Montara Fog: by Darin Boville
March 24, 2010
At a county Planning Commission hearing today Jim Eggemeyer, interim director of the County Planning Department, advocated that his office "collaberate" with an unnamed third party--identified elsewhere in the hearing as Scott Holmes, a member of the leadership team of Big Wave--in order to respond to the many public comments received concerning the Big Wave development proposal.
Big Wave [see video, "What is Big Wave?"] is a 300,000 square foot office complex/sanitarium sited on a pair of parcels behind the Half Moon Bay Airport. Due to its controversial nature the project received almost two hundred and fifty comments from the public, far more than normal. Many of the comments were detailed and highly researched.
At the hearing Eggemeyer said that the contractor selected by the county to perform the required environmental impact assessment (called an "EIR") was now refusing to complete the work since the number of comments--all of which must be responded to--greatly exceeded expectations.
Big Wave has declined to pay additional money to have the work done.
Eggemeyer outlined three options to the Planning Commission
First, the county could sue the consultant, Christopher Josephs and Associates, to force it to complete the work without additional payment.
Eggemeyer said that since the consultant knew that Big Wave was a controversial project they therefore should have expected--and budgeted for--a large number of responses.
The second option would be to simply say that there was no final EIR.
The third option would have Eggemeyer's office collaborate with a third party to find the answers to the public's questions. Although Eggemeyer did not specifically name Big Wave itself as that "third party," during the public comment period of the hearing the "third party" was identified as Scott Holmes. Eggmeyer did not dispute that assertion.
Holmes sits on the Board of Directors of the Big Wave Project and, serving as its Project Engineer, was deeply involved in the development of the Big Wave proposal.
David Beyers, an attorney for McCracken, Beyers, and Richardson, the law firm representing Big Wave, defended this unusual arrangement where a project applicant helps prepare its own environmental review. In an e-mail made available to Montara Fog he writes that under California law "...the EIR can be prepared completely by a project applicant and this is done so in other agencies. In any event the EIR has been prepared by an outside consultant as the applicant has spent $365,000 so far on its preparation."
The county will make the decision on which option to pursue. The Planning Commission will evaluate the resulting EIR, if any.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Pilot reflects on crash-landing at HMB airport
HMB Review: By Greg Thomas March 22, 2010
UPDATE: The airplane that crash-landed on the tarmac at Half Moon Bay Airport Monday afternoon belongs to Ocean Colony resident Jim Williams. Sounding cavalier about the accident, the 74-year-old pilot said he’s fine, but his $500,000 plane won’t be in working shape for this year’s Pacific Coast Dream Machines event in April.
At about 2:30 p.m. Williams was touching down on the western runway at the airport when the left leg of his landing gear folded, sending he and his replica World War II era plane into a 60-mile-per-hour skid. After spinning 180 degrees, the plane veered off into a meadow on the shoulder of the runway and stopped – “luckily,” Williams says.
“The trouble with these World War II fighter types (is) if they flip upside down the canopy goes into the ground and you can’t get out,” he said.
At 2:45 p.m. airport personnel were tending to the aircraft, a Yak 3 Russian fighter replica, on the side of the runway. Williams was the only one inside and walked away from the crippled plane feeling fine. The plane was towed to a nearby hangar.
The plane’s parts were manufactured in Romania and shipped to Williams in 2003, the pilot said.
Williams said he’d only been flying the plane for about a month – about 20 hours worth.
When asked if he’d seek compensation from the manufacturer, Williams chuckled.
“No, that wouldn’t work in Romania. I have insurance.”
At about 2:30 p.m. Williams was touching down on the western runway at the airport when the left leg of his landing gear folded, sending he and his replica World War II era plane into a 60-mile-per-hour skid. After spinning 180 degrees, the plane veered off into a meadow on the shoulder of the runway and stopped – “luckily,” Williams says.
“The trouble with these World War II fighter types (is) if they flip upside down the canopy goes into the ground and you can’t get out,” he said.
At 2:45 p.m. airport personnel were tending to the aircraft, a Yak 3 Russian fighter replica, on the side of the runway. Williams was the only one inside and walked away from the crippled plane feeling fine. The plane was towed to a nearby hangar.
The plane’s parts were manufactured in Romania and shipped to Williams in 2003, the pilot said.
Williams said he’d only been flying the plane for about a month – about 20 hours worth.
When asked if he’d seek compensation from the manufacturer, Williams chuckled.
“No, that wouldn’t work in Romania. I have insurance.”
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