Comments by Jimmy Benjamin
January 20, 2010
Councilmember Kowalcyk is of course free to nominate his choice of eligible citizens for the consideration of the City Council. Mr. Ginna's distinguished history of trash-talking anyone who advocates environmentally responsible development makes him a great test case of our newest leader's commitment to bridge the gap between communities. Perhaps he will counterbalance this appointment with a new planning commissioner who expects development to conform to our environmental law. We'll see.
June 11, 2008
Steve, although we disagree profoundly on the best interests of the City, I appreciate your candor in coming to the unveiled chat rooms. Many who seem to share your point of view prefer to hide behind pseudonyms in that other chat room. Kevin, while realtors are driven by profit in a very short horizon, I firmly believe that there are some realtors on the coast who realize that the natural beauty of Half Moon Bay is the goose that lays the golden egg, and that destroying it in the interest of short…
June 10, 2008
Like Rush Limbaugh, "ditto" crowd calling him just entertainment, Steve's "funny" (you can't possibly be serious, can you, Steve?") comment derogating threatened species and relegating them to medians really lays bare his hostility toward environmental law, and a lack of understanding of the science of species preservation. I look forward to his reply to Francis' inquiry. If people who share is values were in the majority...we'd be where we are today :-(. In addition to Francis' inquiry, I just one…
July 14, 2007
Thank you for opening the thread, Ken. I had to reply to the same post, in which Georg eclaimed that the last Planning Commission had been very disrespectful of this applicant. This is the second time that such a baseless charge was leveled at the prior Planning Commission (recall that then-CCWD President Chris Mickelson's claimed without evidence at a City Council Meeting that the commission had "disrespected" the District's water engineer, and the accusation was seized on by the ladies of the City…
June 04, 2007
Thanks for bringing this meeting to the web, Barry. I think the Council majority needs to explain whey they decided to discuss a topic of such long-term importance to the City with minimal notice. Although I have not watched the entire file, I was disappointed at the inconsistent and possibly manipulative inclusion of information from the staff report. For example, Arnold St. environmental concerns were discussed extensively, and were at least briefly mentioned in the discussion of the Magnolia Street…
June 22, 2006
Steve and Brian, If you were advising a client on land decisions, particularly one involving a parcel about which disagreements stalled earlier development, concerning a new use for which the Director of Public Works recently advised that you would need a CDP, it's likely that you would advise the client to get contrary assurances of particular rights of development in writing, and warn them of the risks of not doing so. I'm going to adopt the positive attitude Brian thanked Steve for and assume…
June 22, 2006
Hi Mary, Sorry for the delay in posting; I was on the other thread posting some thoughts for Steve and Brian. My home was built in 1989. I purchased it in 1993. In my opinion, if the planning commission and city council were on their mettle, the City would not support a lot subdivision that created a lot so close to an ESHA. I haven't thought about how to design a builing site that is not within the buffer area -- it certainly would result in a narrower house than we live in. But the stream (designated…
June 20, 2006
I appreciate your kind words, Mary. With respect to establishing whether wetlands were destroyed, I understand Mr. Johnstone's point that the evidence remains, at least in a forensic sense. But the grading has destroyed the vegetative clues of where samples should be taken for analysis. So in theory we COULD find wetlands that existed, but if those wetlands occupied, say, 1% of the parcel, then the odds of finding it in a randomly selected sample are no better than 1 in 100, and perhaps worse if…
June 20, 2006
Whoops, my bad. In my June 19 post, The migratory corridor I mentioned is is north of the City's property, not south (until you get to Pilarcitos Creek). And in another slip of the fingers, I meant wrung hands -- sorry for those typos.
- Jimmy
June 20, 2006
Hi Mary, Thanks for your questions. It's been a while since I looked at the history of this land in EIRs that involve this and nearby property, but I think it's safe to say that it was almost certainly farmed in the past. It may interest you to know that a portion of the parcel was used as a landfill. I believe it served as a corp yard for a period, too. When Caltrans created the eastbound passing lane on highway 92, they mitigated the negative environmental impacts by cleaning up the landfill and…
June 19, 2006
Hi guys, It may (or probably or is likely or should :-) interest you to know that in 1998 a group of residents in Casa del Mar formally expressed reservations about the completeness of CEQA process for the Boya and Girls Club and the City Park proposed at that time. Among those reservations was the concern that the sensitive habitat on or adjacent to the site was not adequately delineated and protected. The decision-maker(s) who felt authorized to install a "Future Home of Boys and Girls Club" sign…
February 23, 2006
Let me be sure I understand what you are claiming, Joel. You are asserting that a member of the City Council (whose?) nominated Jeff Allis for his/her councilmember preference seat, and that appointment was defeated? My recollection is somewhat different, and possibly wrong. I seem to recall Jeff having been Dennis' appointee. There was a juggling of appointees when the commission was expanded to seven members, after which David Mier became Dennis' appointee, and Robin King became Naomi's. Bob Hansen…
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