Big Wave project for disabled community is coming back, El Granada

The Daily Journal/Samantha Weigel, 11/18/14.  "California Coastal Commission pays first visit to San Mateo County."

The Sierra Club doesn't love the Big Wave Project,
what else is new?

Thanks for trying to improve my life!

"For the first time since its formation more than 40 years ago, the California Coastal Commission paid San Mateo County a visit to review project sites and see what Half Moon Bay, Princeton and Montara have to offer. 

The 12 coastal commissioners along with staff and San Mateo County supervisors Don Horsley and Carole Groom, who is also a coastal commissioner, joined the public Wednesday to tour the Montara Lighthouse Hostel, the Princeton shoreline, Surfer’s Beach just south of Pillar Point Harbor, the proposed Big Wave housing development site and the new Devil’s Slide recreational trail. 

Regarding the Big Wave mixed-use project north of Half Moon Bay airport:  “It’s coming back at sort of a junior size, smaller version and that was just to refresh their memories and they’d never seen the site,” Groom said. “It has to make its way through the Planning Commission, but if someone appeals it, it’ll come through the Board of Supervisors and could be appealed to the Coastal Commission."   Read article.

Reference -  Big Wave project:  "Mission:  The Big Wave Project is dedicated to:  Creating an inclusive and interactive community of people and businesses; Providing a purposeful, independent life for individuals with developmental disabilities through affordable housing, meaningful employment, and supportive community.  Land donation:  The partners of Big Wave LLC on December 27, 2011 officially transferred title of the 5.25 acre Wellness Center site to Big Wave Group, the non-profit organization responsible for building the Wellness Center. We are very thankful for this generous, major donation."

How small is small enough; or, is non-existent,
and another bankrupt developer better?

Related articles - Half Moon Bay Review/Julia Reis, 9/4/14. "MCC:  Big Wave should be scaled back further. Midcoast council raises concerns with affordability, size." "Seven weeks before the Big Wave North Project Alternative is tentatively scheduled to appear before the San Mateo County Planning Commission, the Midcoast Community Council says it would like to see the project scaled back further. Big Wave is conceived as a multiuse development on part of 19 acres along Airport Street north of Pillar Point Harbor. It would include a Wellness Center with living arrangements for developmentally disabled adults as well as commercial space that would fund the Wellness Center. The project was initially derailed by the California Coastal Commission after an emotional public hearing. It is returning now as a scaled down project on the north end of the property." 

Half Moon Bay Review/Mark Noack, 10/17/13.  "Since it was first proposed seven years ago, the proposed Big Wave mixed-use campus in Princeton has swollen into the biggest battleground of planning on the coast. It has been assailed by environmentalists complaining about its scale and defended by advocates for the developmentally disabled who stand to live and work at the facility." Half Moon Bay Reivew/Clay Lambert, 8/8/12, "Coastal Commissiont shoots down Big Wave." "The future of the Big Wave office park and housing complex for the developmentally disabled is in doubt today after the California Coastal Commission sided with appellants who raised nearly a dozen issues with the proposal.After five hours of testimony on Wednesday, the Coastal Commission was swayed by concerns over how to provide water and wastewater treatment, environmental worries, the potential for traffic and a host of other problems. Commissioners found the project out of compliance with San Mateo County’s land-use plan, overruling an earlier approval by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.Coastal Commissioner Steve Blank told developers that any support for the housing component was undermined by the shear size of the business park." The Loma Prietan Jan/Feb 2010 (Sierra Club), Anneliese Agren,"Wave good-bye to 'Big Wave'" "From Pacifica to Pescadero, the size of this project is unprecedented for an unincorporated area."  Fix Pacifica articles:  Search blog: "Big Wave".

Note photographs/graphics:  Thumb up from Big Wave Project/About.  Land photographs by Lisa Ketcham from the Loma Prieta Sierra Club article.

Posted by Kathy Meeh