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| County meeting to prepare Coastsiders for Big Wave By Greg Thomas [ greg@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 2:42 PM PST For the past eight years, Jeff Peck, founder of Big Wave Group, has been working out the kinks in his business plan to create eco-friendly office space on the Midcoast and simultaneously enhance the lives of people with developmental disabilities. His vision is to build a state-of-the-art, self-sustaining facility that achieves three main goals: an alternative to the Coastside commute, environmental restoration and a sense of community and purpose for the developmentally disabled. “There’s a synergistic, holistic, symbiotic relationship between all three of these elements,” Peck said. He hopes the construction of a “wellness center” for the disabled, and an office park for local companies, on 20 acres of land along Airport Street will embody that relationship. Peck fought to keep the project alive in 2006 when he found out he was in a “no man’s land” for water service between the jurisdictions of Coastside County Water District and Montara Water and Sanitary District. He has since outlined three options for how to direct water to the property: a deal with CCWD, a desalination plant at Princeton pier, or, Peck’s preference, pumping well water through an on-site treatment facility. In light of those changes, as well as a few other project tweaks, San Mateo County Planning and Building Department scheduled a scoping meeting to present the new proposal to stakeholders and gather public input. The meeting will run 7 to 9 p.m. on Nov. 18 at El Granada Elementary School, 400 Santiago St., El Granada. The public comment period ends Dec. 5. Up to 80 developmentally disabled residents, including Peck’s daughter, would live cooperatively in the wellness center and work on site, performing the necessary duties to keep the facility up and running — everything from farming to food preparation, janitorial services to landscaping, Peck said. The renewable energy generated by the center via solar cells, geothermic cooling systems and, potentially, wind turbines would sustain the buildings on the premises, including the office park. Revenue from office space leases, in turn, would provide the financial backbone for the wellness center. “This is, by far, the most innovative project in this country,” Peck said, “especially when you take into account the environmental concerns that people have.” Peck asserts that Coastside commuters are “dying to have a (work) place like this on the coast that they can walk or bike to,” and is confident that local companies will jump on the opportunity to cut their energy expenses. “We already have interest from some companies that have employees on the coast,” Peck said. However, his vision for a developmentally disabled community is not universally shared. Ruth Palmer, a 20-year Half Moon Bay resident and mother of a 24-year-old developmentally disabled man, has a history of working within the local school district to develop an inclusive atmosphere for developmentally disabled students. She said she’s not so sure the Big Wave wellness center idea would most appropriately serve the needs of people like her son. “It isn’t my first choice as a model, to be honest,” she said. “My approach has always been an inclusive one rather than a segregated one. I believe that access to the wider community is very important.” Palmer said she’s concerned that the wellness center would effectively sever the connection between developmentally disabled people and the outside world. Peck, meanwhile, is optimistic that the facility, once completed, will serve the interests of businesses and the community alike and he’s been working to meet any objections. “Ever since (the revisions), we’ve picked up on working with the environmental consultant on the project on the Environmental Impact Report,” said Camille Leung, county planning and building planner. “The first step was to schedule the scoping meeting.” Big Wave is shooting for the highest green-building certification from the county. Peck said he’d like to see the EIR completed “in the next few months,” obtain construction permits by September 2009 and start building. “Is there anything else like this around here?” Leung said. “No.” |