Supervisor Gordon to discuss landslide mitigation in La Honda Monday

County Supervisor Rich Gordon will discuss landslide mitigation on Jan 28 at 7pm at La Honda Elementary School. The county is proposing the La Honda community pay for about $3 million of the cost and 536 parcel owners will pay $5,600 per parcel and 13 parcel owners close to the slide will pay around $11,000. If the voters reject this in April, Gordon’s office says it is not clear what will happen.

The Cuesta La Honda Guild has posted a brief paper at the post office describing the situation and a map showing which parcels are part of the assessment district to pay for the landslide mitigation.

Supervisor Gordon’s office would like to address the following questions:

 

• Who should pay for the landslide mitigation?

 

• What will happen to La Honda if it is not fixed and the slide continues?

 

• Who should negotiate with the County?

Here’s the official announcement:

The general public is encouraged to attend Supervisor Rich Gordon’s town meeting to discuss the proposed assessment district.

Be aware that the proposed district includes the Cuesta La Honda Guild and many of its neighbors as well. This is more than just a "Guild" issue. It involves a heavy taxing of local properties to fund roughly half of the proposed work to mitigate the Scenic Slide. The slide is generated on County property and has been inadequately dealt with by the County since it took possession of the parcels in 1998.

On December 19, 2007, the County informed the Guild that it will propose the formation of a local assessment district to the County Board of Supervisors on January 29, 2008 with the intent of raising $3.1 million to help fund the repairs proposed by Soils Engineering Construction.

Rich Gordon has been open minded and sympathetic with the problems the slide has presented our community, but he is in the role of representing the Board of Supervisors in their attempt extract the $3.1 million from about 486 local parcels. That is proportionately a bigger wallop than the recent judgement against Half Moon Bay that threatens to bankrupt that town and cause the loss of its charter.

The impact on the local homeowners would be onerous, properties would become more expensive to own and even more difficult to sell.

The county is to bring maps of the properties involved in the assessment.

After the public meeting, there will be special Guild membership meeting with their lawyer and the county representatives.

Please, show up, learn what is going on and have a voice in it.

Tom Dodd