The Midcoast Community Council has a single vacant seat for which the application period closes on December 2nd.  With several new members this is an excellent time to consider joining.

The Council is an elected Municipal Advisory Council to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, serving the citizens of the unincorporated Midcoast in Miramar, El Granada, Princeton, Moss Beach, and Montara.  It is comprised of seven members locally elected, or appointed,  to four year terms.

The Council currently holds regular meetings at 7:30 PM on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month (except November and December) at the Seton Coastside Medical Center in Moss Beach.

Community members are encouraged to step forward and become involved in the ongoing issues impacting the unincorporated coastside community.

A summary posting is available at, and applications can be submitted to on the county’s web site.

There are two important items on the Board of Supervisors agenda.

The Board will consider their position on the Coastal Commission’s recommended modifications to the Midcoast LCP Update AND they will also consider an interim urgency ordinance prohibiting new groundwater drinking wells in most of the Montara and Moss Beach area.  However, Seal Cove is not included in this area, as somehow it was not included in the Kleinfelter Report study area. Seal Cove is one of the most critically short water areas of the Midcoast.

The Big Wave developers will be at the BOS meeting on Tuesday, December 1. And they will also show up at the Coastal Commission hearing in San Francisco on December 10 when they consider taking action on the LCP Amendments. Some of the Coastal Commission staff recommended modifications to the LCP will affect Big Wave, so they will be arguing against them.

There are two very important meeting to attend - next Tuesday at 9:15 at the Board of Supervisors and Thursday, December 10 at the Coastal Commission meeting at City Hall, San Francisco. The San Mateo County item is 18.a., and will be heard sometime in the afternoon.

Board of Supervisors December 1 Agenda

Coastal Commission December Agenda

sabrina brennan
http://www.thepelicaneye.com/

A northwest swell of 14 to 18 feet and gale force winds will lead to high surf and choppy seas beginning Friday at 10am to Saturday at 4am, according to the National Weather Service.

Lisa McCaffrey has requested recount in the Granada Sanitary District election. McCaffrey lost to incumbent Leonard Woren by 577 to 567 votes.

County Elections will pull election materials Wednesday morning at 8:30 and will being counting Monday morning at 8:30, according to David Tom, County Elections Manager.  In the GSD election, 62% of the votes were cast by mail, and 38% on election day.

The cost of the recount, which will be borne by the party requesting it, is $828 per day. Although Tom expects that the ballots can all be counted in one day, it is not known how long it will take to examine and review disputed ballots.

Hang on to your HellyHansen’s Marketeers, as today is meant to bring a mighty blow and significant rain to the area this evening. 

Could mean that tonight will be a great time to gather up all the odd vegetables and ends of breads, leftover smidgens of sauces and make a winter stew to warm your bones.  My Good Ol’ Mom used to make a concoction she called Cream of the Week every Friday before the Big Shop on Saturday morning, and I am thinking a version of same would do me a world of good now.

I grew up in a household that strained to contain 5 kids, an ersatz big brother, the occasional wayward cousin and several exchange students. I had one older sister, and the rest were boys. Always boys, boys everywhere.  Hungry, merciless predators of the Frigidare all.  They would, could and did eat everything in sight as soon as it hit the table. Its a perfect wonder to me that anything missed their attention, but I guess the truth is that many of us don’t quite know what to do with that one extra onion, escaped bunch of kale or few orphaned carrots, now slightly bendy and a bit past their peak.  My Mom did.  Whether guided by industry, frustration or sheer panic as the teeming hordes began lurking about the scullery by 4 in the afternoon, she’d sort of tip the refrigerator, shake out the odd bits, pile them all into one big soup pot and turn on the stove.

She was the only Mom on the block to make her own croutons, and we were eating what they now call bruschetta long before it became the darling of swank bistros. What else do you do with the tail ends of perfectly good bread and 2 withering tomatoes and 8 folks to feed? Well, you toast the former, chop the latter and add some herbs, a dash of vinegar and a dollop of olive oil to the ‘maters, then pile them on toast and there you have it.  A nice cool foil to the warm rich stew and everyone is happy. 

On Saturday November 21st, The Visionary Edge will screen a sneak preview of What on Earth? Inside the Crop Circle Phenomenon!  The event will be co-hosted by and presented at the Community United Methodist Church in Half  Moon Bay.  

Filmmaker Suzanne Taylor is part of an international community of visionary artists, scientists, philosophers, geometers, educators, writers and farmers who marvel at crop circles. This documentary tracks her interactions with these ‘croppies,’ in England, where they converge every summer and go circle-chasing, indulge in circle- analysis, and talk about why they have changed their lives because of this phenomenon.  

Saturday, November 21st. Doors will open at 7:00pm, event begins at 7:30 at the Community United Methodist Church, 777 Miramontes Street (at Johnston), HMB. The event is free; donations will be   accepted to cover the costs of screening. Call 650-207-3440 for information and reservations.  

Best known for his work with Ray Brown, Diana Krall and Oscar Peterson , drummer Jeff Hamilton has performed on at least eight Grammy Award Winning recordings, and played with Diana Krall, Monty Alexander, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie Orchestra and countless others.

The trio (Jeff Hamilton – drums, Christoph Luty – bass,  Tamir Hendelman - piano: ) will be playing from their recently released CD, ‘Symbiosis’ under the Capri label. 

November 22, 2009 – 4:30, $30  

Douglas Beach House on Miramar Beach
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA  94019
650 726-4143, www.bachddsoc.org
Reservations:  [email protected]

Erosion of Surfers Beach west of El Granada, California, and sedimentation at the adjacent Pillar Point Harbor are both serious problems confronting the Coastside community. Representatives from many interested agencies, as well as members of the public, recently had an opportunity to share an understanding of the history of the area and consider possible approaches towards a solution to these problems.

You can watch the entire 3-hour meeting, including a very informative slide presentation, on MontaraFog at http://www.montarafog.com/Public-Policy/a-solution-for-surfers-beach-in-sight.html

Here’s a brief historical summary:

For millenia before human intervention, ocean waves interacted with relatively soft marine terrace deposits focused by rock outcroppings at Pillar Point and Miramontes Point, forming Half Moon Bay. The wave energy eroded the shoreline and ocean currents moved sediments to form a nearly-perfect log-spiral bay. The shoreline was in stable equilibrium, with typical erosion rates averaging a few inches per year.

In 1959 to 1961, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed the outer breakwater that protects Pillar Point Harbor. The natural ocean dynamics were upset. Wave energy—especially during storms—was refocused just south of the breakwater, on the area known locally as Mirada Surf. According to studies by Ken Lajoie of the U.S. Geological Survey, blufftop erosion rates increased dramatically, at some points reaching five feet per year. One consequence of the manmade wave patterns is the near-total loss of the bluffs at Surfers Beach (and significant loss of sand from the beach itself), as well as continuing loss of the San Mateo County park on Mirada Surf itself.

Meanwhile, littoral transport of sediments out of the part of the ocean that is now Pillar Point Harbor was blocked by the breakwater. The result is gradual filling of portions of the harbor, especially around the boat launch area. At low tide the amount of accumulated sediment is particularly dramatic.

What To Do?

The obvious solution, it would seem, is just to move the unwanted sand inside the harbor to the other side of the breakwater, where it is needed to replenish Surfers Beach and reduce erosion of the Mirada Surf area. But such a simple solution faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Of course, just as a starter, no government agency has any money these days to fix problems. But even if money were no object, no one wants to try a quick fix that only results in other environmental problems later.

Experts from the Coastal Sediment Management Workgroup presented some ideas. Surfers Beach is within the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, as well as the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and legislation prohibits disposal of spoils—i.e., the material that would be dredged from within the harbor—except at designated disposal sites. And Surfers Beach isn’t so designated. As one of the surfers noted, it would literally take an Act of Congress to allow an easy solution.

The group discussed possible approaches that might find support among all of the stakeholders, but as this was just an initial meeting to discuss the situation, nothing was decided.

The San Mateo County Harbor District convened this initial meeting of the Surfers Beach Shoreline Improvement Working Group for Pillar Point Harbor on Tuesday, November 10, 2009, at the Oceano Hotel, chaired by Peter Grenell, Harbor District General Manager. Attendees included representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, California Coastal Commission, Surfrider Foundation, Coastal Sediment Management Workgroup, United States Geological Survey, San Mateo County, and the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District. Brian Overfelt, Bob Battalio, and others spoke on behalf of the Coastside community.

Unfortunately, CalTrans and the City of Half Moon Bay were not represented. Erosion of Surfers Beach threatens the portion of the California Coastal Trail falling within Half Moon Bay city limits, and severe erosion threatens Highway 1. Portions of Mirada Road—the old Coast Highway decades ago—have completely fallen into the Pacific Ocean as a result of significant coastal retreat since the construction of the breakwater.

The Harbor District has not announced the date or location of a follow-up meeting.