Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez has re-appointed Monterey County Supervisor Dave Potter to the California Coastal Commission, and appointed Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla.

The Sierra Club organized a campaign against Potter, reports the Monterey County Herald.

"I’ve been reappointed more than anybody in Coastal Commission history," he said. But he said this particular round was a "challenge" because of opposition from some environmentalists.

As supervisor, his vote in favor of a Pebble Beach Co. plan that includes cutting down part of the Del Monte Forest has been unpopular with some conservation groups, especially the Sierra Club.

"That’s the trouble with making decisions," he said. "They’re not always popular."

Padilla spearheaded a huge waterfront plan for Chula Vista—a plan which will go before the Commission, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.

Padilla, who was elected mayor in 2002, said he was approached by people in the labor and environmental community about the commission seat.
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Bruce Reznik, executive director of San Diego Baykeeper, said his environmental organization supported Padilla. The group was impressed with Padilla’s political savvy in winning support from different groups as he worked to develop the city’s bay front.

"I really think he’ll be an environmental leader," Reznik said. "Right now, this is a really critical seat."

On Monday morning, says Barbara Mauz, men clearing land for a Miramar developer stole her camera while she was trying to take a picture of what they were doing.

Barb Mauz lives on the southern edge of El Granada, within earshot of Miramar. Recently, that area of Miramar has become a center for development in the unincorporated Midcoast.

The area is sensitive. It butts up against the urban/rural boundary and the Mirada Surf hillside area. It’s on the borders of three greenbelt open space areas:  Mirada Surf, Quarry Park and Peninsula Open Space Trust’s Wicklow property.

An ephemeral stream (a stream that flows only during and after it rains) winds through it. Although the stream is ephemeral and partially underground, you can see a well-defined channel and the willows, riparian plants that thrive on stream banks.  You can see the willows further downstream at the Quarry Park access road of Highway 1. It passes under the highway to feed the willows at Magellan as well.

In the last few years, an entire neighborhood of mansions has sprung up almost overnight in Miramar east of Highway 1. Someday, they’ll call it Miramar Heights, but you probably don’t even know it’s there, because most of this development is just out of sight of the highway.

But as the development has moved east toward the hills, and north toward El Granada, it has become impossible for folks in this part of El Granada to ignore.

Barb Mauz has several concerns. First, they were filling the stream bed with wood and chips from the eucalyptus trees they had cut down. Second, in addition to blocking the stream, the eucalyptus could be lethal to plants and animals in its bed.  Third, she wants to make certain that whatever changes are being made are recorded, so that Coastsiders and the county understand what is lost in this development. And she wants to make sure that the urban/rural boundary and greenbelt open space areas are respected.

Barbara Mauz is a small woman, but she’s also a fierce defender of her local environment. She’s fought many battles over the years with developers, the county, and the Coastal Commission.

She knew the development had been going on, but she wasn’t necessarily expecting anything Monday morning. She described what happened in an email.

I heard lots of saws and noise & when I went up from our house and looked down Moro to where my little stream is. All of the trees there were gone. So, I went over there with my little throw-away camera to document whatever was going on. I took a picture of some guy blowing Eucalyptus chips into the channel—those chips can kill any wetland plants and animals. The guy in charge came over and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was concerned about the stream and the area in general as it is a fragile and beautiful place directly adjacent to the Open Space areas.

I told this guy and the one in charge that it would be just plain terrible for people who walk past this area going up to quarry park & will now only see monster houses instead of the natural area. He appeared to be listening and said that he didn’t want people taking pictures of his truck and that he didn’t want anyone from the county coming over looking at what they were doing—then he snatched my camera; he gave me a $20 bill. I told him that I didn’t want his money and that I wanted my camera back.

But Barb wasn’t getting her camera coming back.

On Tuesday, my wife Cheri went to the site with Barbara Mauz to take more pictures. Our daughter and her friend tagged along.  The guys got into their truck and left the site at the sight of the two women and two girls armed with yet another camera.

Wednesday, Barbara Mauz filed a report with the Sheriff’s office. The deputy who took the report went over to the site, but the man whom Barb says took her camera denies having done it.

Babara Mauz wants the stream protected. Right now, it isn’t recognized as a coastal resource by the Coastal Commission. She says, "Make the county and the owners restore the stream and plant sequoias for people who are using Quarry Park. Write letters asking the County Board of Supervisors not to permit building on this ephemeral stream—or other such streams & creeks such as Medio Creek which is also currently under threat"

Barb wants a movement.  The first step is to understand what’s happening in this place and to share that information.

We’ll never know what’s happening in out-of-the way neighborhoods unless we ask questions, take pictures, and share information. If we’re going to do this, we have to assert our right to know what’s happening. That’s a big reason I started Coastsider.

We only have Barbara Mauz’s word for what happened on Monday. But I do know that despite her fears for her safety and privacy, and her doubts about the Sheriff’s interest, she took her complaint to the Sheriff’s office.

I also know that I have been the subject of aggressive behavior at construction sites that I have photographed for Coastsider.

I am beginning to learn how quickly the landscape in this part of the Coastside has been altered. Everyone should be aware of this, because it doesn’t take long to completely change place this size.

With the county’s Local Coastal Program about to be updated, what’s happening in Miramar could happen anywhere. Large parts of Montara are already in play in the LCP update.

What is essential is that everyone on the Coastside know what they’re missing behind a thinning screen of trees, in a buried ephemeral stream bed, on the film in a stolen camera, or in a windowless room in Redwood City.

The state Parks Department has agreed to make state parks and beaches more accessible to the disabled, settling a class-action lawsuit.

Completion could take eleven years and more than $100 million, according to the Chronicle. The state is already planning to make Half Moon Bay State Beach accessible by 2009 and San Gregorio State Beach by 2014. Popular state beaches could offer wheelchair access with rubber walkways on the sand or big-tired beach wheelchairs that work on sand.

Coastsider has obtained a copy of the results of the Cypress Cove homeowners’ association survey its members. This data was reported to the Cypress Cove Townhome Association in mid-June.  Although the survey has been quoted by the Association’s attorney, to my knowledge no one else has seen it. Go to the links at the end of this story to download the results.

More than half of Cypress Cove’s 128 households responded. Even considering that the survey was biased against the park, it’s clear that Cypress Cove residents are unhappy. Only about half would support even a ten-acre "passive park" on the 22-acre site. And it’s downhill from there.

NIMBY is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days.  When someone wants to put a refinery or a nuclear waste dump near your home, "Not in my back yard!" isn’t an unreasonable reaction.

But we’re talking about a park.  How do we explain their dissatisfaction?

Only 10% of the respondents have kids living at home.  Some respondents mentioned that they chose the community for this reason. And more than half of those responding say they don’t agree that anybody’s quality of life would be improved if kids have a place to play sports.

There is also the problem that Cypress Cove is laid out in a way that makes traffic and parking a constant irritant to its residents, with narrow streets and little parking for visitors.

So, perhaps Cypress Cove residents are predisposed to think of parks as sources of noise, traffic, chaos, dirt, litter, vandalism, accidents, trespassing, drinking, and drugs. More than half of them do, apparently.

Not everyone in Cypress Cove feels this way of course, and I’ve talked to people who live there that understand the park will be beneficial, not simply for the Coastside in general, but for Cypress Cove in particular. 12% of respondents volunteered comments that the survey was too expensive or biased and 8% said not to spend money on surveys.

But the neighborhood’s opposition to the park is remarkably uniform and hard to explain.

In addition the problem of listing mostly negative implications of the park, the survey was biased against compromise.

Respondents were given a choice between a "passive park" that would have "perhaps a hundred daily visitors" and a "sports and athletic complex" that would attract "perhaps a thousand daily visitors".  But no middle ground is offered between the two undefined uses and order of magnitude difference in visitors.

Respondents also were not given a lot of options for action. Two-thirds of the respondents agreed to the statement that the Homeowners Association "should be prepared to protest, perhaps to the point of going to court". However, they were presented with a stark yes/no choice.  If they were prepared to protest, they should be prepared to sue.

The survey suggests that Cypress Cove’s choices are to capitulate or fight.

• The full report is a big file (38MB), so I’ve broken it into smaller pieces:
• The summary has most of the information and charts you’ll need.
• The detailed findings has more information and analysis.
• The questionnaire is here if you need it and you probably will if you want to analyze the results yourself.
• The tables, for survey geeks only, have several interesting crosstabs for each response, including breaking out each response by whether people are inclined to sue the city.

The Fire Next Time, a film about town is torn apart by a struggle over land use, development, and the environment will be shown tonight on KQED, Channel 9, at 10pm as part of the P.O.V. series.

The following description is from Coastsider’s story about this film’s appearance on the Coastside on Saturday night:

What would you do if the place you loved was changing so rapidly that the fabric of town life began unraveling before your eyes?  In Kalispell, Montana, disagreements about growth, race and land use led to fervent conflict.  The resulting high-stakes battle over developmental and environmental issues may sound familiar to many of us here on the San Mateo coast

Tensions in Kalispell were further exacerbated by a conservative talk show host who took to the air to stridently express his point of view and to suggest what action needed to be taken.  What would you do if this were your town?  What kind of ending would you make to this story?  That is for each of us to decide.

Opposition from neighboring farmers is holding up the building of coastal trails on State Parks property at Whaler’s Cove, near Pigeon Point Lighthouse, according to the Examiner.

The Peninsula Open Space Trust bought the land for $2.6 million in 2000 from a hotel developer.  After tearing down the partially-built hotel, they gave the land to the state Parks Department with the agreement that POST would build four trails, including one to the beach.

The construction of the trails has been held up by neighboring farmers who are concerned that public access could mean exposure to chemicals for hikers, trespass, and theft of produce.

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors has given farmers and conservationists 90 days to come to agreement. But that could be appealed to the Coastal Commission.

The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office is attempting to identify a body found in a cave at Pescadero State Beach by a jogger Sunday morning.  The body was not immediately identifiable because of decomposition, but the Coroner’s Office said it was a male. Sheriff’s deputies are investigating and according to the County Times, treat all such cases as homicides until the cause of death is determined.

A commercial salmon fishing boat ran aground about 1am Sunday near Venice Beach. The 47-foot "Jewel", was totaled and spilled an unknown amount of diesel fuel, according to the Examiner.

The crew escaped unharmed from the Eureka-based boat. About a half-mile of the beach, reeking of fuel, was shut down and blocked off with yellow tape.

The Half Moon Bay Horseshoe Club will be well-represented at 81st Annual World Horseshoe Pitching Championships. Fourteen of the club’s 39 members will be be at the championships in Bakersfield July 18 to 30.

The club hosts 13 national tournaments each year in Half Moon Bay. Last year they had over 260 contestants in the local national tournaments.

The Half Moon Bay Horseshoe Club is one of 22 clubs in Northern California. The club was founded in 1987 by Bill Terry at American Legion Post # 474, which is now the location of Cameron’s Inn & Pub.

The Half Moon Bay Horseshoe Club has sixteen courts, located at Wavecrest Road, Half Moon Bay. The club also has a sanctioned league pitching each Thursday night at 5:30pm, weather permitting, during Daylight Savings time.

For more information, contact Charlie Hall at 650.726.5549 or [email protected]

Click "read more" to see the press release with additional information on the upcoming event.

We’ve added a news feed from the BBC below the San Jose Mercury News headlines on the left-hand navigation bar. This is one of the few feeds from a professional news organization that are licensed for commercial distribution. Fortunately, it’s a good one.  I’m using the World, Science, and Technology feeds, which are the most relevant for a US audience.

Please let us know if you find these feeds useful when you’re visiting Coastsider.