Do you wonder why the Big Wave daily trip estimate dropped from 3,787 to 2,123 between the 2008 and 2009 Traffic Analyses?  Trouble getting your project approved due to too many cars?  Just relabel your Office Park “mixed use” and add in an assortment of other uses that don’t produce so many cars.  Whose gonna enforce the percentage of use types in the building anyway?

40% general office, 25% R&D, 15% storage, 20% light manufacturing—and voila!  225,000 sq.ft. of office space becomes 158,513 sq.ft. equivalent office space for purposes of specifying daily trips and parking requirements. 

225,000 sf office space requires 1125 parking spaces
158,513 sf equivalent office space requires     737 parking spaces
BW Parking exception request results in     635 parking spaces

In spite of all these cool angles and the new lower daily trip estimate, the Traffic Analysis (still using the original traffic counts from 2007) still predicts Cypress/Hwy 1 east-bound left turn LOS “F”, with no improvements possible other than signalization.

If you lived over here and depended on that intersection you might think well, at least we’ll get a traffic signal, but don’t leap ahead.  The EIR proposed mitigation schedule looks like that might take 10 years.  The project takes 3 yrs to build if all goes well, then developer submits bi-annual reports re need for signal, then if it’s determined we’ve all been sitting in traffic long enough, developer pays their “fair share” for signal within 5 yrs of date of report.

Lisa Grote, Planning Director, will attend the MCC meeting tonight to answer any questions about the Big Wave project permitting process and recently released EIR timeline and process.  She will NOT be speaking about the project.

This is a meeting to create a committee and address questions about the permitting process and timelines related to the project and the EIR.  This is NOT a meeting to discuss specifics of the recently released EIR.  There will be a regular meeting on November 11th to discuss specifics of the EIR

The meeting is at 7:30 at the Granada Sanitary District Meeting Room, 504 Avenue Alhambra, El Granada

Big Wave has declined to erect story poles until the Feb/Mar 2010 final EIR hearings, citing the cost of the poles, disruption of planting the winter crop, lack of legal mandate, and the visual renderings included in the DEIR.

Regarding the excuse of a winter crop, there hasn’t been nor could there be any winter crop that could grow and be harvested at the project site before February or March 2010.  Agricultural management of heavy clay soils, especially in such a marshy location, requires avoiding working or driving on the soil when wet, which destroys soil structure and causes compaction in even the best of soils.  In fact, if the applicant waits to construct the story poles until the fields are saturated in winter, they will have a very difficult time of it, and they will do much damage to the agricultural soil.  This is the kind of place that when saturated, your feet sink in and you can’t move them except to step out of your shoes.

I imagine story poles for such large buildings would indeed be expensive, but erecting them in boggy conditions may cost even more.  If the concern is that winter storms will damage them, it should be pointed out that some of our strongest winds here are in March.  There should be a maintenance requirement no matter when they are erected.

The renderings in the DEIR may or may not be accurate or representative, but they certainly will not be seen by many.  When the story poles go up, Coastside residents and visitors will suddenly all become aware of the visual impacts of the project.  This public awareness should not be so severely restricted in this public comment period which is the only opportunity for the public to have any influence on the determinations in the final EIR.

These results are not yet complete. They do not include uncounted absentee, provisional, and precinct paper ballots voted on Tuesday, and potentially other mail ballots received at Elections prior to 8 p.m. Tuesday but not yet processed. However, outside the Granada Sanitary District election, there was little in last night’s returns to suggest that the standings will change significantly after these votes are counted.

In the Granada Sanitary District, the margin of victory is one vote and the votes for write-in candidate Charlie Hall have not been counted.

Hmb City Council

Granada Sanitary District

Coastside County Water District

Coastside Fire Protection District

Click for official county results page.

11:00pm Update: With 8 of 8 precincts reporting,

Half Moon Bay: Naomi Patridge, Allan Alifano, and Rick Kowalcyk lead the field, with a 70 vote gap between number three Kowalcyk and number four Deborah Ruddock. Click for County election results.

Meanwhile, in Granada Sanitary District, number three Leonard Woren is ahead of challenger Lisa McCaffrey.

10:30pm UPDATE—With 5 of 8 precincts reporting, Rick Kowalcyk has solidified his lead over Ruddock and Handler. Patridge and Alifano continue to lead the field.

In Granada Sanitary District, with 5 of 8 precincts reporting, Lohman and Erickson are leading. For the third set, McCaffrey is leading Woren by three votes.

10:00 pm UPDATE—No additional Coastside precincts have been reported by the county, although returns are coming in from Bayside elections.

As of 9:30, despite expectations, the county is reporting results only for absentee ballots, with precincts yet to be reported.

Half Moon Bay: Naomi Patridge and Allan Alifano have a strong lead, but the next four candidates (Kowalcyk, Handler, and Ruddock) are separated by a handful of votes, with Kowalcyk narrowly in the lead.

Granada Sanitary District: Incumbents Ric Lohman and Gael Erickson have strong leads, and challeger Lisa McCaffrey has a narrow 28 point lead over incumbent Leonard Woren

Coastside Fire Protection District: Challenger Gary Riddel has a strong lead, followed by incumbents McShane, Burke, and Cockrell, with challenger David Eufusia close behind.

Coastside County Water District: incumbent Chris Mickelsen has a strong lead, followed by challengers Jerry Donovan and newcomer "Jay" Johnson.

The Big Wave draft Environmental Impact Report has been released for public comment.  The San Mateo County Planning Director is giving the Midcoast the minimum allowable CEQA review period, 45 days including the Thanksgiving holiday.  If you would like to request additional time to review the three telephone book thick volumes please go to the Stop Big Wave website.
 
Last week the Big Wave attorney delivered a letter to the County refusing to put up story poles during the CEQA public comment period.  It looks like the community may not see any story poles at all.

If you would like to read a printed copy of the DEIR please got to the HMB Library and ask the librarian for all three volumes. Or read the DEIR on the County website.

I hope to see you at the upcoming DEIR Community Meetings and the Planning Commission Hearing on Nov 18th.  

Sabrina Brennan
www.stopbigwave.org
www.thepelicaneye.com

MCC Special Meeting
Date and Time:  Wednesday, November 4, 2009 - 7:30pm
Location:  Granada Sanitary District
Avenue Alhambra, Meeting Room 504, El Granada
Speaker:  Lisa Grote, County Planning Director
 
MCC Meeting
Date and Time: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - 7:30pm
Location:  Seton Medical Center, Moss Beach
Agenda:  Big Wave DEIR
 
Planning Commission Preliminary Hearing
Date and Time: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 9:00am
Board of Supervisors Chambers
400 County Center, Redwood City
 
End of 45 day Public Comment Period:  Monday, December 7

Coastside Land Trust invites you to join us on Saturday, November 7 from 2–4pm, for a management day at our Wavecrest area properties. Roll up your sleeves, grab your clippers, gloves and boots, and come out for some fun together on the blufftop.  We’ll say goodbye to Pampas Grass seed heads, radish and garbage as we steward our lands together before the winter rains set in.

Meet in the parking lot at Smith Field at 2 pm, at the end of Wavecrest Rd, off Highway 1 at Cameron’s Pub.
Jo Chamberlain
Executive Director
office:  650.284.5056
Mobile:  650.346.3775
[email protected]
http://www.coastsidelandtrust.org

The MCC will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, November 4 to consider and discuss the committee formation and action plan regarding the Big Wave EIR.
Note that Planning Director Lisa Grote will attand and answer any questions about the EIR process. 

The meeting is at 7:30 at the Granada Sanitary District Meeting Room, 504 Avenue Alhambra, El Granada

The agenda can be found on the MCC website:
http://mcc.sanmateo.org/home.php

To receive agendas via email, subscribe to the Google Group “MCC-Agendas” here:  http://groups.google.com/group/mcc-agendas?hl=en

Please make sure your campaign teams remove and dispose of properly all candidate posters, billboards and roadside signs after the election. We don’t need anymore trash on the coastside, thank you and good luck to everyone on election day!

Kevin
Montara Beach Coalition