After indications that the appeal would be upheld at the San Luis Obispo meeting, the applicant withdrew the plans, effectively requiring that the permitting process begin again if the project is to go forward.
Environmental activists Mark Massara, the director of coastal programs for the Sierra Club, and Lennie Roberts from the Committee for Green Foothills spoke against the city's action to approve the plans for the long-contested project on Terrace Avenue. The plans were submitted by Saso Gale, a Monterey resident.
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"I was there in support of the applicant," Massara said. "The city's obligation is to help property owners, not to use them as a foil. I felt bad for those people. They were left swinging in the wind."
Massara said that the project clearly conflicted with Half Moon Bay's Local Coastal Program and that alternative plans were on the record. He said he was outraged that members of the Half Moon Bay city government like Mayor Naomi Patridge and Vice Mayor Bonnie McClung would travel to promote a project that had no hope of success and would result in yet another rejection for the property owner.
The project has a two-story alternative that would meet buffer requirements for a nearby wetland, according to city documents and letters from Planning Commissioner Tom Roman who also spoke before the commission. But that plan is not what the applicants want and would require a setback in the front, limited use of the backyard and variances from the city.
In an e-mail message to the Review before the meeting, Roman wrote that the Coastal Commission appeal was "heavy-handed and superfluous." In a letter to the commission, he noted that a representative from the California Department of Fish and Game had agreed that planned mitigations would render insignificant any impact on protected species caused by the favored one-story design.
"There was some very nice testimony from the city about the historical and cultural importance of large back yards - that was essentially irrelevant," said Massara. The alternative design has a setback in the front that would provide outdoor space, but is characterized by the city as being out of step with the surrounding neighborhood.
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