Patty Mayall is a resident of La Honda

YMCA will hold public meeting on logging on Sunday, Dec 3

The comment period for the San Francisco YMCA’s logging plan has been extended to Dec 15.  The YMCA is holding a public meeting on Sunday, Dec 3 1:30 pm at YMCA Camp Jones Gulch, 11000 Pescadero Rd. La Honda. [YMCA SF website]

The California Department of Forestry (CDF) grants or denies these NTMPs (nonindustrial timber management plan) and held the one and only public hearing on this plan in August. The meeting on Dec. 3 is not part of the CDF process; the YMCA is hosting it due to hundreds of people responding to this proposed logging. They defend their plans with their "forest/land stewardship" report and rhetoric, but the NTMP is the LEGAL document for the logging operation.  This will be the only opportunity to voice your questions and concerns.  Please attend, forward this email to your friends, and help us persuade the YMCA to do what’s best for ALL: withdraw the NTMP.

For more detailed information, please visit the Committee for Green Foothills website.

KQED 88.5 FM Radio program "The California Report" will be airing a story on this on DEC. 1, Fri. (CLICK for times or to listen online).

Click for information on how to write a letter of comment, and more.

Disking resumed at Wavecrest on Thanksgiving Day shortly after 9am.  Work continued at least through sunset on Friday and included seeding this time. They had two tractors—one disking and one seeding, a tractor trailer for seed, several pickup trucks, and one security vehicle and guard from Bay Cities Patrol.

The development of the land has been held up for years with the California Coastal Commission, most recently when the land was found to contain endangered species habitat by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2004.  Wavecrest’s owners attempted to get the Army Corps of Engineers declare jurisdiction over the wetlands on the property, but have canceled formal delineation of wetlands three times in the last two years.

After disking was resumed in September, the city of Half Moon Bay said that it had told Wavecrest’s owners in May that agricultural uses of the land is legal. But the development has been before the Coastal Commission for years, and the commission has asked Wavecrest’s owners some pointed questions about the agricultural activities on the land.

The resumption of agricultural activity at Wavecrest has raised questions about the owners’ plans for the site, as it appears to put them on a collision course with the Coastal Commission.

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved the Local Coastal Program update for the unincorporated Midcoast.  The supervisors voted to submit the package to the Coastal Commission as separate amendments. This means that the commission can approve some amendments and return others found to be out of compliance with the Coastal Act with suggested revisions. 

The bids are in for the Devil’s Slide Tunnel, and the Chronicle is reporting that at $272 million, the lowest bid is $32 million higher than Caltrans estimated it would cost. That doesn’t include the bridge and highway realignment at the south entrance, which bring the total to $330 million.

The good new is that low bidder Kiewit Pacific says they can get it done in four years, not five. Construction begins next summer. Since we were expecting the tunnel to be done in 2011, it’s not clear that the four-year completion estimate gets the tunnel here any sooner.

Caltrans will open bids for the Devil’s Slide tunnels contract at 2pm Tuesday Nov 14. A webcast of the event will be available on the Caltrans web site.

Pacifica is considering widening Highway 1 between Fassler and Reina del Mar Avenues, reports Chris Hunter in the Pacifica Tribune. This is roughly the stretch of road fronting the quarry [Google map]. The project would be paid for with Measure A tax money

"It certainly has complexities," said [Public Works Director Scott] Holmes. "We need a coastal permit." He said that hurdles involving wetlands, endangered species and ESHA (Endangered Species Habitat Area) all needed to be handled, but "none of them seem insurmountable. It’s a win-win if we ever do pull it off." Holmes estimated that $300,000 of Transportation Authority money has already been spent on creating the environmental documents. He said it was nowhere near completion and could still be 18 months out.
...
Critics of the project call it "growth inducing," which would violate the Coastal Zone Act. "One way or the other, widening is contra-indicated," said [citizen Bob Pilgrim], pointing out that widening the road to the east impacts local businesses and widening it to the west affects wetlands and endangered species habitat.

The board of the Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District has issued a press release designed to respond to criticisms of its outsourcing plan [PDF of release]—particularly from union members attempting to reverse the boards’ decision by petition or referendum.

The press release, originally drafted by board member Jerry Donovan, and reviewed by the board at its last meeting, says: "…the abundance of misinformation is alarming.  These documents are riddled with some erroneous, misleading, and confusing statements that, if the need ever arose, it would be impossible for any citizen to make an informed decision regarding fire protection services for the district."  The release is pretty disorganized and rambling, and you should read it for yourself, but in it the board emphasizes the following points:

 

• The district already subcontracts services for outside training, custodial, legal, landscaping and accounting. Furthermore the board notes that it contracts out its paramedic ambulance transport to American Medical Response, saying "Medical aid responses account for approximately 75-80 percent of the call volume in the fire service."

 

• Subcontracting would not result in the loss of control, because the contractor would be under the control of the board.

 

• The union’s demand that any contractor be a "municipal fire department" ignores the fact that neither the HMBFPD or its successor would be a municipal fire department under a city’s control.

 

• The union’s insistence that the Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District be preserved is confusing in light of the pending consolidation: " This Board cannot determine, nor can any citizen determine from the referendum as written, what the union is trying to accomplish."

The board insists that "outcry against a service…has little to do with service levels to the district and everything to do with wages and working hours. The salaries earned by many firefighters are staggering, with nearly half the firefighters earning $139,000.00 or more, with some earning as much as $180,000.00-190,000.00 in 2005 - arguably making our fighters some of the highest paid blue collar workers anywhere."

The release concludes by reiterating that there will be no layoffs and no of reduction salaries, the department’s volunteer program will be kept, and retirees will continue to receive the same retirement benefits.

Harbor Village, the new shopping mall going up at Princeton Harbor will open in May, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

They’ll find out soon enough. On Tuesday, developer and Coastside resident Keet Nerhan told the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors that theproject, which will encompass an 84-room hotel, a 280-seat restaurant, and 20 to 22 retail shops, is on track for its grand opening in May 2007.

The $20 million project is expected to generate between $1.5 million and $2 million a year in tax revenues for the county, and will create between 150 and 175 jobs.

Nerhan, a well-known local developer who owns several retail buildings on Half Moon Bay’s Main Street, said he intends the project to be a tasteful addition to the restaurants and shops on Capistrano Road. His "mom-and-pop" stores will reflect the clothing shops, galleries and boutiques in Half Moon Bay.

Last Tuesday October 17 at 11am, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing to consider approval of the wide-ranging Midcoast Local Coastal Program (LCP) update project. Most ordinary Coastsiders don’t have the schedule to attend middle-of-the-day meetings like this, unlike the many pro-growth advocates who did attend and lobbied the Supervisors for more housing-related development.

Fortunately, we can watch a video of the proceedings that was kindly recorded by Darin Boville and posted here on Coastsider. Below is a summary and critique of what some people said at the hearing (in no particular order).

Tuesday, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors met to consider its update to the Midcoast Local Coastal Program. Coastsider was there, and we’re presenting the complete meeting in three parts.

The Part I [Quicktime | Windows Media] and Part II [Quicktime | Windows Media] are of the public comment period. Many of the speakers focused on the Burnham Strip and upon Big Wave. Each segment lasts about forty minutes.

The third segment is the session where the Board discussed the various issues and heard a presentation from George Bergman [Quicktime | Windows Media]. This segment concludes with the vote.