This letter comes from the MontaraFlood Yahoo group, where you can find a copy of the agenda for the meeting

The San Mateo County Midcoast Stormwater Drainage Committee will hold its fourth meeting on Thursday, October 4 at 2:00PM at the Sheriff’s substation in Moss Beach. We are still in the "education" phase of our work, in which committee members are learning about stormwater problems in the Midcoast area as well as the State and County laws, ordinances and policies that govern County actions.

The main topic of discussion at this meeting will be "paper streets," that is, streets that are set aside for future development. We will include existing streets that are not on the County-maintained system, as these are governed by the same policies.

It seems that there’s a ceremony around the Devil’s Slide Tunnel every year or so on the Coastside. This year’s event marked the beginning of actual hole-drilling. Lots of dignitaries were on hand, as well as lots of awesome-looking drilling equipment. Darin has an essay about the event on Montara Fog and an album of photos on SmugMug.

In this case the organizers were planning to have a image of Lennie Roberts—the citizen-leader of the movement to substitute the tunnel for the "bypass" (read: four-lane highway through Montara into Moss Beach)—working the controls of the digging machine to make the first scratch into the mountain to begin the tunnel. Now look at the coverage on the television and local papers and we’ll compare notes about how many used that image—and ponder the independence of the press.

The public is invited to a celebration of the beginning of excavation of the tunnel at Devil’s Slide on Monday, Sept 17 at 10am. The event will be at the south portal site.

Following the public remarks, excavators will be used to begin digging the tunnel. Confirmed speakers are Tom Lantos, US Representative; Richard Gordon San Mateo County Supervisor; Caltrans Director, Will Kempton.

Shuttles will run from parking lot to event site from 8:30 to 9:45am and following the event. Parking for the public is at Gray Whale Cove and space is limited. Please carpool if possible. The event is being held at an active construction site. Please dress appropriately.

A community hosted celebration will follow at HMB Brewing Company

There has been a moratorium on new connections to the Montara Water and Sanitary District Water supply since 1975. Those building new homes since then have had to dig their own wells on their own property to get access to water.  The problem is that everyone—including MWSD—is drawing water from the same aquifer.

Julia Scott of the County Times interviewed one family whose well is running dry. They want to move, but they can’t get water and can’t sell their house.

"We’re just stuck," Gary said. "We have this incredible burden on us that we can’t get rid of. They tell me that even if the house was condemned, they wouldn’t give us a hookup. One more hookup wouldn’t tax the system that much more."
...
"Our concern is that we’re all drilling in and getting water from the same area. It’s like straws in a big milkshake: We suck out water, and they suck out water — it seems to us that there’s going to be a diminished resource," [MWSD General Manager George] Irving said.
...
The unincorporated Midcoast is one of the fastest-growing areas of San Mateo County. A master plan for the area, approved in draft form by the Board of Supervisors in October 2006, allows for the construction of 7,153 new homes in the next 30 years — roughly doubling the current population.

MWSD gets all its water from local wells. El Granada and Half Moon Bay get their water from the County Coastside Water District, where you can get a water hookup (if you have tens of thousands of dollars) because they’re buying their water from the SF Public Utilities Commission, which gets its water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir [Wikipedia] at Yosemite.

The County Times covers Harbor Village, the hotel and retail development that is scheduled to open "around November 15".

The walls of the mall area will capture the harbor life motif with shingles and clapboard siding, said project marketing director Tony Canadas. The colors in the shops and the hotel rooms — beige, green and blue — follow the colors of the sea, while shingles, dormers and bay windows add to the look of an old seaport town.

The $20 million project is expected to generate between $1.5 million and $2 million a year in tax revenue for San Mateo County and will create between 150 and 175 jobs. Nerhan originally announced an opening date of May 2007. The delay was derived from problems getting all the steel in on time, he said.

Nerhan said half the boutiques were spoken for by future tenants of the mall, which will be a careful mix of retail shops, a delicatessen, clothing stores, a wine-and cheese shop, and other services. Many of the shops will be filled by spinoffs of local stores that have proven successful elsewhere on the coast, like Half Moon Bay’s Toque Blanche, a cooking tools store. Former San Francisco 49er Russ Francis will open a large surf shop, said Canadas.

With 450 parking spaces, the mall expects to get a significant amount of its revenue from Coastsiders looking for food, clothing, and housewares.

There’s an opening on the San Mateo County Planning Commission for someone from the district that includes the Coastside.

Supervisor Rich Gordon has announced that he will be accepting applications for the Third District seat on the San Mateo County Planning Commission.  The seat coming available is currently held by Commissioner Jon Silver, whose term recently expired after 12 years of dedicated service to the County.

"Jon Silver has been an outstanding public servant and his knowledge and experience will be missed," said Supervisor Gordon.  "I will be looking for a candidate who will have the same dedication that Jon has shown – one who understands the delicate balance of development and the environment in San Mateo County."

The Planning Commission is responsible for reviewing the County General Plan as well as the development regulations and making recommendations for their adoption to the County Board of Supervisors.  In addition to being a county-level advisory body, the Planning Commission reviews and votes upon various development permit approvals or denials issued by the County. A seat on the Commission is a tremendous opportunity to participate in shaping the ‘look and feel’ of San Mateo County, and to participate in the governance process on crucial level. The job is demanding, however, with bi-weekly meetings (on second and fourth Wednesday mornings of each month) and extensive review of proposals outside of meetings.

The Planning Commission position to be appointed would serve a term expiring on December 31, 2010.  Applicants must live within the boundaries of the Third Supervisorial District of San Mateo County.  Please see attached map for district boundaries.  Applications can be found on the County website at www.co.sanmateo.ca.us under the "Boards and Commissions" category.  Any applications must be received by Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 5 p.m.  For additional information please contact Supervisor Gordon’s office at (650) 363-4569.

District Three includes the incorporated areas of Atherton, Redwood Shores, Half Moon Bay, Pacifica, San Carlos, Portola Valley and Woodside; and the unincorporated areas of Devonshire, El Granada, Emerald Lake Hills, Harbor Industrial, La Honda, Ladera, Loma Mar, Los Trancos Woods/Vista Verde, Menlo Oaks, Montara/Moss Beach, Palomar Park, Pescadero, Princeton, San Gregorio, South Coast/Skyline, Sequoia Tract, Skylonda, Stanford Lands and West Menlo Park.

The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced today that it has reached an agreement with the owners of Wavecrest to purchase the contentious site.

Wavecrest is a 216 acre property located at the southern end of Half Moon Bay, between Highway 1 and the ocean. "Wavecrest is a breathtaking window to the Pacific Ocean," said Audrey Rust, president and CEO of POST, in the press release. "This agreement will help preserve the rural coastside character of the Half Moon Bay area for countless generations to come."

Wavecrest has been planned for development since 1947, but the current era began in 1995 [timeline] and picked up steam when the school district decided to build a new middle school on the site. The site was the center of wrangling between pro-development and slow-growth forces until November 2005, when the district finally acknowledged that it couldn't afford to build there. However, the real blow to Wavecrest came a year earlier in August 2004 when the site was determined by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to be California red-legged frog habitat. The project became mired in the federal endangered species habitat process. It became clear that the site was a long way from being developable, regardless of what happened in Half Moon Bay.

"Economic considerations, environmental concerns and community input led the sellers to approach POST about purchasing this land," Bruce Russell, CEO of Kenmark Real Estate Group and representative of the land’s sellers, said in the same release. "It’s the best plan for all parties involved, including the sellers, the city, residents and visitors. The community can enjoy the land for recreation today and in the years to come while protecting a unique natural environment."

POST noted the recreational qualities of the site. It's a link on the California Coastal Trail. It is also the site of the Smith Field ballfields, which the city has been leasing from the owners.

Wavecrest is so big that it's difficult to represent in a single picture. Here we see the site from directly above in a satellite shot, photographed from the air over the ocean, and as the owners envisioned its development in 2004.

Google Maps

Wavecrest is a huge piece of Half Moon Bay. Click for the interactive version on Google Maps.

Copyright © 2002-2005 Kenneth & Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project.

Wavecrest in 2002. Click for more views of the adjacent properties on the California Coastal Records Project.

The Wavecrest development as planned in 2004. Much of the land needed to be set aside as open space and the middle school was in the northeast (upper right) corner.

The pedestrian crosswalk at Filbert St. and Route 1 may become a thing of the past as plans to resurface the highway there force the city to re-evaluate the walkway there. In speaking with Deputy City Manager Paul Nagangast about the crosswalk at Filbert St. this last week, he pointed out that the crosswalk was giving some people a false sense of security.

Appropriately enough, a few days earlier, while prudently waiting at the western end of the crosswalk with my bicycle for a break in the traffic, I watched in amazement as one male pedestrian walked defiantly past me, and without even a pause, took off across the highway amid the oncoming cars. Almost with a death wish, he stuck his palm in the air and proceeded on, undeterred, as one car swerved around him and the others behind it were forced to abruptly reduce speed.

Nagagast indicated that a number of options were on the table, but since any traffic light at that location was not in the immediate future, it would be safer to remove the crosswalk. Since many pedestrians and cyclists use that crossing, they would still be allowed to cross there and also further south at Poplar; there just wouldn’t be a crosswalk. This author would like to see at least the cabling for a pedestrian light put down before the road is resurfaced.

The public is invited to provide written or verbal comments by
August 1st to the City Engineer at 726-8260 or by writing:
Paul T. Nagangast
Deputy City Manager
501 Main St.
Half Moon Bay CA 94019

Frank Long

The Pacifica Riptide has picked some pertinent quotes from the new book by Don Peebles, the developer who failed to get Measure L passed in Pacifica. They give some insight into the thinking of this East-coast developer licking his wounds over his recent defeat on the Pacific:

"Pacifica is a peculiar town: they like to say no just to say no."

"The concept Trammel Crow had proposed would have greatly benefited the city, but the no-growth side was blind to it."

"Their virulent antigrowth philosophy had almost bankrupted the city."

"Pacifica had a reputation for an antigrowth attitude that was extreme even by Bay Area standards."

"I even held a debate with a former mayor who was against the project because it would bring too much traffic to Pacifica."

" ... she even paraded around the city’s annual arts and crafts Fog Festival, dressed as a big frog. The Pacifica Tribune ran a front-page photo of the frog hugging me."

" ... the opposition fought me literally to win nothing, rather than new opportunities for their community. They were blinded by fear of change, misinformation, and a distrust of developers."

"Without the cap on the number of rooms, we can develop time-share and condo-hotel units and, as business grows, expand the hotel by adding more rooms and suites."

"Ultimately the ‘no’ side will wake up and realize just what they lost, and will likely try to get me back to the table with incentives."

Peebles is right about one thing. Pacificans had to fight like dogs to win nothing.  Merely to maintain their hard-won status quo from any further change.

On Thursday, the Half Moon Bay city government took on the California Coastal Commission face to face.

At issue was a house project on Terrace Avenue, which had been denied by a previous planning commission and city council, but permitted by the current commission and council. The applicant wanted to build a house within a 100-foot wetland buffer when feasible alternatives existed for building on the lot.  The permit was appealed by the Coastal Commission itself as being in violation of the city’s Local Coastal Program. Coastal Commission staff recommended against the permit [pdf of staff report].

What’s interesting here is that Half Moon Bay Mayor Naomi Patridge, Vice Mayor Bonnie McClung, and Planning Commissioner Tom Roman (as well as HMB resident George Muteff) went to San Luis Obispo to defend the permit before the Coastal Commission.

Lennie Roberts of the Committee for Green Foothills and Mark Massara of the Sierra Club spoke against the permit.

In the end, as it become clear that the commission was likely to turn down the permit, the applicant withdrew their request.

Thanks to Darin Boville of Montara Fog for downloading and editing this from the Commissions gavel-to-gavel video.

Introduction and Commission’s summary   | Quicktime | Flash |

Consultant for the Applicant makes his case   | Quicktime | Flash |

Mayor Patridge defers to McClung; Vice-Mayor McClung speaks for Half Moon Bay   | Quicktime | Flash |

George Muteff | Quicktime | Flash |

HMB Planning Commissioner Tom Roman   | Quicktime | Flash |

Additional citizen voices   | Quicktime | Flash |

The applicant’s consultant rebuts   | Quicktime | Flash |

The Commission deliberates and votes | Quicktime | Flash |

The video in its entirety for die-hard fans of local politics   | Quicktime | Flash |

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story referred to Mr. Dall as the applicant’s attorney. He’s a consultant.