Wavecrest’s owners have backed out of a wetlands delineation for the third time in less than a year. The US Army Corps of Engineers wetlands delineation was being conducted in mid-January, but was suspended before it was finished due to differences between Wavecrest’s consultant and the Corps’ delineator.

In April 2005, Wavecrest pulled out of a delineation on the day before was scheduled to begin.  In May, they backed out of the rescheduled delineation without setting a new date.

It is expected that the next activity will be discussions between Wavecrest and the Corps over the technical details of the suspended delineation.

For most of its existence, Wavecrest Village, LLP has been managed by Ocean Colony Partners, which is a minority partner in the project. In the first half of 2005, management was taken over by majority partners Concar Enterprises and their consultant/manager Bill Barrett, formerly of Ocean Colony Partners.

Fugitive Chris Campbell, 41, of El Granada, who has been on the run since December, has been captured by Sheriff’s detectives. He was arrested Tuesday as he left an apartment in San Mateo.  Campbell was wanted on a $200,000 warrant for narcotics and weapon charges.  Campbell is now in the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City.

At last night’s Half Moon Bay City Council meeting, the nascent compromise between the two factions on the City Council completely broke down. The issue was Mike Ferreira’s appointment to the Planning Commission, but the implications are much broader.

The video of the meeting airs tonight at 7pm on MCTV, channel 6, and by all accounts you should program your Tivo, dust off your VCR, or turn on your TV, and check it out.

Despite Bonnie McClung’s willingness to compromise on the size of the Planning Commission and her apparent good relationship with former city Council member Mike Ferreira, she voted with Naomi Patridge and Marina Fraser to deny Ferreira an appointment to the Planning Commission.  Ferreira is a former planning commissioner. Following this vote, David Gorn and Jim Grady disengaged from the meeting, declining to participate in the nomination process and abstaining on all subsequent votes.

"I’m disappointed that they [Grady and Gorn] decided to pull out out of the process," McClung told Coastsider, saying that her vote was within the spirit of the compromise. "I didn’t see that Mike was a fit at this time because he’s a lightning rod for both sides."

"It’s a sad day for Half Moon Bay," City Council member David Gorn told me, saying that the spirit of the compromise, which was designed to avoid dividing the town politically, had been broken. "After this huge compromise, we have this mean-spirited political nastiness," said Gorn.

In response to a question, Gorn agreed that under the circumstances, it may have been preferable to let the majority remake the Planning Commission and take it to referendum.

Asked if this could be seen as an attempt to keep him out of circulation, Ferreira said, "I don’t need their help to circulate."

Here’s how it went down:

Gorn nominated current planning commissioner Kevin Lansing - approved 5-0

Grady nominated Mike Ferreira - denied 2-3 (Grady, Gorn ayes)

"You could hear a pin drop during the roll call", one observer told me.

Grady withdrew his nomination and asserted his right to withhold his nomination to a later date. The seat will remain vacant for now.

McClung nominated Doug Snow - approved 3-0-2 (Grady, Gorn abstaining)

Patridge nominated Patric Jonsson - approved 3-0-2 (Grady, Gorn abstaining)

Fraser nominated Thomas Roman - approved 3-0-2 (Grady, Gorn abstaining)

The council then moved to the at-large seats - Grady and Gorn did not nominate or participate.

Patridge nominated Jeff Allis, David Mier and Bob Feldman.

Fraser nominated Linda Poncini.

Jeff Allis - approved 3-0-2 (Grady, Gorn abstaining)

Bob Feldman - denied 0-3-2 (Grady, Gorn abstaining)

David Mier - denied 1-2-2 (Patridge aye, Grady, Gorn abstaining)

Linda Poncini - approved 2-1-2 (Fraser, McClung ayes, Grady, Gorn abstaining)

Technically, according to the ordinance, a majority of 3 votes is required for approval, but at this point everyone was so tired that they accepted Allis and Poncini for the two remaining seats.

As HMB Review Managing Editor Clay Lambert put it in his eerie signed column about McClung and Ferreira’s new-found friendship:

There are those in town who, for reasons I’ll never understand, are vested in continuing this Hatfield-and-McCoy feud between the so-called "no-growthers," which Ferreira was supposed to represent, and the "old guard," which is supposed to be the natural base for McClung. I’m sure there are supporters of each who think that fraternizing with the enemy is high treason.

He may be right.

Dave’s True Story will appear at the Bach Dancing and Dynamit Society on Sunday. Dave’s True Story is a jazzy pop combo featuring Dave Cantor’s intelligent, sometimes quirky lyrics, Kelly Flint’s smooth-as-silk vocals and Jeff Eyrich’s acoustic upright bass laying a solid rhythm track beneath it all.

Spencer Harrington wrote in Jazziz, "The edgy genius of Dave’s true Story is in its ability to fuse the vibe of jazz from the 1940s and 50s with a modernist lyric sensibility: witty, urbane, and anxiety-ridden… jazz songwriting for a new generation."

Hundreds of shows and great word of mouth have made Dave’s True Story a favorite on the New York underground scene. �The New York City ensemble has built an impressive body of accomplishments since their formation in 1994. Winners of the 1995 Kerrville New Music Award as well as numerous and various other surprising accomplishments, they have performed nationally and internationally to wide critical and commercial acclaims

Dave’s True Story has samples of their music on their site.

Details: Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, 311 Mirada Road, Miramar, Parking is in the back of the building. Doors open at 3 pm for buying tickets and saving seats. Music starts at 4:30, goes to 7:30 with an intermission. Reserved priority seating for members. $28, with a $5 discount for those under 25.

UPDATE:  The County Times has a story on this situation with plenty of additional detail, including an interview with Superintendent Bayless. I also believe there will be a story in today’s Half Moon Bay Review.

Students from Half Moon Bay High School and Cunha Intermediate School who have no other way of getting home are crowding onto SamTrans buses designed for 20 passengers. The nonprofit agency that operates the buses for SamTrans says unless it can get some help with the extra passengers, kids and adults will be left behind.

The problem has its roots in the Cabrillo Unified School District’s decision to discontinue bus service, but the district says it’s not their problem.

Many of the students live in the Moonridge affordable housing project for agricultural workers south of Half Moon Bay, and have no other way of getting home.

The buses are operated by Coastside Opportunity Center, a nonprofit agency serving the poor, elderly, and disabled. COC operates bus service from Pescadero to Moss Beach under a contract with SamTrans.

Some kids have been walking to earlier stops further north in order to get a seat on the southbound bus.

"When I learned this was going on, we added the second bus in the morning and afternoon," said Cheri Parr, Executive Director of the Coastside Opportunity Center since October. [Disclosure: Cheri is my wife.] The extra buses have alleviated the problems in the morning, but has unexpectedly encouraged more students who’d given up on getting a ride to try again. The result is more unmet demand in the afternoon.

Parr appealed to the Cabrillo Unified School District for assistance with the problem, but she was turned away. She was told the district has chosen not to spend its money on transportation. CUSD has not provided school bus service since 2002. The district does bus elementary school students from Moonridge to Farallone View Elementary in Montara. Superintendent Dr. John Bayless was unavailable when Coastsider called for comment this afternoon.

The cost of the additional bus is being borne by COC. "We don’t have the equipment, drivers, or budget to add any more buses when they’re needed," said Cheri Parr. "And we can’t overcrowd the ones we have. Our first priority has to be the safety of the passengers."  The result is that beginning Monday, February 27, the afternoon bus will allow no more than twenty total passengers and everyone else will have to wait for the next bus, about 90 minutes later, or walk.

The Coastside Opportunity Center’s Parr plans to bring this problem before the CUSD board at a future meeting.

Time for a mini-celebration: This is the 1,000th article posted on Coastsider since we launched in 2004. Our second anniversary is coming up soon as well. More on that later.

Senior Coastsiders is offering free home repairs for Coastside seniors and the disabled, in a program that has been in operation for 17 years. The deadline for applications is March 30.

The program is offered to qualified homeowners in Half Moon Bay, El Granada, Moss Beach, Montara, San Gregorio, La Honda, Pescadero, or Loma Mar. To qualify you must be at least 60 years old or disabled, own your own home, and meet certain income requirements.

Since 1990, the program has provided senior and disabled people who meet income criteria with free help with minor home projects, such as replacement of rotted stairs or porches, installation of grab bars or extra stair railings, wheelchair-ramp construction, repair of plumbing problems, house painting, yard work and more.

The Home Rehabilitation Program is sponsored by private donations, corporations, local businesses, San Mateo County Aging and Adult Services, and a San Mateo County Community Development block grant. The repairs are performed by Coastside contractors and other volunteers. Anyone fourteen and older can be a volunteer. Volunteers do not need to be skilled at home repairs.

For more information, call Senior Coastsiders at 726.9056 or come by their office at 535 Kelly in Half Moon Bay

Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has acquired Green Oaks Ranch, a 13-acre former dairy ranch and flower farm near Davenport, 13 miles south of Pescadero on Highway 1. The ranch is a mile north of the main entrance to Año Nuevo State Reserve.

The property dates back to the early 1860s and is a nationally registered historic landmark. POST also acquired a three-year option to buy land offered to neighboring nonprofit Pie Ranch, LLC., a center for youth education that promotes sustainable agriculture, community food security, nutrition and land conservation.  This gives Pie Ranch more time to raise the $2.5 million they need to buy the land for their educational program.

Click "read more" to see POST’s press release.

CUSD to discuss parcel tax at special meeting March 2

The board of the Cabrillo Unified School Board (CUSD) has called a special meeting to discuss placing a parcel tax on the June primary ballot.  The meeting will be Thursday, March 2 at 7:00pm at the district office on Kelly Street.

This would be the fifth time in seven years the district has tried to pass a parcel tax.  The special meeting was called in response to a presentation from Montara resident Cindy Epps, communications & community relations coordinator with Back to Basics.  Epps encouraged the board to take another look at the issue, now that the divisive issue of the middle school’s location has been resolved.

The board had to call a special meeting so that the community could be properly notified of the discussion, while meeting the March 10 deadline for filing ballot measures. There was no discussion of the details of the proposed tax, such as amount, duration, any exemptions, and the list of uses to which the proceeds would be put.

It is still not clear that the measure would receive the necessary two-thirds vote to pass. In a survey in October 2005 about 60% of likely voters said they would vote for a $250 per year per parcel tax. [Coastsider’s analysis of the survey results and link to original PDF].  About a third of respondents said that resolving the location of the middle school was a precondition for a "yes" vote. Voters are still concerned about whether the district would be a good steward of parcel tax funds: 41% of respondents disagreed strongly or somewhat with the statement “I trust the Cabrillo Unified School District to properly manage tax dollars” and 51% of respondents said the District’s management of bond funds was either fair or poor.

Neither the state nor the district budget will be set in time for the June election. The governor’s May revision will come out in the middle of the campaign. It is widely believed that there will be a significant increase in school spending from last year, but the exact amount is unknown. This will create uncertainty about the amount the district needs and how urgent the need will be.

Superintendent Dr. John Bayless forecast that the combination of state increases and federal decreases will lead to a net revenue increase for the district of about three percent.

Half Moon Bay High School principal Susan Million and CUSD assistant superintendent Madeline Shearer reported that 86% of the district’s 275 high school seniors have already passed the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).  Of the 37 students who have not yet passed, 31 are English language learners, 18 of whom have been in this country for less than three years.

To support these students, the district is offering individual tutoring after school, a support class and review in the core classes of math and English.  Alternatives for seniors after June include a summer school review course and an additional summer CAHSEE offered only to seniors.

Superintendent Bayless presented a proposed schedule for new construction and renovation of the Cunha Middle School. The board formed an ad hoc committee to oversee the design and construction process and present their recommendations to the board.  Board members Charlie Gardner and Roy Salume will serve on the committee, which will include a teacher, a member of the district’s classified staff, and community volunteers.

The ad hoc committee will work with the architect, Dr. Bayless, and Cunha principal Mike Andrews on design development. It will present its recommendations to the school board on March 16. 

Community members who are interested in serving on the Ad-Hoc Committee can contact Roy Salume or Charlie Gardner

The recent cold snap has damaged crops on the Coastside, costing farmers money and farmworkers employment.  The County Times talks to Half Moon Bay Nursery owner Ron Mickelsen,  George Armanino of Mazzanti Carnations in Pescadero, Half Moon Bay farmer John Muller, and Ed Riley of Giusti Farms.

"It’s so cold that nothing wants to grow, and we didn’t have a lot of production to begin with," said Muller. "Last year we were picking 60 or 100 boxes (of mint) a day. This year, we’ll be lucky if we get 20."

The setback hadn’t simply affected his own profits, either. "It impacts the employees too, because they’re not pulling in hours," said Muller.

I found these beautiful shots by Georgia Stigall of snow on Skyline Blvd. on Friday at Robert Dougherty’s La Honda Voice weblog.  Be sure to click these to see the larger versions.