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.

In the final days of the Back to Basics $100K Challenge, the campaign raised over $152,000 in contributions in just over 10 weeks. The challenge donors matched every dollar donated, giving the group a grant total of more than $304,000.

Coastside Community First is mailing a brochure by the US Geological Survey called "Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country to Coastside households, along with a list of emergency shelters. They’ve sent us the information as well. You can download the brochure from Coastsider or the USGS. You can see the emergency shelter list by clicking on the link below.

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.’"

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001. A June 1, 2006 editorial in the New York Times states, "Something has gone alarmingly wrong in Afghanistan, previously touted as the Bush administration’s one quasi-successful venture in nation-building…."  In the topical thriller, Stinger (Aventine Press, July 1, 2006; Paperback; $13.95), local author Diana R. Chambers sets the stage for the issues and events still unfolding in war-torn Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, September 13th at 7 PM, Diana Chambers will read from her latest suspense novel, Stinger, at Moon News Bookstore, 315 Main Street, Half Moon Bay. Stinger tells the story behind the story, the story of how this ancient Silk Road land became once again a crossroads of invaders and spies.  Stinger is a political thriller whose subtext relates to the ongoing Great Game that the world leaders play, their pawns in this case the Afghan people themselves.

The expansion Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District was done properly,  Superior Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman ruled Friday, according to the Mercury News.

Though no one but a handful of true believers on either side knew it, the lawsuit by Citizens for Responsible Open Space and Californians for Property Rights to overturn the expansion of the district has been dragging though the courts, as they say, for two years.

The groups also argued that a notice to the public from LAFCO was missing some key elements, specifically noting that the area to be annexed was not properly identified in the notice. The groups subsequently submitted 5,340 protest forms in hope of forcing a vote on the matter. However, the county elections office found that only 3,443 of the protests were valid, according to the lawsuit.

"The court finds that petitioners have failed to prove that at least 25 percent of the registered voters in the affected area filed valid protests," Labson Freeman wrote in her tentative ruling Aug. 22.

A little over five months ago we began offering videos on Coastsider. From important news to everyday life we have been able to bring you an unmatched window on Coastside.

For example, when Devil’s Slide was closed we were there the first full day of the closure, and videotaped the damage. We went back that Wednesday and Friday to show how the damage was increasing, even in the absence of vehicle traffic. Through our coverage readers on the Coastside could make their own assessment of the magnitude of the problem because they could see the damage, in detail, with their own eyes.

By contrast, the local TV stations in the City and over the hill gave a few seconds of video coverage of the damage. Our local newspaper carried a still photo of a locked Caltrans gate during that first critical week.

Viewer response to the videos has been overwhelmingly positive.

Now, as part of Coastsider.com’s upgrade process, we now offer our videos, from those Devil’s Slide videos on forward, in two formats: Quicktime and Windows Media Player (WMP). That means that if you don’t have access to a Quicktime 7 player, you can now see what you’ve been missing. In addition, the WMP files are smaller than the Quicktime files, which makes them especially suitable for those viewers with slower connections.  We still recommend Quicktime 7 for its superior quality, but if you can’t or prefer not to install it, you no longer have to.

Now nearly everyone with a computer should be able to enjoy the videos.

If you’re looking for more, click on the "Video" item on the menu under the Coastsider.com banner to see all of our past stories containing video. Here are a few of the most popular videos that you may have missed—enjoy!

• Caltrans Geologist explains the geology of the Slide
• Caltrans at work repairing the Slide
• Whales at Montara Beach
• "Oceans Week" at Farallone View Elementary
• July Fourth Parade in HMB

The resignation of Midpeninsula Open Space District baord member Deane Little a couple of months past the deadline for putting the seat on November’s ballot is reminiscent of past resignations as well as a "notorious incident" that seemed designed to keep the board in friendly hands, according to the Palo Alto Weekly.

Little said he was unaware of criticisms of the board in past decades, following late resignations that forced the board to appoint someone or allowed an insider candidate to file at the last minute. He would have had to resign by last June to allow time for the board to include his seat in the Nov. 7 election.

In a notorious incident in the 1970s, former board member Bill Peters simply failed to show up to file re-election forms and a different candidate, Ed Shelley, showed up instead with his own filing papers. The sleight-of-candidate move prompted the state Legislature to pass the current law allowing five extra filing days when an incumbent fails to file.

The MROSD has already announced that it plans to appoint Little’s replacement.

The Coastside Chess Club presents the First Annual Pumpkin Chess Championship at the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival this October 14th and 15th to promote, encourage, and revitalize the sport of chess on the coastside.

The Championship will draw players from all over the Bay Area, including children and adults from our own Half Moon Bay coastside. Prizes will be awarded including books, games, and trophies/medals to top 10 scorers, plus prizes for each grade K-12 and top academic teams. All adult matches will complete by 3:30 PM Saturday. Youth matches complete by 12:30 PM Saturday with the Youth Championship playoff at 1:00 PM Sunday. This event will be supervised by World Championship Arbiter Dr. Eric Schiller.

There is a $20 entry fee with proceeds benefitting the Coastside Academic Chess Club and the Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee. Youth registration and check-in is on Saturday from 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM and adult registration and check-in is from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM. Pre-registration and further details are available on the http://CoastsideChess.org web site.

The Chess Lot will be conveniently located on the East side of Main Street at Le Petite Baleen Swim School parking lot, 775 Main Street, Half Moon Bay.

Summary of activities
Speed-Chess Prize Tournament, BugHouse Chess Event, Chess Simul with Dr. Schiller, Chess Lessons for Beginners, Chess Demo, Book and Software, Chess Art.

Our Mission
Coastside Chess Clubs aspires to be an outstanding educational-athletic organization that provides a high-quality experience to every athlete. A high-quality experience is one in which every athlete…

• Is coached using the principles of Positive Coaching*
• Has fun playing the game
• Feels like an important part of the team regardless of performance
• Learns "life lessons" that have value beyond the game
• Learns the skills, tactics and strategies of the game and improves as a player

Contacts and Links

• John DiNapoli, 650-245-1551
• Coastside Chess Web Site, http://coastsidechess.org
• *For more information about the Positive Coaching alliance, http://www.positivecoach.org

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.