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| Park planning gains steam with help of Midcoast residents Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 1:41 PM PDT Perhaps lost in a recent dust-up over whether non-residents should be allowed to serve on the city of Half Moon Bay's Parks Commission is the fact that considerable progress is being made toward putting parks where they are most needed - the Midcoast. Earlier this year a group calling itself the Mid-Coast Recreation Implementation Plan Team met for the second time. It is comprised of long-suffering, community-minded, local folks who have come to the conclusion that if they are ever to have parks in their neighborhood they are going to have to move mountains between themselves and the county bureaucracy. Literally. The team includes officials from the city of Half Moon Bay and Cabrillo Unified School District as well as commoners with an interest in improving the recreational opportunities of their neighbors. Appropriately, they have already identified the need for multi-use playing fields as the top priority for local residents. What's more, county officials have received the comments of real Coastsiders who offered their ideas particular to Montara, Moss Beach, Princeton and El Granada. If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, you are excused for rolling your eyes. The county has studied the need for Midcoast parks before - three times in 30 years - with little result. All that talk, and there are still very few places to roll a ball between Pescadero and Devil's Slide. That said, there is reason for optimism. County Parks and Recreation Director Dave Holland says that, while needs assessments have been gathering dust for years, there has never been a concrete plan to develop parks. And he acknowledges that old plans have grown stale and need updating. Regardless of how you feel about non-residents sitting on a city advisory board - and we see the rationale of both sides of that argument - Midcoast residents need more than a solitary voice on an advisory board miles to the south. They need the ear of politicians in Redwood City who are supposed to represent them. Perhaps the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors is finally serious about following through on those dusty plans for parks along the coast. The next public meeting pertaining to Midcoast recreational planning is scheduled for 7 p.m., Thursday, at the Harbor House Conference Center in Princeton. - Clay Lambert |