I attended the Planning Commission meeting yesterday.

During the meeting Jim Eggemeyer, County Planning Director informed the Planning Commissioners that the Big Wave Project developers are "collaborating" with the Planning Department by responding to 245 public comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) themselves.  Eggemeyer also said that the Big Wave Project developers are unable to continue funding the environmental consultants (CAJA).

The Planning Commission Site Visit will be Monday, April 26 at 3:30pm

The Planning Commission Hearing is April 28th at 6:30pm at HMB High School.

Link to Area29 letter hand delivered to the Planning Commission yesterday: http://www.thepelicaneye.com/2010/03/big-wave-project-eir-shenanigans.html

Link to Darin Boville’s Planning Commission meeting article: http://www.montarafog.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=519:county-planning-department-recommends-that-big-wave-help-complete-its-own-environmental-evaluation-&catid=1:latest-news

This "collaborative" approach may cast doubt on the credibility and transparency of the EIR process.

In Pacifica, as elsewhere along the 1,100 mile coast of California, cliffs crumble and beaches wash away and return.  Almost every year we are reminded that here along the San Mateo coastal erosion averages two feet a year.  But the process is not orderly, and dramatic events often occur during El Nino years like the one we have experienced this winter.  Again, we watched with horror and fascination, sympathy and disbelief the efforts to safeguard properties along Esplanade.

On Saturday, March 27, Pacificans and all Coastside residents are invited to THE FORUM at 2:00 PM at the Hilton library. This FORUM is about Coastal Erosion, the first in an educational series free to the public on various topics.

Opening the forum, USGS emeritus geologist Monty Hampton will present images of the coast documented in Pacifica and other local communities.  A coast resident and specialist in environmental marine geology, Hampton surveyed local coastal cliff retreat for many years as chief scientist for the United States Geological Survey.  He was also involved in preparedness workshops with other scientists and the San Mateo County Office of Emergency Services prior to the 1998 El Nino.

The second part of the forum will highlight recent studies undertaken by Philip Williams and Associates, Ltd for the Pacific Institute. As an environmental hydrologist and civil engineer, Pacifican Bob Battalio will consider how our beaches and cliffs may be affected in the future by the same physical processes operating today.

Charles Lester, Coastal Commission Deputy Director, will also be on hand if other responsibilities permit.  The afternoon will close with questions and discussion moderated by BCDC’s Brenda Goeden.

Many coastal residents chose to live beside the ocean in order to regularly experience and admire its beauty and power.  That power has shaped and will continue to shape all our communities along the coast in varying ways.  Understanding and appreciating the forces that create the coast can better inform all of us about our future next to the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

THE FORUM is the creation of Sue Digre, Experienced, Credentialed California State Licensed Teacher, K through 9 and Adult Education.

2:00 PM, Saturday, March 27
Pacifica Library, 104 Hilton Way, downstairs room
Parking on the street during library hours

The San Mateo County Transportation Authority (SMCTA) and the City of Pacifica, in partnership with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) held a "scoping" meeting tonight on widening Highway 1 near the quarry and Rockaway Beach, according to Pacifica Riptide.

The purpose of the project is to reduce congestion on the segment of Highway 1 within Pacifica, from approximately 2,300 feet north of Reina Del Mar Avenue to approximately 1,500 feet south of Fassler Avenue/Rockaway Beach [Google map] [...]

"The project scope may include widening from four lanes to six lanes (three through lanes in each direction) and improvements at the SR1/Reina Del Mar Avenue and SR 1/Fassler Avenue/Rockaway Beach Avenue intersections, including additional lane capacity and signal timing improvements," Hurley says.

The meeting is the first step to creating a Draft Environmental Impact Report.

The Rockaway Quarry, the centerpiece of a development battle in 2008, has been transferred from Peebles Corp to an affiliate of its lender, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

The 87-acre Rockaway Quarry has been sold to an unidentified affiliate of Ambit Funding LLC, a Pennsylvania-based company that originally loaned former quarry owner The Peebles Corp. $16 million to purchase and develop the property, according to an announcement by Peebles. Peebles bought the quarry for $7.5 million in 2005 from another company that had tried and failed to build a mixed-use housing and retail development in that location.

Florida-based Peebles likewise failed to convince a majority of Pacifica voters in 2008 of the value of its proposed 355-unit mixed housing plan, which would also have included a luxury hotel and ample retail space — a new downtown along Highway 1, steps away from the ocean and several favorite beaches. [...]

Unfortunately, Rockaway Quarry was not a hot ticket among commercial developers in the sliding economy. [Peebles Corp. Senior Vice President Daniel] Grimm said it had three or four offers, all of which were far below the $25 million his company was seeking. The quarry was most recently appraised at $85 million. "We were unable to sell it for a price to satisfy both parties, so we had to have another discussion," Grimm said. "We reverted back to our positions, which was a dispute, and agreed to sell it to an affiliate of the lender. ... I know they gave us a good deal, so we took it."

The terms of the transfer, and Ambit’s plans for the property, are unknown.

Residents of a mobile home park are the most recent Pacificans to be threatened by the erosion of wave-battered cliffs, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

The waves took out a 3-foot-wide, 20-foot-long section of blufftop and shattered the living room windows of at least one home facing the ocean at Pacific Skies Estates, a mobile home community perched precariously near the edge of the cliff less than a mile south of the apartment building that was evacuated in mid-December due to cliff erosion.

Only four of the 12 homes that face the ocean across a narrow cliffside road are occupied, said mobile home park manager Steve Kester. He closed the road and boarded up the west-facing windows of many of the homes on Monday, but said residents should have nothing to fear despite Sunday’s events. [...]

Some of the mobile homes now have no more than 17 feet between their backyards and a sheer drop to the ocean. But Doug Rider, Pacifica’s chief building official, said he isn’t looking at evacuating them.

An attorney representing the Committee for Green Foothills has put the county on notice that Big Wave’s plan for story poles is inadequate [pdf]. The developer plans to erect poles showing less than half the actual square footage of the project.

On February 17, Camille Leung, county Project Planner wrote, "per the applicant, poles will go up for the wellness center and storage building and the northern office building (closest to mobile home park). No poles will go up for the communication building." 

Big Wave is requesting a permit to build four office buildings, no just one. The CGF believes that the proposed story poles would not meet the developer’s and the county’s obligations under the California Environmental Quality Act.

CGF’s attorney notes that this would not accurately represent the impact of the project. They go on to note that the California Environmental Quality Act requires applicants to provide "an adequate, accurate analysis of a project’s aesthetic impacts…. a paramount consideration is the right of the public be informed in such a way that it can intelligently weigh the environmental consequences of any contemplated action and have an appropriate voice in the formulation of any decision."

The placement of story poles has been delayed because the developer has not yet updated the project’s Environmental Impact Report.