"Open Letter to the Pacifica City Council", March 6, 2013
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| Another effort to delay and do nothing to fix Pacifica traffic |
The Caltrans project to widen Highway One from Reina Del Mar to Fassler Avenue, if it takes place, would be the largest construction project in Pacifica in a very long time and would affect most area residents on a daily basis. We, the undersigned residents of Pacifica and the Coastside, therefore request that the City of Pacifica engage in a comprehensive review of Caltrans' plans. The City Council and the Planning Commission, in conjunction with concerned and informed citizens, need to fully review and provide input on the design of the project. Transportation planning in Pacifica should not merely be the responsibility of a distant bureaucracy. It is the responsibility of local government to ensure that any project undertaken here will be the best possible for the City of Pacifica. We call upon you as our leaders to actively engage in the framing and examination of options in order to arrive at the best choices possible. This was done in Half Moon
Bay – both its City Council and Planning Commission had significant input into the design of Highway 92 modifications.
We believe a review of the Caltrans’s plans will reveal issues of concern to local residents. For example, Caltrans has not developed and made public a plan to provide for smooth flow of traffic during the construction process, which would last at least 2 years, nor is there any public plan to provide for continuous access to businesses along Highway 1 and in the Rockaway Beach area. Furthermore, post-construction impacts on businesses in the West Rockaway business district need to be investigated; the design could discourage tourists and local residents from patronizing those businesses. The visual impacts of the project also need to be addressed; the design calls for widening the highway to more than twice its present width and possibly including sound walls and large retaining walls.
Caltrans has prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Report on the project, and it is imperative that the City Council and the Planning Commission conduct a public review of that document. The time is now for Pacifica to study the project, ask the necessary questions, and request that Caltrans modify the project if modifications would be in the best interest of Pacifica. We ask the Pacifica City Council to act in a timely, positive and decisive manner on this issue. Decisions affecting Pacifica need to be made by Pacificans. Caltrans may own the asphalt, but this is our home.
Please contact either of the undersigned circulators of this letter with your response. Tom Edminster. Circulator, tedminster@gmail.com 650-248-2077. Hal Bohner, Circulator, hbohner@earthlink.net, 650-359-4257
Supporters: Cindy Abbott, Lynn Adams, Todd Bray, Ian Butler, Victor Carmichael, Bill Collins, Ann Cooney, Leslie Davidson, Kim Day, Jeri Flinn (past President of Pacifica's Environmental Family and past President and founder of the Pacifica Beach Coalition), Sherry Flumerfelt, Ana Garcia, Edwin Earl Geer Sr., Laurie Goldberg, Margaret Goodale, Nancy Hall, Avril Hughes, Cynthia Kaufman, Mary Keitelman, Peter Loeb, Grace Mackertich, Dave Martinez, Roger Mascio, John Maybury, Ron Maykel, Margo Meiman, Clark Natwick, Bob Pilgrim, Stella Pilgrim, Mitch Reid, Citizens Alliance for a Tunnel Solution (CATS), Karen Rosenstein, Pete Shoemaker, Lou Sian, Dan Underhill, Dinah Verby"
Reference - State Route 1/San Mateo County, Pacifica, CA. Calera Parkway highway widening, Draft Environmental Impact Report project (DEIR), 287 pages (may be slow coming up, be patient). The project is a 1.3 mile highway1 widening from south of Fassler Avenue to north of Reina del Mar Avenue.
Related articles - Fix Pacifica, the plans, the researched DEIR, and the civic meetings. Also see The Loma Prietan (Sierra Club) 11/12, 2011, article and photograph by Bill Collins, complaint supporter above. Isn't the complaint just another deflection to do nothing?
Related articles - Fix Pacifica, the plans, the researched DEIR, and the civic meetings. Also see The Loma Prietan (Sierra Club) 11/12, 2011, article and photograph by Bill Collins, complaint supporter above. Isn't the complaint just another deflection to do nothing?
Submitted by Jim Wagner
Posted by Kathy Meeh
57 comments:
No sound walls. Rejected in the
DEIR. All bullshit.
Read the names. Same people out screaming too much traffic during Peebles attempt to build us a downtown. Now, not enough to justify. Bohner has already made the claim that 80 businesses would be impacted with the highway. Once that was discounted as bullshit, Loeb chimes in that the stores in Linda Mar, the Adobe, and Park Mall all will suffer. These guys are off the reservation. They are the group primarily responsible for screwing the hardworking Pacificans who are trying to make a living and can't spend all their spare time rebuting these charlatans. I'm fed up with this crap. Fix the damn highway. It's not safe.
Every deadbeat in town.
The people on this list are directly the reason why the city is bankrupt.
Yeah, they're still running things.
The people on this list are among this council's very best friends and supporters.
Lets collect a list of luminaries who support Highway Widening and write an open letter of our own. Start a pro-widening facebook page, get more likes, make t-shirts, stickers, cookies. we can do it....yada yada!
Pacifica had its chance to be part of this conversation. Caltrans get sick of waiting for city council and their supporters to get their act together. got a hot tip for you nobies . . . this is just the precursor for the county taking over Pacifica. Then all your froggies and snakes and trees won't mean jack squat. and I will laugh.
yeah 923, you get right on that.
: Cindy Abbott, Lynn Adams, Todd Bray, Ian Butler, Victor Carmichael, Bill Collins, Ann Cooney, Leslie Davidson, Kim Day, Jeri Flinn (past President of Pacifica's Environmental Family and past President and founder of the Pacifica Beach Coalition), Sherry Flumerfelt, Ana Garcia, Edwin Earl Geer Sr., Laurie Goldberg, Margaret Goodale, Nancy Hall, Avril Hughes, Cynthia Kaufman, Mary Keitelman, Peter Loeb, Grace Mackertich, Dave Martinez, Roger Mascio, John Maybury, Ron Maykel, Margo Meiman, Clark Natwick, Bob Pilgrim, Stella Pilgrim, Mitch Reid, Citizens Alliance for a Tunnel Solution (CATS), Karen Rosenstein, Pete Shoemaker, Lou Sian, Dan Underhill, Dinah Verby"
Well here’s a list that inspires confidence in a “can-do” attitude! This is like a who’s who of those most responsible for the horrible economic situation our city finds themselves in. Bohner running around claiming 80 businesses will be severely impacted by the construction. Rah for the pseudo capitalist, Bohner. Protector of Pacifica. Then we have the brilliant Mr Loeb. He who planted the poison pill on the quarry so he and his merry group of robots can chant their mantra and kill any development in the quarry. Oh, and not only 80 businesses will be affected severely, all businesses south of vallemar will feel the impact of highway repair in a negative way. I hope park mall got that memo. Brilliant leadership! These people are convinced the people of Pacifica are stupid. How dare you run this city into the ground and then purport to have some insight to what affects out businesses. YOU affect our businesses with your incessant no nothing, never, nowhere mantra. Go crawl back into you Hobbit Hovel!
The sound walls were not rejected in the DEIR.
1110 anon, they not only have a can
do attitude, they actually can do. they've been doing it to pacifica for decades. they still are.
Ok, Mr. or Mrs or Miss 11:54, what does the DEIR say about sound walls?
George, You didn't ask me, but I went over to the Index for a quick read of the DEIR and got sidetracked by a nifty little list of payments to consultants by council since 2008. We, yeah us taxpayers, have paid about $3,600,000 to consultants hired by this city from 2008 through 2012.
2012 $ 800,000
2011 $1,200,000
2010 $ 658,000
2009 $ 500,000
2008 $ 470,000
Somebody tell Therese Dyer, but you better have her sit down first.
Mind you, this is only from 2008 to 2012. Before and after? Whadda ya think?
We are so screwed. Bring those pirates back to run the city--they only ran aground--they didn't sink the ship!
I'm not 11:54 but this is what the DEIR says about soundwalls.
"the feasibility and reasonableness allowances of noise abatement sound walls were considered, as shown in Table 2.15. The possible locations of these soundwalls are also shown on Figure 2.4."
"If during final design conditions have substantially changed, noise abatement may be necessary. The
final decision of the noise abatement will be made upon completion of the project design and the
public involvement processes."
I went over to the Index for a quick read of the DEIR and got sidetracked by a nifty little list of payments to consultants by council since 2008. We, yeah us taxpayers, have paid about $3,600,000 to consultants hired by this city from 2008 through 2012.
2012 $ 800,000
2011 $1,200,000
2010 $ 658,000
2009 $ 500,000
2008 $ 470,000
Somebody tell Therese Dyer, but you better have her sit down first.
Mind you, this is only from 2008 to 2012. Before and after? Whadda ya think?
That document was produced by the City at Terese Dyer's request and she was kind enough to give up her last copy of it so it could be posted.
I'm in the process of creating a write-up around this list and am slowly going through it, determining what services each consultant provided; it's a surprising difficult task.
Ok, so final design has to change substantially. And what does that mean Mr Bohner. You throw the "sound wall" alarm out with nothing more than flippant regard to reality. You are a fraud, my friend.
Does Pacifica still have 80 businesses left?
@548 Thanks Chris Fogel for giving credit where it's due. I thought Therese was still in pursuit of the number. Should have known better. No surprise that it's hard to pin down exactly what we taxpayers got from these consultants. Consultant Land is like another universe.
Sound walls are a possibility. Maybe yes and maybe no. Inaccurate to lead people to think otherwise.
651 begin counting at Fairmont and don't stop til you hit Pedro Point, include everything in between, and we should have well over 80. Seems like someone from the Chamber should have the actual # right on the tip of their tongue-- and none of that members only crap. Do you know your business community or not?
Gosh RodneyRoo do you think the project design might change between now and the actual, maybe, might be, hopehope build? Caltrans invented change orders. Disingenuous in extreme for anyone on any side of the issue to say any design element is in or out at this point.
The DEIR says quite clearly that the noise generated currently by the highway as is is enough to warrant building sound walls to protect the residents of East Rockaway but a choice was made by the Project Development Team to exclude them from the DEIR purely for cost. Post widening the DEIR say the noise will be even greater. So sound walls are needed, absolutely, if this dummy project continues.
Somebody get Toddo his sound walls! No you ninnies, not all the way around his house. On the road, the wonderful widened road.
"Disingenuous in extreme for anyone on any side of the issue to say any design element is in or out at this point." Which is exactly the problem. Who knows what will be in the final design? We won't until Caltrans releases its Final Environmental Impact Report, which will be certified by none other than - wait for it - Caltrans itself, not the city. Then we'll know whether or not there will be sound walls and a bunch of other things like how much damage there will be to local businesses. By then, of course, it will be too late to do anything about it because there will be no more public input and no more city decisions about the design. If you find out you're screwed, then you're screwed. Lie back and think of England.
This is Pathetica isn't it? Of course we're screwed. Tally-ho!
Todd, where in the DEIR are you gleaning all that information about how sound walls were included then they were'nt. Page, section may be helpful for those of us with a healty dose of scepticsm about anything you write.
Peter Loeb, calls out Sinai on Pacifica Riptide.
Loeb 1
Sinai 0
DEIR p. 133
The point I'm making is that CalTrans staffers, the Transportation staffers and our own have given little if any thought to public concerns in the DEIR. If the health and safety of residents in the neibghorhood closets to the project, which includes the elderly and infants, is so unceremoniously brushed aside, what faith can any reasonable person have in this project?
I've posted the minutes from several Project Development Team meeting on this blegh and it is clear that this project is about growth and salaries for said PDT members and nothing else. I know reading and research and studying are beyond most of the Anonmi' posters here, but the PDT have more than shot themselves in the foot on this one. The level of unprofessional self interest by these highly paid public employee's is illustrated at every meeting they had and continue to have on this project proposal. Thank God.
And in important Pacifica Skyfield USA news today.
Chris Morrow joins fellow Skyfield USA genius Stewie Newton in foreclosure.
What happened I thought these knuckleheads had over 1 billion dollars?
Bray, caltrans waited almost 10 years for the people YOU supported to get their act together. The major fail by YOU and YOUR city council caused Caltrans callous attitude towards Pacifica. You had your turn. now sit down.
another bray/nobie lie. "Skyfield are local developers with the $$$ to develop the quarry." We sent Maimi packing, too bad the emporers of Pacifica had no clothes to pack.
@1035 And then you just had to go and admit that CalTrans has a callous attitude towards Pacifica? Way to argue! Bet "look what you made me do" is big in your life.
As others have said, same people who were against Peebles project because of the traffic problems now say there are no problems. Only problem they now have is no control of council. Notice no business names on that list and the majority of those names do not commute, work or live on the other side of Vallemar. Give us all a break. It is tough being on the other side after all these years, huh guys.
This is all cause of you you you people
1037 Who's Maimi?
222 You believe all that, don't you? It's ok. Pacifica will do that to you.
@310 The post is hardly worth deciphering, but out of respect for the English language, it's Miami and emperors. Probably. Or it could be nostalgia about his Mama and the old Emporium. Either way, blistering brilliance, it ain't.
"... noise generated currently by the highway as is enough to warrant building sound walls." Todd Bray, 3/9, 8:39 PM
Noise is "less than significant". See DEIR, "CEQA Environmental Checklist", (page 7 of 10), computer page 270. The DEIR pdf is 287 pages, includes lots of photographs, so this report may be slow coming up.
The vetting of this highway 1 widening project, except for final reporting and trailing eco-NIMBY bitching, is so over with.
There is a "List of Technical Studies" performed, see computer pages 286, 287. And these studies are referenced in the report. The proposed 1/3 mile widening project is efficient and cost effective-- and businesses areas are visible from the roadside (plus the district and business identification signs).
Want some other "pie in the sky" plan that is more expensive? Might have thought about that in assuring Pacifica would stay poor. Oh, we know, some NIMBIES are in denial that there is traffic congestion. Sure.
No matter how much information is in the DEIR or EIR, the hippies won't be satisfied. They want more studies because they know that the longer a project is delayed, the greater the chance that it gets cancelled.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Fremont-leaders-want-a-downtown-again-4342331.php
Fremont leaders want a downtown - again
FREMONT General plan in 1956 called for one, but sprawl dominated development
Carolyn Jones
Published 5:26 pm, Saturday, March 9, 2013
. Construction is already under way on Beacon Street market-rate housing, which will be incorporated into the new downtown. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle
Construction is already under way on Beacon Street market-rate... Jessica von Borck, Fremont's downtown project manager, points to areas on a map as she describes aspects of the planned downtown. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Jessica von Borck, Fremont's downtown project manager, points to...
David Kiehn, a historian at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, talks about the history of Niles, one of the areas that became part of Fremont. Special To The Chronicle David Kiehn, a historian at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum,...
As the new main thoroughfare, Capitol Avenue will be renovated and extended past State Street. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle As the new main thoroughfare, Capitol Avenue will be renovated and...
If Fremont has a soul, it's somewhere between a strip mall and a left-turn-only lane.
But that could soon change, as city leaders embark on an ambitious plan to give the Bay Area's fourth-largest city a downtown - something the sprawling suburb has lacked since incorporating in 1956.
"For 50 years we've grown out. Now it's time for us to grow up and mature," said former mayor Gus Morrison. "Having an identity is important to us. We need one."
Sinai, delay as in, Rick Lee's project and Tait Cowen's project? Hippies have time, developers don't have unlimited amounts of money. Both of these people are long time Pacificans that envisioned a spectacular eco-friendly project, only to be played by Nancy Hal, Hal Bohner, Dinah Verbah, and the rest of those insipid Dementors. Go away.
619 and "insipid Dementors"? What the hell does that mean? Stick to to nobees and hippies, would ya? Better you be dull and repetitive than unintelligible.
"Peter Loeb, calls out Sinai on Pacifica Riptide."
Ignoring your epic fail, grammar-wise... How funny is it that people on Riptide need to post over here to get any page views?
Jimmy Vreeland, was on the transportation, he was the poster child of the hippies and noobees. Their boy on council.
What did he do for Pacifica, while on this board?
Nothing. The same nothing the hippies and noobees add to Pacifica.
Seriously Anons, Ye are one ignorant angry mob of couch potato mash. Spoiled little over the hill princess bee autches with nothing better to do than make crap up.
There is one happy spot in all this. Me and my friends read yer cacklings out loud in cartoon voices like Yosimite Sam or Daffy Duck and laugh a lot.
A lot of folks say FixPacifica is full of crazy bitter complainer, and that seems to be true, but re-inacted as Merry Melody cartoon characters you all and your self imagined un-realities ROCK!
I do have a request, that lun-i-tunes DRAMA guy... can you bring him back? He was a great Fog Horn Leg Horn.
Todd, just say no!
Todd, fortunately the highway widening will continue, and the spin from you and your friends may not be effective this time. People who drive to work and have business in the city and over the hill will appreciate a better, safer road.
Unfortunately there is not much for people who understand and support the core need for city stability and progress to laugh about. The long term NIMBY gift of city economic inadequacy is a daily reminder.
Think the resulting "angry" Anonymous comments are funny? What is it about Pacifica being the poorest city in San Mateo county that you think is funny?
Todd has the answer since all his peeps are stay at home no workers, no commuters and no brainers. Comic voices suit you all.
All the anger on here and still nothing has changed. That last election brought us 3 closet-hippies with long records of being tax and spenders. We should be angry. And we should be smarter by now.
Did Todd Bray actually call someone "couch potato mash"?
He who lives in glass houses, should never throw rocks!
Yeah, but "coach potato mash" should be quite safe, although a real mess to wash off.
Oops, couch became coach. Oh well, it's all mash. Safe to throw.
Put me in coach!
Done! And thank you for flying ErrPacifica, your hometown carrier, where the goal is simply not to have the Australians looking for us.
"I do have a request, that lun-i-tunes DRAMA guy... can you bring him back? He was a great Fog Horn Leg Horn."
He's here. He posts more comments than anyone on the blog.
4:59
Anything to fix Pacifica, Anything!
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