The city of Half Moon Bay last May told Wavecrest’s owners that it was legal to farm the site.  Concar Enterprises, the owners of one of the parcels that make up the Wavecrest site [Google map], began disking their property Wednesday in preparation for the resumption of agriculture.

Nearly two years ago, the city (as well as the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Coastal Commission) prevailed upon Concar to stop disking the land because it had been found to contain endangered species habitat.

But on May 11, the city’s attorney sent Concar a letter, after repeated requests from Concar, saying that it was legal for the company to farm the site. Late last week, Concar told the city they planned to resume agriculture.

In a letter to the city dated today, Wednesday September 6, Concar attorney Julia Baigent said the company is aware of its obligations [Large 6mb PDF of Concar’s and the city’s letters] under the Endangered Species Act. Baigent says Concar has been informed by its biologists that no snakes would be hibernating on the property at this time of year. The letter from Baigent the risk of taking by disking has been "ameliorated" and that biologist were on site during the disking. Finally, Baigent stated that they have been told by the US Fish & Wildlife Serve that disking would not alter the site’s status as habitat for California red-legged frogs or San Francisco garter snakes.

However, the disking places into question the city’s 2004 settlement with Wavecrest. In his letter to Concar, city attorney Adam Lindgren said the city would prefer that no agricultural activity take place on the site because it might negatively affect the ability to develop the property under the owners’ settlement agreement with the city.

The SF Bay Guardian has an interesting article on R. Donahue Peeble’s plan to develop Pacifica’s quarry site.  There’s plenty of background in people on both sides of the campaign over Measure L, and an interesting description of how Peebles has marshaled his forces to get the measure passed.

Loeb served on Pacifica’s City Council for eight years in the 1980s and has lived in the same home near the quarry for three decades. He helped formulate the land use plan for the property, which was designated a redevelopment area in 1986. The plan calls for mixed-use residential and commercial spaces, preservation of the walk and bikeway system, and "high-quality design in both public and private developments including buildings, landscaping, signing and street lighting."

Joined by a stay-at-home dad named Ken Restivo, Loeb is now organizing the opposition to Peebles — and it hasn’t been an easy task. Peebles has already poured several hundred thousand dollars into a campaign to overturn a 1983 city law that requires voter approval of a housing element in the redevelopment zone. This in a town where the typical council candidate spends less than $10,000 running for office.

My favorite quote: "‘It’s the windiest spot in Pacifica,’ Loeb says. ‘It’s the coldest, windiest spot in the whole city.’"

UPDATE Wednesday, Sept 6: Disking began Wednesday morning. Coastsider has been unable to reach either Planning Director Paul Nagengast or City Manager Debra Auker today, but we have been told that the city of Half Moon Bay will be issuing a press release this afternoon because of the volume of calls they have recieved. We’ll post more information as it becomes available, but there is an active discussion attached to this story. Click on the Comments link under the headline to read or participate.

Disking equipment has shown up on the Wavecrest property this Friday, suggesting that the land will be disked over the long weekend when city, county, state and federal authorities will be unreachable for three days.

The owners tried to disk the property in November 2004. They were halted by a letter from Half Moon Bay’s then-planning director Jack Liebster [pdf] drafted by the city’s attorney.

This was followed by requests to halt disking from the Coastal Commission and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. At the time, the owners said that their intention was to return the site to its original agricultural use by growing hay. The Coastal Commission and the US Fish and Wildlife Service expressed the strong opinion that the site was protected endangered species habitat.

The site has been found by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to be habitat for the endangered California red-legged frog. Wavecrest was on the Coastal Commission’s agenda for September 2004, until the US Fish and Wildlife Service said the development would result in the "taking" of an endangered species.

Wavecrest was attempting to work out the wetlands and endangered species issues with the US Army Corps of Engineers, but canceled scheduled wetlands delineations three times at the last moment.

UPDATE: The equipment, which was parked on the Wavecrest site earlier Friday was moved sometime Friday afternoon to Main Street, near the Fire Station.

A couple of participants in the Pacifica-L Internet mailing list claiming to be Pacifica residents who support the Pacifica Quarry development appear to be employees of the developer’s public relations firm in Santa Barbara. This has raised serious questions about the degree to which the developer is astroturfing—conducting a fake grassroots campaign.

Beginning August 16, a member calling herself Susan appeared on the list for the first time supporting the project and saying that those who oppose developer R. Donahue Peebles, who is black, are racists:  "I like that he is tough and strong and speaks his mind.  I like the man and I will not turn away as some of the racist have stated here earlier."  Susan’s emails came from a T-Mobile network in Los Angeles and an email server belonging to Davies Communications, Peebles’s Santa Barbara PR firm. One of Davies’s specialities, according to their website, is winning approval of developments:

We overcome neighbor and community fears with scientific persuasion principles that cement commitments from supporters to take action. Our proven process—the Entitlement Accelerator—engineers positive perceptions for projects in the toughest environments, including brownfields and other controversial sites. At DAVIES, we say opposition is never insurmountable—our 95% winning track record speaks for itself.

The next day, a new Peebles supporter calling himself Jimmy appeared on the list. Although Jimmy used the same Hotmail return address as Susan, his emails came from an entirely different network: an internet service provider that doesn’t serve Pacifica. The group tumbled pretty quickly to the fact that Susan and Jimmy were not who they claimed to be and the evidence was posted on the list.

Jimmy took the offensive, noting that one of his accusers—a resident of Montara—lives in, um, Montana. This compounded the impression that Jimmy and Susan were unlikely to be residents of Pacifica.

I spoke to John Davies, the eponymous CEO of Davies Communications, to get his side of the story.  Davies said that the firm had conducted an investigation and that there was no way to determine whether anyone inside the firm had posted the emails. He told me he thought the Pacifica list readers were mostly negative thinkers with too much time on their hands.

I asked him if it would be an ethical violation if someone at his firm had done this and he replied, "I don’t know what the ethical standards of a chat room are." After I pressed him on whether it violate his professional ethical standards, he acknowledged that the behavior was inappropriate, but wouldn’t suggest a penalty if Jimmy and Susan turned out to be one or more of his employees.

The median price of a home in Salinas has risen from $160,000 to $600,000 since 1996.  The Wall Street Journal says this is one reason slow-growth advocates are fighting developers, business interests, farmers, and farm-labor advocates.

If more land is allowed to be developed for housing, the big question is whether that would help the immigrant population. The pro-growth camp says it will, because every new project is required to include a certain number of "workforce" housing units, which are intended for lower- to moderate-income workers.

The slow-growth camp contends most development will be for expensive homes—and even the units designated for lower-income workers will be out of reach for most immigrant laborers, who earn as little as $14,000 a year.

Salinas made headlines last year when they declared they couldn’t afford to keep their public library open.

The issue of how much of the county should be developed is at the heart of a 20-year plan that is now under discussion.

A new type of development is straining the idea of public access that is at the heart of the Coastal Act. The Coastal Commission is approving condo hotels, where the units are owned by individuals, but rented to the public at least three-quarters of the year, according to an AP story at the Chronicle.

In this low-key northern San Diego County surf town [Encinitas], dunes and ice plants are being cleared from land designated for public use to make way for 100 condos that will sell for an estimated $1.5 million each and 30 hotel rooms that will go for up to $600 a night. Because the project includes hotel rooms, it is deemed to be for public use by the commission that oversees a state law protecting beach access.

"It’s like a knife at the throat of the Coastal Act," said Massara, a lawyer for the Sierra Club.

...

Along California’s coast, where demand for real estate is so intense that the city of Santa Barbara may build affordable housing for families earning $160,000 a year, as many as 10 condo hotel projects are pending.

The Quarry is an 87-acre lot on the Pacific Ocean, west of California State Highway 1, between already-congested intersections at Reina del Mar and Fassler Avenue in Pacifica. It borders both the Golden Gate National Recreation Area's Mori Point reserve and the City of Pacifica's Calera Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant to the north, and the West Rockaway Beach district to the south. Calera Creek and its floodplain bisects the flat areas of the Quarry. One of the Quarry's hillsides has been thoroughly mined, and another ridge is largely intact. The creek and surrounding hillsides are known habitat for the endangered San Francisco Garter Snake and threatened California Red-Legged Frog. A public biking/hiking trail also runs through the Quarry.

In the 20 years since limestone quarrying operations ceased, and with the help of the restoration of Calera Creek, the ecology is recovering. Alhough it is private property, unofficial hiking trails have traversed the Quarry for decades. It is one of very few remaining vacant lots of its size in Pacifica.

On November 7th, 2006, Pacifica voters will be asked to approve a ballot measure which would authorize the City Council to rezone the Quarry to entitle up to 355 housing units on the property, and contains no specifics on what kind of housing units or what mix of them. If the measure is rejected, any development in the Quarry would be covered by existing C-3 commercial zoning and various regulatory agencies. This ballot measure is required by a 1983 ballot measure which mandates "a vote of the people" before the City could alter the zoning to allow any housing on the property.

No project, development agreement, regulatory review, or plan has been created by the developer or submitted to the City or the voters, nor would any such review be available to the voters before the November election. The only purpose for this November's ballot measure is to give any future developer an entitlement to build 355 housing units in the Quarry. If it is approved, this or any developer would be entitled to propose a project with up to 355 houses, and the "voter mandate" would provide a big stick to wave over elected officials should they attempt to challenge or downsize such a project.

The Quarry was purchased in 2005 by Peebles Atlantic Development Corporation (PADC), headed by R. Donahue Peebles. Peebles began his career as a real estate appraiser, and was appointed to the Board of Real Property Assessment & Appeal by then-D.C.-mayor Marion Barry. Barry later gave Peebles his start developing office space for the District's use. After a deal fell apart due to accusations of cronyism, Peebles moved on to Miami and leveraged the purchase of the Royal Palm Hotel as part of a redevelopment project. The project turned litigious and dragged on for years as Peebles sued Broward County over it, was counter-sued by them. Peebles purchased the Bath Club in Miami Beach, and funded a campaign to attempt defeat the Mayor who opposed the hotel's partial demolition. Peebles purchased the Quarry property in 2005. He then went on to purchase the 250 Brannan office building in San Francisco for conversion into ultra-luxury condos.

The Half Moon Bay City Council has taken steps to deal with the Miramontes Hoop Crisis of 2006 at Tuesday’s meeting.

Although not on the agenda, the Miramontes residents made such a strong case during Public Comment that the Council directed that the matter be brought to the Council’s Enforcement Committee. The committee (Councilmembers Patridge and Muller) will review the matter before it’s brought back to the council as an agendized matter - and the basketball hoop enforcement letters are in abeyance until then.

In the latest reduction of personal freedom to come from the HMB City Council, the residents of the Alsace Lorraine neighborhood have been ordered to remove basketball hoops from the curbs in front of their houses by August 23 or face citations and fines.  Citing the classic twin excuses common to all civic scoundrels, “a number of complaints” and “zoning ordinance compliance”, our intrepid city council has leapt into action by issuing warning letters to every miscreant resident in the neighborhood. 

It seems that after decades of having hoops and hockey nets in the streets of our neighborhood, the “zoning compliance” bug has suddenly bitten the backsides of our vigilant council members.  The purported reason that we remove the blight of recreational equipment from our streets is this: “to create a healthier, safer, more attractive environment for residents and visitors in our City.”  What a complete and utter load!

The only people this will benefit are the angry selfish drivers of the neighborhood who will now be able to zoom through the streets unimpeded by the presence of pesky children at play.  With no sidewalks or parks in this town, where exactly are the neighborhood kids supposed to play except in the street?  Sorry, not everyone wants to troupe up to one of our sad schoolyards to play.  Most kids want to play with their friends right near their houses—like they have for decades, and like they do in other towns in America.

How ironic is it that the City wants to ensure a “more attractive environment” for our “visitors” by starting in the middle of a residential neighborhood?  How about starting at the city limits where the quaint rural landscapes of Highway 92 give way to the blight of the abandoned pesticide field (earmarked for an expensive park which will never happen); a trailer park; a forlorn and completely destitute old cemetery; and not one, but two, cheesy fourth-rate “shopping centers”, one of which features a large, ugly abandoned grocery store?  How about starting there, if you want to make things more attractive to residents and touristas?  Naw, much easier to take away the harmless hoops of some neighborhood kids, right?  “We’re winning the war on unattractive streets!”

Any tourist traffic that finds its way down into the Alsace Lorraine neighborhood and Miramontes Ave. is most likely lost anyway.  Most of them are looking for the Ritz, which is on Miramontes POINT Road on the way out of town. (How a town with about 100 streets can’t come up with non-duplicative street names is another HMB mystery.)

Oh, and why is this “zoning compliance” only being enforced in the middle of one residential neighborhood?  If it’s such an all-fired important issue, the City should be cracking down everywhere.  By the way, the “nudge” that the City will employ to get us to move the hoops is a $100 a day fine—completely arbitrary and vindictive.  But, really, why waste any time on this?  Find something better to get worked up about and leave our kids alone.

Frankly, the entire city council should resign their posts and go back to what they do best: shilling real estate to retirees.

Tired of it,

Mike Nouaux
Alsace Lorraine
Half Moon Bay