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| Committee eyes purchase of strip parcel By Marc Longpre--[ marc@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 1:38 PM PDT Leni Schultz wants a park in El Granada. And she wants that park to be put on a small sliver of privately owned land that just about everyone on the Coastside knows as Burnham Strip. The Burnham Strip has been a hot-button issue on the Midcoast for years. It's so touchy, in fact, that it's one of the few items the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors hasn't resolved as part of its update of the Local Coastal Program. But Schultz has support from Supervisor Rich Gordon, who represents the Coastside on the board. "I'd like to see the strip become like the Marina Green," said Gordon, comparing the property to the 49-acre San Francisco park with views of the Bay and Marin County. "We've been playing around with a proposal that would see a new zoning district called El Granada Gateway District, but it's unresolved." Schultz and a dedicated group of El Granada residents have recently revitalized the Burnham Strip Committee, part of the umbrella Midcoast Park Lands, in an effort to raise money and eventually purchase the land from the handful of parties who control it. Tracking half of the 14 acres is relatively simple - it's owned by the San Mateo County Harbor District. But the other half of the Strip is split into seven different vacant parcels held among seven different owners. A change in the second part of that ownership equation helps explain the committee's re-emergence. One of those parcels adjacent to the Harbor District's land is for sale and Schultz wants to raise the money to buy it. "We've just begun fund raising but the entities that give money want to see that the community really wants this before they give matching funds," Schultz said. The land is owned by Wayne Impink. According to county tax records, the land is appraised at $287,874. Mathew Clark, a member of the committee, said he believes that purchasing the land would send a signal to outside interests that the community wants to preserve the Strip as open space. Clark has been living in El Granada for more than 30 years, and he's come to believe that many residents already believe the Strip is an open space preserve. "We certainly hope that will start the ball rolling," Clark said. Gordon says the Board of Supervisors is set to revisit the LCP, and the unresolved Burnham Strip issue, sometime in September. To learn more about the committee visit www.savethestrip.org. |