CGF: Take Action: Wavecrest Village development

Contentious development in Half Moon Bay poorly placed
Posted February 2002/ Updated May 15, 2002

• What would Wavecrest Village do?
• Habitat impacts
• North Wavecrest: A valuable habitat for raptors
• What can we do about it?
• How can I help?
• Read CGF Executive Director Zoe Kersteen-Tucker's Letter to the Editor

What would Wavecrest Village do?

The proposed development would place substantial residential and commercial development and a site for a Boys' and Girls' Club and a new middle school on a 205-acre blufftop parcel in south Half Moon Bay. The Committee, residents and other environmentalists are opposed to this development because of its negative impacts on open space, wetlands, raptor populations, traffic, and water supplies. This sprawl-inducing, urban-edge, low density, poorly placed development would be better suited as infill in the hundreds of vacant lots in Half Moon Bay. In addition, the environmental studies done for this project are wholly inadequate. For more information visit wavecrest.sanmateo.org, a community site in the public interest.

The fate of this project is still up in the air. The Cabrillo Unified School District is evaluating other options for a school -- including the existing Cunha site, which the Committee supports.

Habitat impacts

The Wavecrest area provides important wintertime habitat for raptors and other animals. The winter populations of raptors in the Wavecrest area are the most numerous and exhibit the most diversity of any area in San Mateo County. The development of this area would likely significantly affect populations of the many raptor species sighted there -- including the short-eared owl, a Species of Special Concern.
Read more about the habitat value of North Wavecrest in the Committee's Spring 2002 newsletter.

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What can we do about it?

We are urging the Coastal Commission to deny this project. Committee for Green Foothills, along with Sequoia Audubon, the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, Surfrider San Mateo County Chapter, Green Party San Mateo County, and League for Coastside Protection, are challenging the project's environment impact, wetlands and raptor studies -- and are urging the Coastal Commission to deny approval of the project and return it to the Half Moon Bay City Council to be redesigned.

Please let the Coastal Commission know that you oppose the proposed development, and support protecting this land as open space. Your letter is important!

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How can I help?

We expect the Coastal Commission to hear this issue at a meeting sometime this year (it is unlikely that it will be heard at the May meeting, but a date has not yet been set). Send your letter to:

Sara Wan, Chair, California Coastal Commission
Attn: Chris Kern
California Coastal Commission
45 Fremont Street, Suite 2000
San Francisco, CA 94105
Fax 415-904-5400

Subject: Wavecrest Village, Appeal #A-1-HMB-99-051

Please also send copies of your letter to:

Assemblyman Joe Simitian
District Office
160 Town and Country Village
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Fax 650-688-6336
joe.simitian@asm.ca.gov

Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0001
Fax 916-319-2147
Assemblymember.Wesson@assembly.ca.gov


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