At a Sept. 5 meeting, the Half Moon Bay City Council asked that Hilltop Mobile Home Park be removed entirely from the zone. The council now plans to rezone only Cañada Cove Mobile Home Park.
"This ends an eight-year saga," said Councilmember Jim Grady.
 Pia Wagner trims the plants around her home in the Hilltop Mobile Home Park, where she has lived for 20 years. |
Under the city's current Land Use Plan, Cañada Cove, located on Miramontes Point Road, and the north portion of Hilltop, on Highway 92, are designated "Planned Development" and "Industrial," respectively.
Hilltop was removed from the ordinance despite its numerous low-income residents who councilmembers are seeking to protect.
On Sept. 5, Grady cited that the original plan excluded the southern portion of the park, an omission no one at the meeting could definitively explain.
"Why are we going to have one side and not the other?" Grady asked, pointing to what appeared to be an error in the city's original plan.
At the last two meetings where the park zoning was discussed, City Council came under the pressure of construction company owner Eddie Andreini, who voiced complaints that rezoning the northern Hilltop area to "mobile home" will interfere with light industrial operations he conducts nearby.
"We provide the city with a huge tax base," he said, adding that his business employs numerous Coastside residents. "The impact on our business would be bad. It would be disastrous from the day it would start."
A representative of Keet Nerhan, owner of the mobile home park, has also voiced dissent against the zoning change.
Acknowledging the contention surrounding the Hilltop property, Grady described the matter as "the elephant on the table."
During public comment, even residents of Cañada Cove turned against the zoning change at Hilltop.
"It's been a fiasco," said Don Friese, encouraging the council to move forward before an upcoming deadline with the California Coastal Commission.
No residents of Hilltop were present to voice their opinions on the matter.
In addition to removing the Hilltop park, the council asked City Attorney Adam Lindgren to revise the proposed rules regarding Cañada Cove to allow owners to build senior housing facilities in years to come.
Councilmembers explained that they wanted to enable senior citizens to remain in the Cañada Cove community even if they are not comfortable living in their individual homes due to their age.
Before being enacted, the new ordinance and its corrections must first be approved by the California Coastal Commission.
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