Half Moon Bay City Council members Jim Grady and Mike Ferreira announced their intention to run for reelection in November, at a fundraiser for the League for Coastside Protection on Saturday. While they have taken out the necessary paperwork from City Hall, neither incumbent has yet officially filed.

Council member Toni Taylor, the third City Council member whose seat is up for election this year, has not yet announced whether she will run again. Four years ago, Taylor was the top vote-getter in the City Council election, with 20.5% of the votes, followed by Grady and Ferreira.

If Taylor doesn’t file before the Friday deadline, the filing deadline will be extended until Wednesday, August 17.

So far, only Bonnie McClung has filed the necessary paperwork to run for office. In the 2001 election, McClung finished fifth in the race for three seats, but with a vote count close to that of the victors.

As of 4:40pm Monday, in addition to Grady and Ferreira, four potential candidates have taken out papers to run for office, but have not yet filed: Naomi Patridge, Peter Bodnar, George Muteff, and Steve Skinner.

I’ve added the results from the last two City Council elections to give you an idea how these candidates have done relative to one another in the past.

• Bonnie McClung

• Peter Bodnar
• Mike Ferreira
• Jim Grady
• George Muteff
• Naomi Patridge
• Steve Skinner

On Wednesday the Half Moon Bay Review called the lack of affordable housing "the elephant in the room". They tell us that while 85 percent of county residents can’t afford to buy a home here, only 10% of new housing development is set aside for low-income residents.

I support setting aside a lot more than 10% of our maximum allowable growth each year for affordable housing. It’s the right thing to do and it’s good for the community in all kinds of ways. But we need to do it within the limits on growth that the community has agreed are reasonable.

You might infer from the Review’s editorial that Half Moon Bay isn’t doing its share to solve the problem of affordable housing. You’d be wrong.  According to the The Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County, an affordable housing organization, 2.3% of the housing units in San Mateo County are priced below market. But 8.1% of housing units in Half Moon Bay (350 out of 4,325) are priced below market.

Because of its contribution to affordable housing, Half Moon Bay was the second-fastest growing city in the county, with 2.6% growth. 

You may be thinking, "Wait a minute! Doesn’t Half Moon Bay have a 1% growth cap?"It does have a cap, but it makes exceptions for affordable housing.  In addition to the 1% legally-allowed growth, the city exempted another 1.4% in affordable senior housing.

What’s going on here?

The government has used a wide variety of carrots and sticks to create economic incentives to build affordable housing. This has worked and this is generally a good thing.

This approach has made some strange bedfellows. In addition to the community organizers you’d expect to be pushing hard for affordable housing, there is also a broad coalition of real estate agents, big banks with mortgage businesses, developers, land owners, and construction unions.

Many of these groups have a strong interest in using affordable housing as a wedge to pry apart existing growth limits. This strategy puts supporters of growth limits in the awkward, but misleading, position of appearing to oppose affordable housing.

You can also see that strategy at work in the unincorporated Coastide. Just one example in the last few months is the Review’s coverage of efforts to exempt caretaker units from growth limits.

The city of Half Moon Bay, and the unincorporated Coastside, can’t solve the county’s housing problem.  There are a quarter-million homes in San Mateo County, and 5,774 of them are affordable. That’s right, San Mateo County’s existing, inadequate, supply of affordable housing is 169% of the total housing in Half Moon Bay.

So, when people tell you they support affordable housing, be sure to ask them what they think we should do about it. Ask them specifically whether they would set aside a portion of our mandated growth rate, or whether they would exempt affordable housing from the limits. If they say that some affordable housing should be exempted, ask them how much.

And when they say, as the Review said last week, "we must stop fighting among ourselves and tackle these problems before they tackle us", watch your back.

I challenge the Review to tell us how they think we should tackle the problem within the context of our community growth limits. As always, they’re welcome to post their answers as a comment on this story—the fastest way to get their answer to the community—or to take it up on their editorial pages. They don’t even have to mention Coastsider.

The Daily Journal profiles Terry Farrell, Half Moon Bay Horseshoe Club member from Redwood City to took a championship title at the World Horseshoe Tournament in Bakersfield. 

On a July day in 2002, Redwood City resident Terry Farrell was walking with his wife when he saw a couple of men throwing horseshoes at the Red Morton Community Center. Having retired from his appliance repair business a year earlier, Farrell was looking for something new to do to cure his boredom.

Three years later, he’s a world champion.

The Million Dollar Dream Event is a live and silent auction fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity tonight at 6:30, at the Bell Building on Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay

There will be many items up for auction including jewelry, landscape consultation, dining, trips, artwork, wine, golf, event tickets, private dinner for 8 prepared at your home by Cafe Gibraltar, gourmet food, including Giants tickets.

The $10 admission ensures a fun time, hors d’oeuvres, dessert,  refreshments, and a martini bar. All proceeds benefit Habitat for Humanity. All checks are made out directly to Habitat for Humanity and are tax-deductible.

Please contact Mitone Griffiths at 650.712.2484 or [email protected] for more information.

A court in Monterey has decided to accept an old subdivision map as valid, paving the way to 73 new houses in the town of Spreckels, an increase of 40% in the number of new houses in the only town in Montery County designated as a historic district [Google satellite photo]. The issue was complex, because the state Supreme Court has left open questions regarding subdivisions created between 1893 and 1929.

Unless the issue is resolved in their favor, environmentalists contend, developers will keep hunting for "antiquated’’ subdivision maps that permit them to build on land that elected officials would be reluctant to approve.

"Because of this ancient map, the Tanimuras will now be able to build on virgin farmland that in our view was never intended for housing,’’ said Elizabeth Panetta, a community activist for LandWatch.

A disappointed Jim Riley, Spreckels’ historian, said the 1907 map is so dated that the streets were designed for wagons, horses and carriages.
...
"This is an area of the law that needs a legislative solution,’’ said Andrew Schwartz, a San Francisco environmental attorney. "These antiquated subdivisions are all over the state. They’re a huge problem.’‘

In a report prepared for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Wittwer’s and Schwartz’s law firms estimated there are between 400,000 and a million antiquated subdivision lots.

Add to our list of candidates incumbent Ginny McShane for the Point Montara Fire Protection District.  Since both incumbents are now running for office, this board is the first for which we know the deadline for filing will definitely be August 12.

• Bruce MacKimmie (Non-Partisan Office -Incumbent) P O Box 975 , Moss Beach, 94038 (mail); [email protected]; (650) 728-5806 (day); (650) 728-5806 (eve); Declaration filed 7/27, All papers filed, candidate qualified.

• Alexander King (Non-Partisan Office -Fireman) Declaration filed 7/25, All papers filed, candidate qualified.

• Vince Williams (Non-Partisan Office -Engineer) 741 Etheldore St, Moss Beach, 94038 (res.); [email protected]; (650) 563-9530 (day); Declaration filed 8/02, All papers filed, candidate qualified.

• Ginny Mc Shane (Non-Partisan Office -Director, Point Montara Fire Protection District) 723 Etheldore St, Moss Beach, 94038 (res.); [email protected]; (650) 728-3130 (day); Declaration filed 8/03, All papers filed, candidate qualified.

Next week, the California Coastal Commission will consider a permit for four walking trails near the Pigeon Point Lighthouse.  We reported a couple of weeks ago that this plan had run into opposition from local farmers. Since then, the farmers, Peninsula Open Space Trust, and San Mateo County have come to an agreement—with the exception of one indvidual who has appealed the plan to the commission.

GGF is asking people to write to the commission this week in support of the plan. Click "read more" to see their call to action.

Five candidates have filed to run for some of the nineteen seats that are open on Coastside boards this November. See Coastsider’s earlier story for a complete list of open positions and incumbents. We will continue to update this list as more candidates file. The deadline for filing is August 12. The deadline for a board will be extended to August 17 of an incumbent does not file by the first deadline.

• Terri Green (Non-Partisan Office -Businesswoman) P.O. Box 370818, Montara, 94037 (mail); [email protected]; Declaration filed 7/27, All papers filed, candidate qualified.

• Peggy Ruse (Non-Partisan Office -Business Consultant) 400 California Ave, Moss Beach, 94038 (res.); [email protected]; Declaration filed 7/28, All papers filed, candidate qualified.

• Bruce MacKimmie (Non-Partisan Office -Incumbent) P O Box 975 , Moss Beach, 94038 (mail); [email protected]; (650) 728-5806 (day); (650) 728-5806 (eve); Declaration filed 7/27, All papers filed, candidate qualified.

• Alexander King (Non-Partisan Office -Fireman) Declaration filed 7/25, All papers filed, candidate qualified.

• Vince Williams (Non-Partisan Office -Engineer) 741 Etheldore St, Moss Beach, 94038 (res.); [email protected]; (650) 563-9530 (day); Declaration filed 8/02, All papers filed, candidate qualified.

Armando Ramírez, Half Moon Bay’s bilingual outreach librarian, has been named Trejo Librarian of the Year by REFORMA, an affiliate of the American Library Association, according to the Examiner.

REFORMA promotes library services for Latinos. Circulation of Spanish-language materials has risen 42 percent in the three years Ramírez has been on the job.

From bringing big-name children’s authors, such as Gary Soto of Berkeley, to speak and read on the Peninsula, to teaching computer and Internet classes and promoting bilingual reading for children on the weekends and in the evenings, Ramírez has been key in reaching out to the coast’s growing population of Spanish speakers, Kennedy said.

There is a story on Half Moon Bay’s settlement with Wavecrest in the County Times.  There’s nothing new there, but there is a nice summary history of the project.  It’s a good place to start if you’re unfamiliar with the controversies surrounding this development.

Even more important to the city than the houses, however, are the middle school, the community park, and the baseball fields (which have already been built). Wavecrest has agreed to release the school and the Boys & Girls Club from its development contract if necessary so they can be built somewhere else.

Half Moon Bay mayor Jim Grady said he was hopeful that the development would be allowed to move forward in the next 18 months. He said that he was especially pleased that the city and the developer had managed to put the litigation behind them without going to court.