The Bay Area Green Business Program last week announced it has presented Reece Computer Systems with a Green Business Certification. Reece is one of only two computer or technology-related businesses that have achieved this status in San Mateo County.

“Reece contacted us about achieving this certification approximately two years ago, before Half Moon Bay was included in our program”, said Danielle Lee, green business coordinator for San Mateo County. “Reece not only met our stringent requirements, but they far exceeded them when designing their office headquarters”.

Comments in italics are by Coastsider

Jim Larimer’s recent column in the Half Moon Bay Review is nearly incomprehensible if you don’t speak the secret language of property rights extremists. In it, he tries to convince us that the city of Half Moon Bay should let Chop Keenan develop Beachwood, rather than pay they settlement they (cynically, yet foolishly) agreed to. He fails to make his case.

He also uses innuendo and falsehoods to try and draw a line between what he calls "no-growthers" (anyone who doesn’t agree with his plans for the Coastside) and environmentally-minded Coastsiders (who are more than half the population).

Let’s take a look at his argument. You can mouse over the highlighted phrases for more detail if you like. I apologize in advance for the length of this deconstruction, but Mr. Larimer’s essay is full of rich material. The indented material includes his entire piece, so nothing was taken out of context.

The U.S. District Court for Northern California ruled in 2007 that the city had taken the Beachwood property by first flooding it and then by declaring it a wetland [The federal judge did not say the wetland determination was a taking]. The value taken from the property owner was established by the court to be the value added to the property if had it been fully developed as originally planned [The valuation was nuts, but it’s no longer at issue].

On March 27, 2008, the city entered into an agreement with the property owner to provide him with a permit to develop the property by June 30 of this year or to buy it at a loss-of-value price of $18 million. If they are unable to pay in full by Aug. 29, the city will owe the property owner $19.9 million plus interest on any remaining unpaid debt until it is paid in full. A bond to raise the cash to pay this debt in full by Aug. 29 will require substantial principal and interest payments to be paid from property taxes for many years to come and will limit the services that would otherwise be funded by our property taxes.

The city could act to restore the full value of the property by allowing the improperly installed storm sewer to be fixed and by additionally providing the owner with a building permit. The city would be required to confess its error in ruling that the property is a wetland [There is no evidence that this was ever an option]. No action to admit this error or to re-examine the process that made it has been taken by the city. The most likely outcome now is that the city will purchase this land in accordance with the 2008 agreement.

Mr. Larimer repeats a familiar demand: "Rewrite/reinterpret/ignore the city’s definition of wetland and let the building begin!  We need the tax revenue!". There is no evidence that this is an option at Beachwood, and no evidence that it would satisfy the settlement.

We’ll discuss his tax-roll foolishness in a moment.

The act of purchasing the property acknowledges that it is a wetland unsuitable for almost any development [The property was always a wetland. That’s why they drained it]. It will be a vacant lot, an eyesore [In Mr. Larimer’s eyes, from the highway, at 45mph.] in perpetuity, sandwiched between two housing developments on similar properties. The only winner if this happens will be the no-growth political faction [No such faction exists.] whose political leadership on previous city councils created this disaster by ignoring the reason the property became flooded and then denying a permit to develop it [That’s not an option]. Beachwood is an example of their many victories in controlling growth in our community.

In other words, it’s the city’s fault for not ignoring the law at the request of a powerful developer. Not even Judge Walker went that far.

Is Beachwood an "eyesore"?  I’ve walked the ground at Beachwood, and once you go in about 100 feet, beyond the highway noise, it’s really pretty nice. The open space blends into the hillside—where Mr. Larimer wants to build even more houses and a bypass—in a seamless environment. He’s right that it’s kind of homely from the highway, but it’s a bad idea to plan our communities to be most pleasing when viewed from a moving car.

Is a uniform wall of single-family homes (and their six-foot fences) along Highway 1 is more beautiful than a glimpse our hillsides and natural scrub?

Mr. Larimer keeps referring to some shadowy "no growth faction", imputing multiple strawman motives to them. Who are they? What is his evidence that they exist? He offers us nothing, only their supposed motives and mysterious misdeeds.

The Coastside Mothers’ Club will be holding its second Cothing Swap of the year on Saturday, May 16, 2009.

The swap and sale is an opportunity for club members to recycle their gently used kids’ clothing, toys, and baby gear with the opportunity to trade for an item of comparable value. The public is welcome to purchase items at very reasonable prices, most items will be priced at $1 except the big-ticket items. Nothing will exceed $20.

The event will be held from 10:00am - 12:00pm at a member’s home located at 534 Highland Avenue in Half Moon Bay. For more information or for any questions, please contact Carolyn Mendez at [email protected]

Friday morning, friends and supporters of Richard J. Elkus Youth Ranch joined together in the glorious weather and cut the ribbon on their new Enabling Garden. 

As the crowd of about 50 watched representatives of the Atkins Foundation and Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the garden’s lead funders, cut the green ribbon opening a raised bed garden designed to accommodate those with impaired mobility.  One raised bed was even designed sort of like a desk so that those in wheel chairs could wheel right up and get to work. 

Once again Elkus Ranch fulfills the vision of it’s namesake donor Mr. Elkus of providing a spot where regardless of their physical limitations, people can learn, hands on, about the relationship between themselves and the food and fiber that satisfies their needs.  Go pay a visit when you can, or consider sending your kids to one of their summer camp sessions.  It’s a knockout!

Seabirds are once again dying along the coast from San Francisco as far South as Oxnard, according to WildCare.

Brandt’s Cormorants, grebes and loons are those that seem to be most commonly found. The largest numbers of dead birds reported so far include 67 Brandt’s and 13 grebes at Ocean Beach. This event seems to have coincided with the large wind storms that came through around April 15 but no one knows if that’s relevant.

So far preliminary necropsy findings show emaciation as the only issue that some of the dead birds had in common BUT many of the dead birds have been within normal healthy body weights.

However, IBRRC (the International Bird Rescue and Research Center)  reports that of the over 30 live birds they have treated all were emaciated and had very heavy parasite loads and low blood levels. The birds ate well, were treated for the parasites and were banded and released when healthy.

Lab results on May 4 were negative for Avian Influenza, West Nile Virus, Newcastle Disease and domoic acid poisoning.

NOTE: This was posted a little late, but there are still two performances this weekend.

The Coastside Young Actors Workshop presents a play in which a mistake at the baby factory creates babies that are bigger than their parents.
 
Half Moon Bay High School Stage
Friday/Saturday, May 8/9, 7:30pm; Sunday, May 10, 2pm.
Tickets at the door only $5.
Info: 726-1304

The Half Moon Bay Library is holding a poetry contest with cash prizes for Coastside teens. Poems entered in the contest will, with the author’s permission, be published in the 2009 edition of Moon Harvest/Cosecha de la Luna. Teens also have the option of having a poem published anonymously. Previous editions of the poetry anthology are available for checkout at the Library.

Coastside teens ages 12 to 19 can submit an original poem in English or Spanish or both, written in any form. The contest deadline is June 30. Bilingual poems (English/Spanish) are eligible, if both the poem and its translation are the work of the teen.

Cash prizes will be awarded: 1st place English and Spanish, $75.00 each; 2nd place English and Spanish, $50.00 each; 5 Honorable Mentions, $25.00 each. For the fifth year, a Librarian’s Choice prize of $25.00 will be awarded for a poem selected by Library staff.  In addition, teens entering the contest will receive a free copy of Moon Harvest/Cosecha de la Luna.

The prizes will be awarded at a poetry reading and awards ceremony on Friday, September 4 at 7:00 p.m. All teens who enter the contest will be invited to read their work.

Complete contest rules and entry forms for the 11th Annual Teen Poetry Contest are available at the Library and on the Bookmobile. The Half Moon Bay Library is located at 620 Correas Street. For more information, or for Library or Bookmobile hours, call 726-2316 x2.

A sixteen year old boy was struck and killed on Highway 1 at Ruisseau Francais Avenue by a northbound car shortly after midnight Saturday morning, reports CBS 5.

Officers interviewed the vehicle’s driver, who cooperated with the investigation.

Highway 1 was closed in both directions between Young Avenue and Frenchmans Creek Road for about three hours because of the crash, but was reopened, police said.

The cause of the crash was under investigation, according to police.

At about 9pm Wednesday, three African American male juveniles walked away from Log Cabin Ranch. located in La Honda. Log Cabin Ranch is run by the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department.

All three were wearing khaki pants, two with white shirts and and the third with an orange shirt and dreadlocks with purple extensions.

If you spot any of the subjects please call 911.

Bring your families out on the first Thursday of the month, May 7, for "Cool Harbor Nights, a Coastal Car & Motorcycle Show".  The event is free and runs from 4pm until sunset. Local classic cars, hot rods and unusual vehicles all park for the evening in front of Princeton Seafood Company to be oogled and drooled over.  Fun, oldies music plays throughout the parking lot to add to the festive spirit.