Santa Cruz County Public Works Department eliminated two possible landfill sites that would have routed garbage through San Mateo County parks.  The difficulty of getting access to the parks was the reason for the decision, according to the SMC Times.

Superior Court judge Carl Holm rejected a request by opponents to either halt or put to a vote the annexation of the coastside to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD).

Annexation opponent Oscar Braun plans to take the matter back to LAFCO by incorporating the rural coastside as the town of Los Pueblecitos. His plan includes the transfer of all MROSD property in Los Pueblecitos to the new town.

The district says it has 60 days from the issuance of LAFCo’s Certificate of Completion to appoint an Ombudsperson, begin public participation, and plan for amending its Good Neighbor Policy. MROSD says it will solicit public input to determine how the District’s wards should be redrawn so that coastside residents are represented.  They say they’ll include workshops on the coastside.

A couple of days ago, I asked Oscar Braun if he’d like to comment once Judge Holm delivered his decision.  he replied in email:

As stated in the letter brief to the Court, we are already gathering petition signatures from the more than 5,500 disenfranchised Coastsiders to qualify the incorporation & detachment of Los Pueblecitos for the March 25, 2005 ballot.  Regardless of the determination of the Court regarding the LAFCO Protest balloting, the FINAL decision will be made by the voters of the Rural Lands (South Coast) area residents. In short, the Courts ruling will be moot.

UPDATE: you can now download the decision from Coastsider [pdf].

UPDATE:  Oscar Braun says he plans to sue. In Merc he says: "It’s neither a victory for us or them—it will continue on in court. The court has just said that, in order for us to challenge the annexation, we must do it a different way." In the SMC Times: "We’re off to court."

Click on the "read more" link to see MROSD’s press release.

There’s a better map of "Los Pueblecitos" at SF Gate. It’s much better than the hand-drawn one that accompanies the petition. It makes clear something that I missed in my original story: the town would be bordered on the east by either Highway 280 or Highway 35 from roughly north of Highway 92, including the Crystal Springs Reservoir.

It amplifies the important point that the town would incorporate (in both senses of the word) a vast amount of land that is not so much rural as it is uninhabited.

The Kings Mountain Art Fair is not another schlocky collection of vendors on a sweltering main street. Located in the redwoods, the KAMF is one of the most selectively juried events of its kind in the Bay Area.  Because of the tranquil outdoor setting and non-commercial purpose of the fair, Kings Mountain attracts a number of artists who appear nowhere else.

Hiking trails surround the site. “There are no sound stages or wine tastings like at other art fairs. There is just the restful sound of the breeze in the trees and extraordinary art. You’ll feel renewed as if you took a trip to Tahoe, but without the drive,” says Sybil Plank, KMAF Chairman.

Full breakfast under the redwoods with the artists starts at 8AM with lunch, wine, beer and beverages served from 11:30AM. Supervised children’s activities and games take place all day in "Kiddie Hollow." Staffed by high school age (and up) volunteers, kids enjoy spin art, glitter, games, reading or tree climbing allowing parents of older kids the freedom to browse the fair while their kids play. There is a nominal charge of less than $2 per child per hour. Younger children are also welcome and parents can supervise from afar in a special parents’ rest area.

The Fair will take place at Kings Mountain Community Center on Highway 35, 6 miles south of Highway 92 [map & directions]. Started in 1963, KAMF benefits the Kings Mountain Volunteer Fire Brigade and other community charities. Call (650) 851-2710 or see www.kingsmountainartfair.org for information.

Farallone View Elementary School changed its start time this year from 8:00 am to 8:25 am, but the district neglected to notify parents or any of the dozens of local merchants, tutors, or child care providers who were affected by the change. "I apologize for it," said superintendant John Bayless. "We should have sent a letter to parents, and there’s no excuse for it."

The only notifications were street signs and notices posted at the school the week before classes began. Because the school is on a dead-end street, no one who didn’t visit Farallone View the week before school would have seen the sign. As parents trickled in to read the postings of class assignements, they found out.

Monday morning, on the first day of school, one parent says she found principal Mike Bachicha "surrounded by unhappy parents" when she arrived to drop off her son. Gymtowne Gymnastics in Moss Beach has had to move their afternoon students and classes, and only found out about the change when one of their employees, whose child attends Farallone View, called the school. Jari Chidester, a tutor in Moss Beach, says that five of her afternoon students needed to be rescheduled.

The change was made because the January redrawing of elementary districts made it necessary to have two school bus runs from Half Moon Bay to Farallone View each day, according to principal Bachicha. The decision to have two bus runs, he says, was made the first week of July. But no one was in the Farallone View office until the second week of August, when everyone was so busy putting class schedules together that there was no time to write, review, translate, print, and distribute a letter to the community.

The only other public notice was in the third paragraph of a story in the Review with the innocuous title "Bell set to ring in new school year".

The meeting to discuss the location of the Santa Cruz County landfill will be 6:30 to 9:30 pm tonight. The two sites near Pescadero would require use and possible expansion of coastside roads, according to the Committee for Green Foothills.

The meeting will be held at the Henry J. Mello Center for the Performing Arts, 250 E. Beach St. in Watsonville. There’s a lot of information at the Santa Cruz County Public Works Department web site.

UPDATE: The SMC Times confirms that the two dumpsites near San Mateo county have been eliminated from consideration.

Alana Freiberg appeared in court Wednesday for allegedly abducting her daughter Anna. Unexpectedly, she claims to be her daughter. "With all due respect, your honor, Alana Freiberg is my mother. . .I plead guilty to driving a car without my permit," the 57-year-oold is quoted as saying the San Mateo County Times.  Freiberg told the judge that her birth date was June 8, 1992, and spoke in a "girlish voice".

Ron Marler has posted a nice album of photos from the "2004 Aloha in the Redwoods" on Sunday in La Honda. Aloha in the Redwoods is a benefit for the La Honda Educational Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to raising funds for teacher salaries, classroom aides, educational enrichment, and the music program at La Honda Elementary School.

Aloha in the Redwoods featured Hawaiian Music and Culture with Slack Key Guitar & Ukelele Masters. in Concert, David Kamakahi, Herb Ohta, Jr., Keoki Kahumoku, and Patrick Landeza with "Ki Ho ‘Alu" Slack Key Guitar Master Dennis Kamakahi and hula.

UPDATE: Karen Shaff has posted more photos from Aloha in the Redwoods 2004.

Here in Montara, and across the coastside, a lot of us don’t think to lock our cars. Several of my neighbors have had phones and other things stolen from their cars this month. Once you start talking to people about thefts, you begin to hear more stories, so this is not statistically significant. But several long-time Montarans have told me that they’re hearing more about opportunistic crimes.

I emailed Lt. John Quinlan at Sheriff’s office and he said he wasn’t aware of a wave a thefts from cars, but a lot of this stuff goes unreported. He says most of the thefts are from cars parked at the beaches, but recommends keeping your car locked and your valuables out of sight. Clearly this advice applies beyond Montara.

Supporters are circulating a petition to begin the process of incorporation for new town of Los Pueblecitos[PDF]. According to the petition, the town would have 3,600 registered voters and 1,000 signatures are required to move the process to the next step.  The organizers’ goal is to put the measure on the ballot in March, 2005.

Los Pueblecitos would be vast: stretching from Santa Cruz county in the south to Pacifica in the north, Skyline boulevard in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, carefully carving out the more-densely populated unincorpated areas of El Granada, Moss Beach, and Montara.

The petition also requests that all land owned by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District be given to the new town.

Voters in Pescadero and La Honda would have more control of the area surrounding Moss Beach, Montara, and El Granada than the people who live there. For comparison, here are the populations for some unincorporated coastside towns.  I have linked the town names to census information for the town or the ZIP codes.

• El Granada: 5724
  
• Montara: 2,950
  
• Pescadero: 2,042
  
• Moss Beach: 1,953
  
• La Honda: 1,610
  
• San Gregorio: 287
  
• Loma Mar: 128
  

This process is governed by Cortese-Knox Local Government Reorganization Act [PDF], which you can download from Coastsider. Warning: this document is 238 pages that only a lawyer can love.

Click on "Read more" to see the press release and letter to petition circulators.