January 28, 2004

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Publication Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Last round starts in fight to expand open space agency to coast

By Marion Softky

Almanac Staff Writer

This spring promises a political spectacle as opposing advocacy groups prepare for a high-profile, high-stakes battle over the future of San Mateo County's still-rural coast.

The issue is whether the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, a single-purpose government agency that has bought and preserved more than 50,000 acres of open space on the Bay side of the Peninsula, will be able to expand its boundaries to include 140,000 acres of the San Mateo County Coastside, from the southern border of Pacifica to the Santa Cruz County line, and from the district's present boundaries near Skyline, west to the ocean.

The arena will be public hearings before the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo), an obscure government agency formed in each county to rule on incorporations, annexations, and other changes in government boundaries.

On January 21, the San Mateo County LAFCo started the final round of a complicated process, which began seven years ago and should end this summer.

After hearing several speakers from both sides, LAFCo agreed to hold at least two hearings, the first in Half Moon Bay in early March, followed by a hearing in Redwood City. Before the San Mateo County hearings, LAFCos in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties will also hold hearings and refer the matter to San Mateo LAFCo, where the annexation is proposed.

If earlier hearings before the open space district board are any guide, these hearings will be well-attended and confrontational. Particularly in the South Coast, many people fiercely oppose the annexation for many reasons, ranging from distrust of government and concern for property rights, to fears about fire, tax base, loss of farms, water and traffic.
Sides line up

Annexation supporters have been buoyed in the last two weeks by formation of the Coastal Open Space Alliance, a new group of conservation organizations supporting the expansion, and by support from the San Mateo County Farm Bureau, which was announced last week. The bureau is an organization of farm and ranch families.

"We look forward to working with our partners in the district to protect agriculture's physical and economic integrity on the coast," said Farm Bureau President George Armanio.

As a condition of Farm Bureau support, the open space district has agreed to sponsor state legislation permanently giving up its right of eminent domain in the Coastal Protection Area.

A state law may soothe concerns of Coastsiders who still fear the district may try to condemn private land, even though it has formally given up the power and promised to embed a no-condemnation condition in any LAFCo approval.

Several opponents of annexation crossed the hills to appear at last week's LAFCo meeting in Redwood City. They raised issues including possible negative effects of the annexation on the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District -- a subject currently under discussion between the agencies.

Nina Pellegrini of Montara, representing Californians for Property Rights, quizzed the commission about how to protest the annexation. "We have to fight this," she told the Almanac.

Coastside activist Oscar Braun is trying to combat the annexation by incorporating 100,000 acres of the rural Coastside into a new town to be called "The Hamlets." He is also suing to block the proposed annexation.

Mr. Braun hopes to tap the desire of many Coastsiders for local control, and their resentment of rule by San Mateo County government and the urban population over the hill.

On one of several Web sites, he wrote: "The residents of the Rural Lands are unwilling to continue to suffer the tyrannical apartheid policies imposed upon them by this dysfunctional Board of Supervisors that serves at the pleasure of the Committee for Green Foothills and Sierra Club. God Bless America."

Open space district General Manager Craig Britton noted that the district would own and manage nearly 12,000 acres of land and conservation easements over the next 15 years. "Our goal is the protection and preservation of this unique landscape," he said. "This is land that is valued by the regional community for its scenic beauty, agricultural production, and recreational opportunities."
INFORMATION

More information is available at the open space district Web site: www.openspace.org; and opposition sites, including www.cwposse.org, and www.the-peoples-voice.org.

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