Owners donate Glencree to HMB

The owners of the 12-acre Glencree site, adjacent to Beachwood, will donate the land to the city of Moon Bay, reports the County Times. Ronald and Patricia VandenBerghe, of Merit Manor LP, will receive a tax write-off. The donation will take place at next Tuesday’s city council meeting.

The city took possession of Beachwood at a cost of $18 milllion as a result of its settlement of a lawsuit with the property’s owner.

"It gives the city the opportunity to consolidate the properties for future development," said [city manager Michael] Dolder by telephone. "It is a piece that allows you to do a better plan for the area."

The city settled a separate legal dispute over Glencree in March 2010, in which it gave up its option to purchase the site someday. In recent months, the VandenBerghes approached the city about donating the parcel. The owners will receive a tax write-off as a result of the donation, according to Dolder.

Glencree was approved for a 47-lot subdivision in 1990, but a sewer moratorium prevented construction of the homes. Glencree attorney Anna Shimko has said that when the owners sought to extend their expired development permit in 2001, the city denied them.

The owners filed a lawsuit in San Mateo County Superior Court seeking to restore their development rights and a refund for the money they paid toward expanding the city’s sewer system, but they agreed to stay the lawsuit until two other tangled legal disputes—regarding Beachwood and another neighboring property called Ailanto—could be settled.

The County Times reports that biologists surveyed at least part of Glencree last winter as part of a study of Beachwood’s development potential.