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| City, Coastal Commission enter fray over rezoning By MATT KAPKO Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 11:03 AM PDT Half Moon Bay Review The city and California Coastal Commission aren't seeing eye to eye these days - actually, back-to-back may be more accurate. Before the City Council passed an urgency ordinance last month that effectively rezoned approximately 1,400 residential lots in Half Moon Bay, the commission issued a letter citing its concerns with the city's proposal. The commission's letter empathized with the city's goal of remedying problems associated with the high number of substandard lots in town. But, it also took great concern with the potential increase in density and intensity of development allowed under the rezoning the city was pursuing. It should be noted that the letter came to City Hall just before the end of the business day and a little less than four hours before the City Council considered adopting the urgency ordinance. That left the council and city attorney scrambling to decide what action the city should take in light of the last minute concerns from the commission. This came one week after the city announced its plans to rezone the majority of substandard lots through an urgency ordinance. The zoning changes are different than those approved by the com- mission under the city's Local Coastal Program, which would constitute an amendment to the LCP and require commission approval, the commission says. This is where things get murky. Laura Lee Briggs, who is acting as city attorney while Adam Lindgren is on vacation, has told the city that while these zoning changes do constitute a change to the LCP, the action doesn't require commission approval for the ordinance to be effective. "The city's position is that the urgency ordinance is effective," Briggs said. "It's a change of the sort that can be determined by local government." The Coastal Commission, however, see things quite differently. "We disagree with the city attor- ney's position," said Chris Kern, coastal program manager at the commission and also author of the letter to the city. He said any change in zoning requires Coastal Commission certification for it to be effective and because the urgency ordinance would constitute a major change to the LCP, it would clearly have to be reviewed by the commission. "We're saying that it isn't effective until it's authorized by the Coastal Commission," Kern said. The urgency ordinance was effective immediately after the council passed it unanimously last month, Planning Director Jack Liebster said. "We're not trying to pick a fight with the Coastal Commission at all," he added. Resident Steve Smith brought forward his concerns - very similar to the Coastal Commission's - as soon as the city began discussing the urgency ordinance to rezone neighborhoods. He acknowledges the problems homeowners of substandard lots face and sympathizes with their situation, but thinks the city went about fixing the zoning problem in a dramatic, unreasonable way. He warns of large development because of the rezoning and says many lots are now developable under the new zoning. "I'm sure when they (City Council) passed this ordinance they didn't know how many lots were developable," Smith said. "Anybody who's unhappy with development right next to them may well sue the city for rezoning illegally. "So, now you've got the worst of all possible worlds - the city being sued and projects held up." Smith said, "Development and rezoning has always been a contentious issue in Half Moon Bay. To rezone overnight is just ridiculous." Three applications for development in the rezoned areas have been turned in at City Hall since the urgency ordinance was passed and are currently in the review process. |