BIG WAVE AT THE PLANNING COMMISSION

County staff recommend approval for Big Wave plan they helped write

by Darin Boville

Montara Fog

County planning staff have recommended that the 
Planning Commission approve the plans for the Big Wave
Development--plans that the staff helped write.

As readers will recall, during the review of the project's 
environmental plan the proponents faced an unexpectedly 
large outcry from the public. The consultant hired by 
Big Wave, facing hundreds of written comments 
challenging Big Wave's claims, refused to undertake 
the work without additional payment. The County 
Planning Department, under the new leadership of 
Jim Eggemeyer, made the apparently unprecedented 
decision to finish the EIR itself, with the help of the 
Big Wave developers.

County staff recommends approval of the project, now 
reconfigured to eight office buildings from four, with no 
reduction is the square footage of the project.

You can download the staff report here. The main staff 
report is 103 pages in length with another two hundred 
pages of attachments.

Don't Let The Big Wave Sneak Up On You!

THE PUBLIC HAS BEEN GIVEN 12 DAYS TO REVIEW THE FINAL EIR

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Tell your friends and neighbors to attend the planning commission meeting at El Granada School on Wednesday, Oct. 27 at 6:00 pm.

• Send a tax-deductable donation to the Committee for Green Foothills' Big Wave fund: 3921 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303 link to CGF Google checkout

• Email the Planning Commission: Planning-Commission@co.sanmateo.ca.us and copy the Project Planner Camille Leung: cleung@co.sanmateo.ca.us reminding them that they serve voters and tax payers on the coast, not private developers, and the public has spoken out overwhelmingly against Big Wave.

• Request no less than 60 days to review Final EIR

• Request that Story Poles be erected for all the buildings, and left up during the entire public review period

Planning Commission Meeting
El Granada School
Wednesday, October 27 6:00pm 

BACKGROUND:

Big Wave, the 300,000 square foot office park and residential housing facility, needs to find another shore to land.

This project and its EIR has been looked at by the citizens, the Midcoast Community Council, our public water and sewer agencies MSWD and GSD, the FAA, Sierra Club, Comittee for Green Foothills, Surfrider Foundation, and land use attorneys who specialize in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and has been found seriously deficient in its compliance with CEQA, zoning regulations, the Local Coastal Program (LCP) and the Midcoast Community Plan.

Instead of working for us, the community, the County Planning Staff is bending over backwards to facilitate this development.

On October 27th, the Planning Commission will be asked to grant various special workarounds that no private citizen or small business would ever get. Let them know that we are watching and we want Big Wave to play by the same rules as everyone else.

Big Wave should not be granted special use permits. Big Wave housing should not be allowed in an unsafe area adjacent to the airport and in the industrial waterfront zone. Big Wave should not be allowed on wetlands and next to the environmentally sensitive Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.

If the County feels that they want this project for the unincorporated Midcoast, the Applicant should be required to submit an amendment to the General Plan, the Zoning Regulations, and the Local Coastal Program as anyone else would have to do.

They want to skip all that. Call them on it. Hold them accountable.

We need to let the planning commission know that big developers must play by the same rules as anyone building a home or doing a remodel. If they can do it legally—let them go through the proper hoops to make it happen. If it is really a viable project, playing by the same rules as everyone else isn't going to make it any less viable.

No special favors. No Big Wave.

FINAL EIR UPDATE:

After many delays, the County Planning Staff has posted the Final EIR for Big Wave on the County website. You can see the Final EIR on the County's website.

Link to Final EIR: http://www.co.sanmateo.ca.us/portal/site/planning

Once on the website, click on "Pending Projects/EIR icon, then click on the "Big Wave Final EIR" link.

The FEIR contains all the 245 comments by agencies and the public, and responses to those comments. The Committee for Green Foothills (see letter) and the Midcoast Community Council have asked the Planning Commission to allow a full 60 days for the public to review the FEIR. The Planning Commission will consider this request at their Public Meeting on October 27. The Midcoast Community Council has also requested that complete Story Poles—not the misleading partial poles that are up now—be erected and be left up during the entire public review period. 

The attorneys for Committee for Green Foothills, Shute Mihaly, and Weinberger, are preparing written comments on the Final EIR. This is an important step in case litigation is necessary. If you would like to help with the costs of this legal review, please send your tax-deductible contribution to: Committee for Green Foothills, 3921 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303. Indicate your contribution is for the Big Wave Fund.