How wet is the Nurserymen’s Exchange property?

Opponents to buying the Nurserymen’s Exchange property say that the city council hasn’t addressed the risk that it contains wetlands. In its front-page story Questions surface about park plan, the Half Moon Bay Review reports:

[City council member Marina Fraser] suggested that before the city move forward it conduct a biological analysis of potential on-site wetlands to ensure no problems down the road. Fraser referenced the Wavecrest Village project, which ground to a halt after state and federal agencies learned that a red-legged frog was discovered on the riparian habitat.

Marina told me that she didn’t have these doubts until she got her copy of the Phase II due diligence reports that the city council prepared in advance of their vote. I had to see this report.

I went down to city hall today and got my own copies of the reports.  Phase I is dated April 1, 2004, and Phase II came out August 27.  According to the "Wetland and Riparian Habitat Assessment Report" in Phase II, written by Albion Environmental:

...direct impacts to [the creek’s riparian area and irrigation pond] should be avoided, and the riparian area should be protected with a 50 foot buffer. The irrigation pond would not require a buffer. The shallow, man-made drainage ditches around agricultural fields lack a preponderance of hydrophytic vegetation and would not likely fall under the regulatory jurisdiction of either the CCA/LCP or the Corps.

According to the report, about 2 acres of the 22-acre property is covered with "riparian vegetation".  The creek is the boundary of the property, so only one side of the 50-foot buffer would be on the property. And, let’s face it, a natural creekside is a wonderful thing to have in a park.

But there’s no substitute for a site visit. You should go out there yourself.  Except for the pond and creek area, the land is packed earth covered with tarpaulins and decomposed granite roads.  Except for the creekbank, there is no natural vegetation of the sort the covers the fabled Coastside Community Park, or the proposed site of Wavecrest Village.

When I asked Mike Ferreira whether this property could be developed as a park, he told me: "Take a look at what we’re doing on the Pilarcitos Creek Trail as an example of the kind of thing the Coastal Commission will permit in a riparian corridor."  So I did. Take a look at the picture on the right of what’s being done at the corner of the 92 and the 1. Now, think about the precedent this sets a little further upstream on the Nurserymen’s Exchange property.

So, I’m left wondering what additional "biological analysis of potential on-site wetlands" is needed.

NOTE: As always on Coastsider, you can click on these pictures to get a larger image.