The body of a man, shot in the head, was found on Pescadero State Beach on Friday afternoon. The body was found hidden near the parking lot on the south beach, with the gun nearby.  Lt. John Quinlan says that it could have been a suicide, but that investigators are treating the case as a homicide.

I just got a note from Catherine Peery saying that the Pescadero Municipal Advisory Council (PMAC) now has a new Web site.  I like it a lot; there’s plenty of good information, but it’s simple and well-organized, including minutes for all of 2004 and complete contact information for all the members. I’ve linked it from the Coastsider Guide Government page, but every time one of our local agencies improves its Web presence, it’s worthy of an announcement.

Coastsider will be at the Half Moon Bay Wine Walk tomorrow night. We’re going to take lots of pictures, as we did at the Chili Cookoff, and try to post them live this time. If you see us taking pictures, say hello.

Last year’s event was a lot of fun, and we’re looking forward to doing it again. As I’m sure you know, the Wine Walk benefits Back to Basics, which raised $35,000 last year for local schools. This year, they hope to double their attendace to 4,000 to 5,000 people. I understand from organizer Amy Broome that the there will be a lot more food available than last year. The scarcity of food to go with the wine was our only complaint from last year. The event is Saturday night from 7pm to 10pm.

Why didn’t the Half Moon Bay City Council vote unanimously to buy the Nurserymen’s Exchange property [satellite photo] for a new park?  The deal seems sweet: $3 million for 22 acres, with an interest-free three-year loan from the Peninsula Open Space Trust. Is there a problem?

At the meeting, City Council member Marina Fraser and former HMB council member and Mayor Naomi Patridge spoke against the purchase. Their concerns were well-expressed in a "Matter of Opinion" column in Wednesday’s HMB Review by Fraser.  [I’ll link to it when the Review puts it online. As of noon on Friday, Wednesday’s paper is not online]. Her objections seemed thoughtful and prudent: has the city done sufficient due diligence to determine whether a park can actually be built on the site?

It’s difficult to understand the decision-making process. Negotiations and studies took place in secret. Nurserymen’s Exchange insisted on secrecy to avoid tainting the property if the deal fell through.

Marina Fraser told me that she didn’t anticipate all the issues with the project until the due diligence report came out two weeks ago.  Her principal objections are (1) there it may be difficult or impossible to rezone the land for a park, especially with a corporation yard, and (2) there might not be enough usable land once riparian corridors and habitats are set aside.

She understands these problems.  Half Moon Bay has been unable to develop Coastside Community Park since it completed the Environment Impact Report in 1997. She was a Parks and Recreation commissioner from 1998 to 2002.  Why didn’t she apply that experience to shape the due diligence process?

Fraser is certainly a supporter of parks. In running for City Council, Fraser said her top priority was to "Expand recreational/park opportunities for neighborhoods, and create safe pedestrian walkways/trails to downtown".  Where does she think the city should put its recreational areas? She told me they should go in CCP.

Patridge is rumored to be running for City Council in the next election. The controversy over this park will certainly be an issue. It will be interesting to see how opposing what will surely be a very popular park will look on her and Fraser’s resumes the next time they come before the voters. If the park becomes a boondoggle, the twin Cassandras will be hailed as visionaries.

I talked to council member and Mayor Mike Ferreira about Fraser’s concerns.  He pointed out that this is a very different property from the one purchased for the Coastside Community Park, which Fraser points to as a example of a park plan gone wrong.  Ferreira says there are no natural flora or fauna outside the area around the creek. By removing the current agricultural exemptions, creating a riparian buffer, and controlling vehicle access, you’re going to improve the local environment and bring the property into compliance with the local coastal plan.

Ferreira told me, "I have already walked the area with a former high official of [California] Fish & Game, he said it was a beautiful site at a good price and advised me to just be proactive with the state and federal agencies."

Finally, I was impressed by the response of the neighbors in Cypress Cove. The City Council did survey some neighbors as part of their due diligence. Virtually all of the Cypress Cove folks at the City Council meeting expressed legitimate concerns about traffic, parking, and safety; and expressed a desire to work with the city to mitigate the impact.  What you don’t see is a knee-jerk NIMBY response. They know what a boon this park will be for their neighborhood.

However, one Cypress Cove homeowner did ask, "Would you like this park built right next to where you live?"  Ummm…yeah. Please.

At last night’s meeting, the HMB city council agreed to buy both the Nurserymen’s Exchange property east of the city and the Oak Avenue property for much-needed parks.

This is really good news. I’m going to write some more about this once I’ve had a chance to review the tape of last night’s meeting.

At Tuesday night’s meeting of the HMB City Council, there will be more parkland on the agenda than just the huge Nurserymen’s Exchange purchase east of town.

Also on the agenda is a parcel at the north end of Oak Avenue [Map], just south of Pilarcitos Creek and west of Highway 1. The area can also be seen in this satellite photo. City Manager Debra Ryan has reached an agreement with the seller and the Council will vote on the purchase. This is a wonderful plan to create a park for a neighborhood that could use some public space. The park would include the southern landing of the Pilarcitos Creek pedestrian bridge.

I parked at Strawflower Village and walked over to Oak Avenue yesterday to get feel for the space. The scary part is walking along Highway 1 in what must be a regular trip for anyone shopping at Safeway from the area. It’s a terrifying ordeal on a slanted, broken shoulder that dips toward the creekbed, over a narrow sidewalk on the highway overpass of the creek, and then a right turn through a trash-strewn lot into the neighborhood itself. You see adults and children walking along the highway to and from Strawflower Village every day. The pedestrian bridge across the creek will be a special boon to folks who live in this area. And it’s going to be even better because there will now be a park on the southern landing of the bridge.

The neighborhood is what passes for high-density on the coast, consisting mostly of small apartment buildings, especially as you go further north.  It’s especially nice to see parkland, and not more apartment buildings, on the borders of the creek and next to one of Half Moon Bay’s less-affluent neighborhoods.

The next regularly-scheduled meeting of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) will begin to address the open issues of their expansion to the coastside [agenda].

They have a 60-day deadline (until November 10) to hire an ombudsperson and decide on redistricting the District’s wards. Perhaps it should be called ‘re-warding", but I’m not sure the "rewarding the District" would be the right thing to put on the agenda.

Tomorrow night, the MROSD board is expected to authorize $25,000 to hire a consultant to help them with the public communication process for revising the District’s Good Neighbor Policy [MS Word doc], as well as to facilitate the series of public meetings on the policy. The plan for the GNP revision needs to be in place before the November 10 deadline.

Also on the agenda is approval of a series of public meetings beginning October 21, a public workshop to discuss redistricting ward boundaries and evaluate alternatives; November 4, to present revised boundaries for feedback; and November 9 for the board vote on the alternatives. The location of the October 21 and November 4 meetings has not yet been set. The November 9 meeting will be at the District’s office in Los Altos.

The board will also vote on a public workshop to prioritize amendments to the District’s Resource Management Policies [MS Word doc]. That workshop will be Monday, October 25, 2004, beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Board Room at the District Administrative Office.

Not on the agenda is an October 20 meeting in which the board will interview candidates for the ombudsperson position.

UPDATE: The proposed resolutions were approved at Wednesday’s meeting. Click on "comments" in the byline to read MROSD’s press release.

The Chronicle, calling Cetrella "one of the best casual restaurants on the Peninsula", says that despite the departure of chef Erik Cosselmon, the restaurant continues to excel under Lewis Rossman, who was the executive sous chef under Cosselmon.

I’ve changed the events list in the right-hand column so that it is now automatically generated from the Calendar.  Now the two will be in sync, updates will be more reliable, and I’m able to update it more often and include more information in the list. Let me know if you see any problems with it. I’ve also broken out individual events from ongoing weekly live entertainment. This should make Coastsider’s Calendar much more useful and up-to-date.

Despite the tragedy on the bluffs, the Coastal Cleanup proceeded as planned. Montara Cleanup organizer Kevin Stokes reports:

The beach clean up was successful beyond our wildest dreams!  We had 47 people give up their time to help. Our youngest volunteer was 2 years old and also included school kids, Mothers, older couples and groups of friends. We had people from San Leandro, Fremont, Berkeley, San Francisco and of course Montara, Half Moon Bay and Moss Beach. The estimated weight of trash picked up was over 600lbs and included among the usual trash a 4" fishing knife, 2 cell phones, an animal skull, a 5 gallon drum of chemicals and worst of all an I.V. Bag and tube!

I passed the parking lot at 8.00am on my way to set up for the Coastal Clean up the North end of Montara beach. I saw many Police, Fire and Ambulance there. First of all the rumor was it was it was a shooting. The Ranger that was supposed to assist us got caught up in it all.

Kevin’s full gallery of the day can be found at his MontaraBeach.com Web site.