Will Wavecrest be disked over the long weekend?

UPDATE Wednesday, Sept 6: Disking began Wednesday morning. Coastsider has been unable to reach either Planning Director Paul Nagengast or City Manager Debra Auker today, but we have been told that the city of Half Moon Bay will be issuing a press release this afternoon because of the volume of calls they have recieved. We’ll post more information as it becomes available, but there is an active discussion attached to this story. Click on the Comments link under the headline to read or participate.

Disking equipment has shown up on the Wavecrest property this Friday, suggesting that the land will be disked over the long weekend when city, county, state and federal authorities will be unreachable for three days.

The owners tried to disk the property in November 2004. They were halted by a letter from Half Moon Bay’s then-planning director Jack Liebster [pdf] drafted by the city’s attorney.

This was followed by requests to halt disking from the Coastal Commission and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. At the time, the owners said that their intention was to return the site to its original agricultural use by growing hay. The Coastal Commission and the US Fish and Wildlife Service expressed the strong opinion that the site was protected endangered species habitat.

The site has been found by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to be habitat for the endangered California red-legged frog. Wavecrest was on the Coastal Commission’s agenda for September 2004, until the US Fish and Wildlife Service said the development would result in the "taking" of an endangered species.

Wavecrest was attempting to work out the wetlands and endangered species issues with the US Army Corps of Engineers, but canceled scheduled wetlands delineations three times at the last moment.

UPDATE: The equipment, which was parked on the Wavecrest site earlier Friday was moved sometime Friday afternoon to Main Street, near the Fire Station.