Judge OKs wetlands protection
Developer sued city to build a 24-acre housing project
By Julia Scott, Correspondent, Inside Bay Area
Saturday, July 30, 2005
HALF MOON BAY — The 15-year legal dispute over the proposed Beachwood Subdivision in Half Moon Bay is the classic coastal tale: Wetlands are discovered on a valuable piece of property, pitting development against preservation in a rancorous battle.
On Wednesday, the forces for preservation won. Judge Maria Rivera of the First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in favor of the city of Half Moon Bay , which had refused to grant the 24-acre housing development a building permit after concluding that parts of the property were protected wetlands. The land is a few blocks north of downtown Half Moon Bay, east of Highway 1. Rivera reversed an earlier decision by the San Mateo County Superior Court that had ordered the city to grant the developer a permit to build on the site. In 1990, the city granted a tentative building permit for 85 residences to Bill Crowell, Beachwood's initial developer. The project hit a snag the following year, when the city issued a seven-year moratorium on any new building permits. Half Moon Bay was growing, with many other subdivisions on the way, and the one sewer plant in the area couldn't handle the extra load. The city re-examined the site for an environmental impact report in 1998 and discovered the wetlands. Rare vegetation had begun to cover the soil in patches. That's when the problems began. In May 2000, the City Council refused to issue Beachwood a Coastal Development Permit it had applied for but had never been granted. Beachwood sued the city, claiming it had no right to reverse its position from 10 years before. The developer disputed the city's definition of a wetland, focusing on one sentence that referred to a special type of wetland soil they said was not present on the site. The Superior Court judge agreed withthem , and ordered the city to grant Beachwood its long-awaited CDP. Half Moon Bay city councilman Mike Ferreira said the judge's decision threw the city for a loop. "It was a big surprise and a shock," he said. "It threw into chaos the whole definition of a wetland." Over 90 percent of California 's coastal wetlands have already been lost to development, according to Chris Kern of the California Coastal Commission. They are a habitat for several endangered species, including the California red-legged frog and the San Francisco garter snake. Once a wetland area is discovered on a piece of property, a large "buffer zone" of protected land must be created around it. Two or three small wetlands on a property can be enough to rule it out for any development. Several lawsuits later, the city decided to make a final appeal. "If we had agreed to that definition (of a wetland), a whole lot of open areas on the coastside would no longer be considered wetlands," said Ferreira. "They would become housing tract fodder." Half Moon Bay's definition of a wetland has two parts, and the second part incorporates the broader definition by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Their version includes any seasonally wet area covered by special wetland plants, regardless of whether wetland soil is present. Ultimately, it was what swayed Judge Rivera to rule on the city's behalf. The developer also alleged that the city had conspired to "find" wetlands where none had existed before. He said the city had taken fill from the site for other construction projects, leaving behind shallow land depressions that eventually developed into wetland. Ferreira denied the allegations. He said the record had shown that Beachwood removed most of the fill itself. "The property was wet before the city and the developer were out there," he said, suggesting that it had simply been overlooked previously. Kern said that the city would be wise to amend its wetlands definition to remove the sentence that sparked Beachwood's first lawsuit. "It's confusing," he said. In her ruling, Rivera did not deny Beachwood's right to take the city to court again to recover the $1.7 million it says the city compelled it to spend in the early 1990s on drainage and sewer improvements. It was not immediately clear how the developers would proceed, and their lawyer did not return a phone call seeking comment. Ferreira said that Half Moon Bay faces other lawsuits over the wetlands issue. "There are some people who think they can push small towns around with the threat of a lawsuit," he said. "The only way to fight it is to stand up to them." Julia Scott Can be reached at 348-4340 or by e-mail at jscott@sanmateocountytimes.com . |