The Half Moon Bay Community Park Master Plan Committee is looking for community input to their new park planning process.  I’ve received a copy of their survey from Joe Falcone, committee member and HMB Planning Commissioner. This is a longer version of the survey that appeared in the Half Moon Bay Review on Wednesday. Completed surveys are due by Monday, April 4.

There are two versions of the survey: an Acrobat version you can print out and mail to the city’s Parks & Recreation department at the address below, or a Micorosoft Word version you can fill out on your computer and email to Joe Falcone. If you don’t already have Acrobat Reader, you can download it from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

City of Half Moon Bay

Parks & Recreation Department

501 Main Street

Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

You’re also invited to share your ideas with the community by posting them here on Coastsider.

Once again the La Honda Educational Foundation & Pescadero Education Foundation are joining together to present the 3rd annual Gardens of the South Coast Garden Tour, Plant Sale, and Wine & Cheese Tasting on Saturday & Sunday, May 14 & 15.  The Garden Tour will begin at 10 am and continue to 4 pm both days, with the Wine & Cheese Tasting on Saturday, from 4 - 6 pm at Harley Farms on North Street in Pescadero.

Imagine, what a wonderful Mother’s day gift it would be…tickets to the Garden Tour (a week after Mother’s Day!)  Perhaps bring along a gourmet picnic lunch, a nice bottle of her favorite wine, and treat Mom to some of the best kept secret gardens she has ever experienced!  Finish up Saturday’s tour in Pescadero and enjoy the Wine and Cheese Tasting in the rustic old barn at Harley Goat Farm, included in the premium ticket price of only $35.  Maybe even attend an entertaining and informative lecture by Sunset Magazine’s expert gardener Jack McKinnon.  Just think, a day (or two) of quality time to enjoy and remember for a long time!

This June will mark the ninth anniversary of Measure K, a $35 million bond approved by Coastsiders to pay for new middle school construction and other facilities upgrades in the Cabrillo Unified School District. So why is our middle school so dilapidated?  That’s a long and complicated story.

With the recognition that the federal approval process for the proposed Wavecrest site could be long and arduous, and that Cabrillo Unified School District is once again considering alternative sites for its long-delayed middle school, now is a good time to look at how we got ourselves in this fix.

The following chronology is based on the excellent chronology prepared for the failed Measure D campaign in November 2003.  I’ve edited it to make the tone less partisan, updated it with more recent events and added links to relevant documents and stories on Coastsider.

I’m publishing this in tandem with a chronology of the Wavecrest development, which you may also find interesting. Many events show up on both timelines. Please email notes and corrections or attach them to this story as comments.

I happen to have a strong opinion in this matter. I think it’s insane to move the middle school from Cunha to the edge of town. This would be true even if tying the building of a new middle school to the fate of Wavecrest had not turned out to be a disastrously bad decision—one that the school board would make again and again over the decade that followed.

I’ll be examining the so-called Podesta site, which the CUSD is currently considering, in the near future.

Having said that, I’ve tried to make this chronology as fair as possible.  Comments and corrections are welcome from both sides of this issue.

February 1996
The school board adopts a Master Facilities Plan, based on projections for future growth and district needs assessments. Among recommendations: a new middle school. A site selection committee is formed. This document is supposed to undergo an annual review, which it has never had. In the intervening nine years, growth trends and projections have changed considerably.

June 1996
More than 75 percent of Coastside residents vote in favor of and easily pass CUSD’s proposed Measure K, a $35 million bond measure to support new middle school construction and other CUSD facilities upgrades. It has been argued that this bond money can only be used to build a new middle school on a NEW site. Not true, according to a nationally recognized bond counsel’s pro bono opinion [PDF].

October 1996
CUSD Site Selection Committee releases its report [PDF]. Using the state site selection criteria, Cunha ranked #1 of five candidate sites, while Wavecrest is fourth.

May 1997
CUSD enters a deal with Wavecrest Partners and Pepper Lane Properties to swap approximately 20 acres of school district-owned land in EI Granada valued at $1.7 million for the purchase of a 25-acre middle school site valued at $2.7 (this site has since been relocated and reduced in size as a result of flawed environmental analysis.)

June 1997
CUSD attorney commissions an appraisal on the district’s El Granada property. No appraisal was done on the North Wavecrest site. According to a subsequent Grand Jury investigation into the CUSD deal, the North Wavecrest valuation was determined by information provided by Coastside real estate agents. The School District later claimed in Grand Jury testimony that it was unaware that within two years prior to the agreement Wavecrest Partners had purchased 17.364 acres of the 25-acre North Wavecrest site for $909,000, or approximately $52,350 per acre, less than half the acreage price used for the $2.7 million valuation in the agreement for North Wavecrest.

September 1998
Contracts between CUSD board of trustees and Wavecrest are executed. Under this agreement, CUSD is obligated to pay Wavecrest Partners a development fee of $255,000 in semi-annual installments during the two years following the closing date.

October 1998
San Mateo County Grand Jury begins the first of two investigations into irregularities related to the land swap deal. Following CDSD’s refusal to explain who had provided the information used in reaching the real estate valuations used in the transactions, subpoenas were issued. The Grand Jury eventually learned an initial appraisal of the El Granada property found it to be valued at $4.4 million. According to testimony, the CUSD board felt that this appraisal was incorrect in assuming an adequate volume of sewer and water entitlements would be available for sale to satisfy the proposed developments. The appraiser was not asked to reevaluate the site assuming the unavailability of entitlements.

January 1999
San Mateo County Grand Jury releases final report on CUSD’s land swap [PDF], finding several significant issues and making recommendations accordingly .

November 1999
Parcel Tax I, a four-year commitment of $125 per year, fails to pass.

December 2001
California Coastal Commission finds substantial issue with the Wavecrest project and votes to postpone approval.

March 2002
Parcel Tax II, a three-year commitment of $75 per year, fails to pass.

May 2002
After more than three years of delays, CUSD President Ken Jones and other board members call a public hearing to discuss the middle school dilemma. Superintendent John Bayless presents the School Board and public with an exhaustive slide show detailing all available middle school site options and concludes by making an extremely strong case for modernizing, improving, or expanding the middle school at its current Cunha site. He explains all the pros of going with this option and also outlines a strategy for phasing in the project over three years with the project able to begin nearly immediately.

June 6. 2002
School Board holds another public hearing for community feedback on the middle school issue. A sizable group of parents and concerned citizens speak on behalf of the Cunha site as a viable and desirable alternative. They are dismissed (and in some cases publicly denigrated) as "eco-terrorists" and a small "fringe" group.

June 20. 2002
A week later, parents return to speak before the school board, this time bearing the names of 1,350 Coastside residents collected in five days outside of Safeway. The petition urges CUSD to consider placing the new middle school at Cunha rather investing any further in the the long-delayed Wavecrest plan. Once again, this alternative is dismissed without further deliberation. All five school board members vote to continue their commitment to Wavecrest.

November 2002
Coastal Commission declines to consider approval for Wavecrest, citing still incomplete biological analysis.

January 2003
A joint City Council-CUSD town hall meeting is held specifically on the middle school site issue. CUSD President Ken Jones and member Dwight Wilson, representatives to the joint city-CUSD committee, do not attend the meeting. All five members of City Council are in attendance. CUSD sends no official representatives.

March 2003
A joint City Council-CUSD School Board exploration of viable middle school sites determines that there are only two such sites: Cunha and Wavecrest. City Council members Toni Taylor and Jim Grady recommend Cunha as community’s best option [Grady’s presentation]. CUSD school board members vote to table the discussion.

March 2003
Parcel Tax III, a five-year commitment of $250 per year, does not pass. Less than a week later, the school board votes to reintroduce exactly the same parcel tax, without any adjustment or reconsideration, in a special June election at a cost of $50,000.

April 2003
An anonymous donor gives the district $50,000 to mount the Parcel Tax IV election. After the district refuses to provide the public with access to the donor’s identity, both the San Mateo County District Attorney and the California Fair Political Practices Commission investigate.

June 2003
Parcel Tax IV, again a five-year commitment of $250 per year, fails to pass.

July 2003
Measure D, an initiative to prohibit construction of any new school or school facility west of Highway 1 and permit construction of any new middle school in the centrally located downtown core of the city, is introduced. Less than eight days after its announcement, the initiative gets enough signatures to appear on the ballot.

August 2003
Superintendent John Bayless acknowledges the anonymous $50,000 donation to the parcel tax campaign came from him. Bayless declines to provide any financial documentation of his claim.

October 2003
School District trustees vote unanimously to oppose Measure D.

November 2003 Measure D fails by a vote of 1,444 to 1,222

July 2004
City of Half Moon Bay and Wavecrest Village LLC come to an agreement. The most important changes are the elimination of retail and commercial space and the reduction of the number of units from 225 to 175.  The city sends a letter to the Coastal Commission in support of the Wavecrest Village project.

A California red-legged frog, a federally-recognized threatened species, is found at Wavecrest by a herpetologist, who reports it to the California Department of Fish and Game.

August 2004
The Cabrillo Unified School District signs a new agreement with Wavecrest Village LLC.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service finds California Red-Legged Frog habitat at Wavecrest. This leads the California Coastal Commission to remove the Wavecrest project from its agenda.

September 2004
CUSD and Wavecrest developers sign an agreement to create a special district that would tax market-value homes in the development $1,000 per house per year for 30 years. The revenue from this Mello-Roos community facilities district would be earmarked for middle school improvements. There are 178 market-rate homes planned for Wavecrest.

Wavecrest almost immediately misses its new agreement’s first deadline with CUSD because of delays caused by the discovery of endangered species habitat on the property. The CUSD board declines to exercise its option to cancel the agreement.

March 2005
The City of Half Moon Bay and Cabrillo Unified School District admit they’re exploring a new site for the middle school, adjacent to Half Moon Bay High School.

The Wavecrest development is single most polarizing issue on the Coastside. Arguably, the controversy surrounding this development and later its associated middle school plan led to the emergence of a viable smart-growth alternative in Coastside politics. This July will mark the tenth anniversary of the approval of the original Wavecrest plan by a pro-development Half Moon Bay City Council.

With the recognition that the federal approval process could be long and arduous, and that Cabrillo Unified School District is once again considering alternative sites for its long-delayed middle school, now is a good time to look at how we got ourselves in this fix.

The following chronology is based on the excellent chronology prepared for the failed Measure D campaign in November 2003.  I’ve edited it to make the tone less partisan, updated it with more recent events and added links to relevant documents and stories on Coastsider.

I’m publishing this in tandem with a chronology of the CUSD middle school, which you may also find interesting. Many events show up on both timelines. Please email notes and corrections to me, or attach them as comments to this story.

Can’t get enough?  The Half Moon Bay Review published an overview of the Wavecrest project in March of 2002. There is an excellent archive of Wavecrest material on SanMateo.org.

Where: Wavecrest (the property) is located on the west side of Highway 1, roughly at the southern end of Main Street (across the highway from Johnston House) on 200 acres of open space. Smith Field is at its southwest corner.

Who: Wavecrest (the company) has had several names over the years. It is a partnership between Ocean Colony Partners (97% owned by Plumbers and Steamfitters Locals 467 and 393, and developers of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Half Moon Bay Golf Links, and the Ocean Colony gated community) and other landowners. The Cabrillo Unified School District school board are co-applicants before the Coastal Commission.

What: Wavecrest Village (the development) includes 178 new market-rate homes, 39 affordable homes, and a new middle school on the western edge of Highway 1 south of town as of March 2005

When:  Wavecrest was appealed by competing real estate developers to the California Coastal Commission. The project has been in limbo ever since, mainly due to incomplete/compromised wetlands analysis; major unresolved issues such as drainage, run-off and traffic impact; and the discovery of endangered species and habitat on the property. It is currently unclear how many years it will take before the project could be approved by federal, state, and local agencies.

July 1995
The Half Moon Bay City Council passes an ordinance approving and adopting the original Wavecrest project. This project, located south of downtown and west of Highway 1, includes 750 market-rate houses and a golf course (the developer already owns two golf courses surrounded by a gated community and (at the time) the new Ritz-Carlton a little farther south along Highway 1).

November 1995
Half Moon Bay voters pass a referendum requiring that the ordinance be repealed. This is also the start of a significant shift in local politics, away from a pro-development, pro-growth orientation to a slower, planned growth vision.

July 1999
After asking for and receiving a set of developer considerations, such as space for a new middle school, a Boys and Girls Club, five ball fields and 70 acres of open space, City Council approves a newly configured Wavecrest Village. This one calls for 225 market-rate units and 54 units of affordable units of housing, divided between two tracts, one to the north and one to south of the development. The plan also includes 18 acres of commercial/retail space (roughly three times the size of downtown Half Moon Bay. At one meeting, city council members grant a Coastal Development Permit and a vesting tentative map, and enter a binding development agreement.

However, there appear to be several "mutual mistakes in fact." For example, at the time wetlands had not been properly delineated. Also, at the time, Cabrillo Unified School District (CUSD) still provided busing to school, which mitigated traffic congestion on Highway 1, a service that has since been eliminated by the school district for budgetary reasons.

Finally, lawyers quietly remove a key provision requiring that final action on the project’s Coastal Development Permit precede the awarding of any new home development allocations under the city growth-limiting ordinance (Measure A). Wavecrest has been accumulating these scarce allocations ever since. It’s unclear whether these allocations are transferable if Wavecrest goes unbuilt.

August 1999
Competing real estate developers appeal the project before the California Coastal Commission [PDF of appeal], where it has been tied up ever since.

September 1999
The California Coastal Commission discovers that Wavecrest Partners have installed a drainage pipe in order to dry up wetlands and pass obligatory Environmental Impact Report inspections. The Commission finds that substantial issues are unresolved and assumes jurisdiction. The project is now out of local hands.

December 2001
Wavecrest’s developers withdraw their application to the California Coastal Commission. According to the Coastal Commission staff, biological studies still have not been satisfactorily completed. The Coastal Commission has yet to hear the matter.

March 2001
Wavecrest Partners submits new version its project, based on requirements put forth by the Coastal Commission. The new development includes a total of 190 market rate homes and 54 affordable units, mostly located as apartments over commercial space. Most significantly, this version eliminates the whole southern tract, where wetlands have been delineated, moving all the units to the northern section, thus doubling the density of housing and cutting lots sizes in half There is only one road into and out of the project.

March 2002
The Coastal Commission hears public testimony against Wavecrest at a public hearing in Monterey. At this point, the Sierra Club and other major environmental organizations become increasingly vocal opponents. The Sierra Club designates Wavecrest one of their "Great Coastal Places.".

May 2002
Parents and other citizens concerned with CUSD’s stalled middle school progress speak at a school board hearing on the site issue. They urge CUSD Board of Trustees to consider revamping Cunha at its current site. Board members dismiss the suggestion as a "fringe" point of view. Frustrated, citizens went out and gathered more than 1350 signatures in five days and presented them to the school board as proof of the idea’s wide community appeal. The school board reaffirms its commitment to Wavecrest.

October 2002
A new, substantially altered, version of the Wavecrest Village project, eliminating the commercial element and relocating the middle school to a site on Highway 1, is unveiled through an ad in the Half Moon Bay Review. City Council is not formally notified of the redesign and as of June 2003, Coastal Commission staff report that a new version of the official project has not yet been submitted for consideration.

May 2003
A full year passes without any progress at all on Wavecrest. California Coastal Commission staff report that they are awaiting additional biological analysis, which Wavecrest Partners has so far declined to provide. Meanwhile, two springtime efforts to pass a parcel tax fail by a narrow margin—swing voters perhaps who have cast a no-confidence vote against CUSD.

June 2003
The community rallies behind its downtown with a historic block party to celebrate and support Cunha’s Country Store, which has been razed in a fire.

July 2003
A new version of Wavecrest is unveiled, featuring 281 homes, a middle school, a Boys and Girls Club, 30,000 square feet of retail space, relocated ball fields and open space.

September 2003
Half Moon Bay City Council votes 3-2 to find Wavecrest’s developer in default of their August 1999 agreement. The council cites drastic, poorly communicated changes in the project since the council’s original approved in July 1999.

April 2004
Wavecrest introduces a new version of the development, featuring a reduction in the number of homes from 275 to 204 and the reinsertion of 123,000 square feet of commercial space.

July 2004
City of Half Moon Bay and Wavecrest Village LLC come to an agreement. The most important changes are the elimination of retail and commercial space and the reduction of the number of units from 225 to 175.  The city sends a letter to the Coastal Commission in support of the Wavecrest Village project.

A California red-legged frog, a federally-recognized threatened species, is found at Wavecrest by a herpetologist, who reports it to the California Department of Fish and Game.

August 2004
The Cabrillo Unified School District signs a new agreement with Wavecrest Village LLC.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service finds California Red-Legged Frog habitat at Wavecrest. This leads the California Coastal Commission to remove the Wavecrest project from its agenda.

September 2004
CUSD and Wavecrest developers sign an agreement to create a special district that would tax market-value homes in the development $1,000 per house per year for 30 years. The revenue from this Mello-Roos community facilities district would be earmarked for middle school improvements. There are 178 market-rate homes planned for Wavecrest.

Wavecrest almost immediately misses its new agreement’s first deadline with CUSD because of delays caused by the discovery of endangered species habitat on the property. The CUSD board declines to exercise its option to cancel the agreement.

Wavecrest’s original wetlands delineation expires, requiring a new delineation before the approval process can proceed.

November 2004
Wavecrest’s owners attempt to grow hay on a portion of the property. The US Fish and Wildlife Service and California Coastal Commission tell them to stop cultivating the property as it has been found to contain endangered species habitat.

February 2005
Wavecrest applies to the US Army Corps of Engineers for a 404 permit to allow development activity that would affect waters of the U.S.  They plan to create frog breeding ponds in the undeveloped portion of the land. If the Corps declines to accept jurisdiction, Wavecrest faces a multiyear process of developing a Habitat Conservation Plan with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

March 2005
The City of Half Moon Bay and Cabrillo Unified School District admit they’re exploring a new site for the middle school, adjacent to Half Moon Bay High School.

La Honda Elementary School’s after school drama club performs "El Nino" this Friday and Saturday night.  The play is handwritten and "sculpted"  by Jessica Abbe, (a school board member and parent of 2 La Honda students), with the rich history and colorful nature of La Honda and it’s surrounding communities combined in a medley of Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" intermingled with music, events and characters of La Honda in the 1960’s. Current-day issues and technologies are blended in for some good laughs.  The cast consists of 32 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders with parent volunteers Bruce Krempetz directing, his wife Heather McAvoy doing stage-lighting, and Michael Shaff as sound engineer.

The curtain opens at 7 pm sharp on Friday Mar. 18 and Sat. Mar. 19 in La Honda Elementary School’s Multi-Purpose Room, at 61 Sears Ranch Road in La Honda.  Adult tickets are $7 and children are $5.  All proceeds go to La Honda PTA and to fund more drama at La Honda Elementary.  More info: 650.747.0051

A law has been introduced in the California State Assembly, written by the California Water Association, which would rewrite the state’s eminent domain laws to make it far more difficult for the public to take over private water systems, according to the Monterey Herald.

The CWA represents 42 private water companies in the California, including California American Water Co.  Cal-Am owns the water system in Felton, which a local group is trying to take over. It previously owned Montara’s water system, which was taken over by the Montara and Sanitary District.

"Who else but Cal Am would propose such a change?" asked Ron Weitzman, spokesman for Monterey Friends of Locally Owned Water (FLOW), a fledgling group examining the possibility of a public takeover of Cal Am’s Peninsula water district. "The bill would be a big blow to the condemnation efforts of our local FLOW and any other group working toward the same end."

There are lots of drugs and alcohol in this week’s log. There was only one theft—somebody stole the barbecue of folks who were moving into a home on Pescadero Road. Welcome to the neighborhood. The good news is that’s about as bad as it gets.

Deputies were dispatched to Virginia Avenue in Moss Beach on the report of a suspicious person. Deputies met with two subjects, age 19, of Half Moon Bay and age 18, of Half Moon Bay. Both were found to be under the influence of a controlled substance, and were placed under arrest. In addition, one had an outstanding warrant, and was in possession of drug paraphernalia. The was arrested for resisting arrest, and vandalism when he kicked out the window of a Sheriff’s Patrol car. Both were booked into the county jail.

On the above date and time Sheriff’s Deputies were on routine patrol when they observed a vehicle driving erratically. Deputies effected a traffic stop and met with the driver, age 49. He was found to be driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage. He was arrested and booked into the county jail.

On the above date and time deputies were on patrol in the area of Highway 1 at Highway 84 when they contacted a female, age 41, of Arcata. She was flagging down cars in an attempt to get a ride. While speaking to her the Deputies observed signs consistent with someone being under the influence of a controlled substance. She admitted to being under the influence of, and in possession of a controlled substance. She was arrested and transported to the county jail.

Deputies were on routine patrol when they observed a vehicle driving the erratically. They effected a traffic enforcement stop and contacted the driver of the vehicle, age 33, of San Francisco. He admitted to having too much to drink. Field sobriety tests were administered and Armienti was found to be driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage. He was arrested and transported to the county jail.

New homeowners that were moving into their home on Pescadero Road called the Sheriff’s Office to report that unknown subjects entered their house and took a brand new BBQ.

While Deputies were on routine patrol on Pescadero Road they stopped to check the welfare of the driver of a vehicle that was parked on the shoulder of the roadway. Upon contact with the driver, age 52 of Half Moon Bay it was discovered that he was in possession of a controlled substance. He was arrested and transported to the county jail. His vehicle was towed.

Deputies were on routine patrol when they effected a traffic stop on a possible drunk driver. The driver of the vehicle, age 42, of Brisbane was found to be in possession of a gun and several other weapons. He was also found to be in possession of a controlled substance. He was arrested and transported to the county jail.

Local and state legislators are looking at setting limits on the number of crab traps a fishing boat can carry to 250. The goal is to keep the crab season from coming to an early end when the supply of crabs is depleated.  Lately, big boats with more than 1,000 traps have swooped into the crab fishery, ending the season practically overnight.

The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has appointed two new members, Charlene C. Kabcenell of Portola Valley and Larry Jacobs of Pescadero, to its Board of Directors.

Charlene Kabcenell is a retired vice president of Oracle Corporation.

Larry Jacobs is president and CEO of Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo, Inc. Established in 1980 by Jacobs and his wife, Sandra, Jacobs Farm grows organic culinary herbs, edible flowers on 200 cultivated acres in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.

Click "read more" for press release.

U.S. Department of Transportation will give California $150.3 million to build the Devil’s Slide bypass tunnel. That’s about the only news in this Chronicle story. The remainder is about how happy everyone is that it’s going to be built.