Comments by Mike Ferreira

Muller appointed to fill Gorn’s city council seat

July 12, 2006
I'd like to offer my congratulations to John Muller. He's had a longtime commitment to public service and will bring a trove of civic knowledge and awareness to the Council. He also has a sense of civil behavior that has been a hallmark of his career, and this is a good time for a Councilmember with that attribute. The star of last night's interviews, however, was not John - who conducted himself with careful aplomb - nor was it Jim Marsh - who threw aplomb to the winds with his Green stemwinder…

CCF asks Coastal Commission 25 questions

June 23, 2006
The completion of the 60 unit Lesley Gardens Senior Housing complex - a wonderful addition to the City - is what caused the appearance of a percentage spike in 2004.

CCF asks Coastal Commission 25 questions

June 22, 2006
Mr. Olson, 1.) Caltrans builds highways, not small cities. Foothill is not proposed by Caltrans. 2.) There are many categories of wetland under established State and Federal laws and regulations. If you believe you can change those laws and regulations then exercise your rights as a citizen to pursue those changes. But, until the laws and regulations change we're supposed to follow them. 3.) I've never heard any suggestion that Highway #1 or Pescadero Road be taken away, or that any existing road…

CCF asks Coastal Commission 25 questions

June 19, 2006
Incessant nitpicking of the Settlement Agreement will not refloat the concrete submarine that is Bayview/Foothill. You'd never get a permit because of wetlands, it would be prohibitively expensive if you could, and it wouldn't function as a traffic benefit. Time to find a real cause. Mike

CCF asks Coastal Commission 25 questions

June 18, 2006
Mr. Steinberg, the Attorney for the Coastal Commission is the California Attorney General's office.  That's who participates in such negotiations and who drafts such Agreements for the Coastal Commission .     As to your fixation with what you label as a "gag rule" let's discuss some elementary political science as to the role of City staff in such matters.  The City Manager form of government under California law requires that the City Council makes policy decisions during agendized open sessions…

CCF asks Coastal Commission 25 questions

June 14, 2006
Hello Mark, Thanks for your attention to this item. I agree with you that it shouldn't be necessary to answer all 25 questions because the bulk of those questions are petulant red herrings (that take me back to my college days where we learned about the fallacies of "leading" and "wife-beater" questions in Logic classes). But I do think it would be instructive to the readership of Coastsider, if not CCF, if Mr. Kern could reply to the initial questions regaring "balancing" regarding wetlands so that…

David Gorn resigns from HMB City Council

June 14, 2006
I'm really sorry David's employers couldn't have been more open to the notion that a journalist can also be a public servant/decision maker. It seems to me they could rather have asked him to use his conscience to recuse either from a public policy standpoint or from a work assignment standpoint in cases where a conflict might arise or be reasonably perceived as arising. I'm not comfortable with the notion that journalism is in conflict with public service. In this case, that notion has cost us a…

Coastal Commission alerts HMB to problems with Foothill Bypass

June 19, 2006
Mr. Gossett, I do not accept any of your paraphrases of my views regarding Foothill. Given the amount of discussion we've had here there's no point in starting all over again as though nothing had been said. If you're so sure Foothill is any kind of traffic solution then take your case to Caltrans. They're in charge of State highway planning, not small towns. There is a long infrastructure wish list for the Coastside for which there is no money available at this time. Highways #1 & #92 could absorb…

Coastal Commission alerts HMB to problems with Foothill Bypass

June 18, 2006
Mr. Bacon, Picking the exemption nit in the Settlement Agreement isn't going to create Foothill for you, but we can digress for a little pick anyway. The nit is that the developer wouldn't be constrained by the annual percentage limitation but the City has reserved the right to count, or reckon, the units built as being part of the 1% growth rate. It took 7 years for the 50 units in Spyglass to get built and sold so I doubt Pacific Ridge would get built in much less than 4 years. The "settled court…

Coastal Commission alerts HMB to problems with Foothill Bypass

June 16, 2006
Accurate? Spin? CCF knows that defeating the 63 unit Settlment Agreement takes us back to 126 units, and a larger physical area would come under development as well. Not difficult math for most folks, who just might get it that double the number of houses equals double the traffic impacts. regardless of the size of the houses. As to CCF's propaganda regarding the Measure D exemption, It's not a matter of the Council "allowing this exemption", it's a matter of settled court law. The Council has no…

Coastal Commission alerts HMB to problems with Foothill Bypass

June 16, 2006
Kevin Lansing's second point: "(2) significantly expanding the Pacific Ridge subdivision." is a very interesting point in that the Pacific Ridge ownership themselves are not the ones pushing this idea, just the CCF. The Pacific Ridge ownership is trying to stick to its reduced footprint in the Settlement Agreement. It's the CCF that's trying to expand it. Isn't that an interesting example of CCF's "consensus through collaboration" - pushing a landowner to build more than he's agreed to build? Mike

Coastal Commission alerts HMB to problems with Foothill Bypass

June 12, 2006
When the Appeals Court upheld the City's and the Coastal Commission's definition of wetlands thereby extinguishing the Beachwood subdivision it would stand to reason that there was sufficient expert opinion submitted on the record to support that decision - and, yes, there was. If you feel you need to examine those reports for yourself I suppose you could contact the City,the Commission, or perhaps even the Attorney General who argued the case on behalf of the Commission.

SamTrans adding buses from Coastside to BART

June 01, 2006
Thank you, Barry, for prominently posting this important news. May I request that you keep this story at the forefront of your postings for a few days in order to maximize the number of readers? Mike

Opinion: Fear of Foothill

May 30, 2006
1.) The consultants have mapped 12 wetlands east of the High School. They vary in size and characteristics. One of them is larger than all of the others combined. 2.) A buffer zone is an area extending outward: a.) 100 feet from a wetland b.) 50 feet from a perennial stream, c.) 30 feet from an intermittent stream This is per the HMB Local Coastal Program, which is very similar to San Mateo County's.LCP, and is typical of most of the California coastal zone LCPs. Mike Ferreira

Opinion: Fear of Foothill

May 29, 2006
Mr. Bacon's quibbles about the mechanics of the lot retirement program are non-responsive to my corrections of his earlier errors and are premature at best because the Coastal Commission retains final approval of the administrative program in order to insure that it proceeds in accordance with the Commission's objectives. It's interesting that Mr. Bacon tries to personalize the agreement as though it was shaped entirely by me.  I suppose he's calculated that there's some political currency in that…

Opinion: Fear of Foothill

May 28, 2006
Mr. Bacon's posting: 1.) Wrongly states that “the Commission approval allows Terrace access only if alternative permanent access is available.” Not true. The Coastal Commission pre-agreement permit allows the construction of the streets and infrastructure for 126 lots at the outset and 40 of those lots can be built on with access on Terrace prior to any permit for Foothill. They would be “temporary” only if Foothill could be built. The 86 empty lots supposedly would be dependent on Foothill.…

Opinion: Fear of Foothill

May 25, 2006
Mr. Pond 1.) The implementation ordinances passed in the early '90s subsequent to Measure A reserve a percentage for new development. These are part of the Local Coastal Program. I didn't participate in that legislation but I would imagine there was a concern at that time that there were land use entitlements to be balanced. 2.) Most underlying lot lines in the City are 100 years old. 3.) This year there weren't enough infill applications in the first round to use up the full 1%. Afterward some applications…

Opinion: Fear of Foothill

May 24, 2006
As to some of Mr. Muteff's distortions 1.) To the bicker about my comments to the Council: I was one of the early speakers and I made it clear in my remarks that I was responding to public comment at earlier Council meetings and to letters-to-the-editor regarding “Foothill Big” and other pie-in-the-sky demands. The CCF speakers came after me. Had they spoken before I spoke I would certainly have addressed their proposal, and in much the same terms as I’ve written about it. If Mr. Muteff wants…

Caltrans may end “free” right turns onto Hwy 92 for HMB commuters

May 18, 2006
Following is Barry's separate story update: "Caltrans District 4 Director Bajin Sartipi informed Half Moon Bay city manager Debra Auker today that Caltrans “will not turn on the signal until the City Council has the opportunity to discuss the related issues”, according to an email Coastsider received from Auker." Mike

Caltrans may end “free” right turns onto Hwy 92 for HMB commuters

May 18, 2006
Sorry, Vince, but although that may have been the opinion of someone at the meeting it's just not the case. In the Coastal Zone the permitting authority for all development which rises to the level of requiring a Coastal Development Permit is vested with the Local Coastal Program agency : which is the County of San Mateo for the unincorporated Midcoast plus the slide area itself and Half Moon Bay for all of its incorporated area. The Montara Mountain Bypass, the Tunnels and the Coronado Stoplight…

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