The zoning problem in Half Moon Bay just seems to get murkier and murkier as the days go on.
Last week, the City Council passed an urgency ordinance that effectively rezoned more than half the neighborhoods in the city, thereby doing away with the large percentage of substandard lots in the city.
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The problem with the rezoning is that the Coastal Commission has serious concerns with the consequences it could bring; namely, a fear of allowing development above and beyond what the Local Coastal Program allows for.
The California agency wrote a letter to the city July 6, citing all its concerns with the city's rezoning of approximately 1,400 residential lots and allowance for a use permit exception for minor improvements.
Although the Coastal Commision's concerns threw an unexpected hiccup into the mix, Mayor Mike Ferreira isn't the least bit confused. He said the rezoning is effective now (or more precisely, as soon as the council enacted it) and that people should be able to get their permits approved for projects to their homes.
But that isn't what's taking place at City Hall. The planning staff is erring on the side of caution, since this could quickly become a legal matter. "We don't want to drag other people into that legal limbo with us," Planning Director Jack Liebster said.
Many concerns were also raised at the Planning Commission meeting last week, even though the commission decided to keep the zoning issue at the end of their agenda. After the standing room only audience made clear that more than 100 of them were there for the zoning issue, the commission proceeded undeterred and apparently unwilling to shuffle the agenda in consideration of people's time. Vice Chair Linda Poncini was the only one to vote against keeping the agenda as posted, suggesting it be brought to the beginning.
Because of that, by the time zoning was discussed people started losing their patience and began to leave before any action was taken. The crowd dissipated to less than a couple dozen by the time the meeting ended around midnight.
Ken Johnson said people don't understand that monster homes can happen under this rezoning. "One person's limitations is another person's protection," he said. "This is to good planning what a sledge hammer is to watch repair."
Tom Roman, one of the residents who helped raise people's awareness of the substandard zoning problem is discouraged by all the uncertainties that the urgency ordinance has created. "Why announce it? Why give it such a fanfare?" he asked. "It certainly seems to have hit a snag and I'm not sure when we're going to come out of it."
Confusing matters even further, rumors flying around town say that Roman and Patric Jonsson (who worked with Roman on the issue) paid for all their signs with contributions from pro-development lobby groups. Roman and Jonsson refute those claims, although they admit that they considered accepting $200 from SAMCAR (San Mateo County Association of Realtors), but decided against it before any money was received. They maintain that all the signs and fliers were completely paid for by residents in the impacted areas.
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