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SUMMARY
The COASTSIDE BEACH CLUB is a unique project. Its mission is to put butts on boats, and boats on the water in Princeton harbor! It s total potential income, per year, is only $4-5000. After insurance, not much profit. It is a labor of love. It would serve 12 people. I am asking for several exceptions to keep development expenses down. None of the exemptions I am requesting cause any public safety issues. I am also offering space for SMCo to put a public ADA bathroom on my property, which is badly needed.
Sub-standard Lot. It is a substandard lot, but this project does not require more space.
Parking Variance. Get rid of parking! My members will be required to use ride sharing, bikes or walking to get to the Coastside Beach Club. As a HMB Yacht Club member, I did this for years. I never drove from Half Moon Bay to the yacht club . I kept my boat, my paddle, my life vest, gloves and my wetsuit wetsuit in a little Rubbermaid bin so I wouldn t have to drive. That is why the modular will store paddles, life vests and wetsuits. The traffic is so reprehensible on the weekends, more and more Coastsiders are using the Coastal Trail to get around on bikes and eBikes.
I, myself, am going carless. I will be covering my carless evolution as part of my Coastside Buzz.com content: “Going Carless on the Coastside ~ An Experiment and an Adventure! ” Stay tuned to COASTSIDEBUZZ.com. Example: I Ubered to the Fogfest, last weekend, from HMB both days for less than $20 and didn’t have to pay for parking or walk a long way from parking. I’m Ubering to my ZHO hearing!
As a Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee member for City of HMB, I have been working with a hotel developer, reducing parking space (Oceano parking lot is 85% empty all the time) OCEANO PHOTO
Modular Fire Suppression. The office modular in question was approved by the California DepartmentCommunity Housing.
Mark Mondragon, HMB Coastside Fire Marshall, came to my lot and looked at the office modular. He understands SMCo code, but he felt that it was within reason to allow me to NOT put fire suppression in the modular because I’m only going to be storing paddles and life vests and that sort of thing.
Supervisor Horsley is pushing back on requiring fire suppression for the farm housing. Again, all of these add-ons make housing more expensive than most can afford. San Mateo County planning should be looking carefully at customizing the planning and building process for citizens, instead of using code as barriers to development.
The Firewall Requirement. My office modular, again, is rated by the California Department of Community Housing. I do not see why the SMCo’s requirement would supersede a State of California standard. Neither did Mark Mondragon, Coastside Fire Marshall.
Additionally, the building next to me is a CINDER BLOCK and COPPER-CLAD BUILDING. image.png Building an additional cinder-block firewall, does not make any common sense to him. He understands the code, but felt there was reasonable wiggle room, in terms of the actual minimal exposure of endangering public safety, getting their paddles and life vests.
Again, these requirements might be what is represented by code, but those codes clearly are not serving the citizens of San Mateo County, or this project. A paddle business creating beach access is a project whose income is very minimal. Farmers, like water workers (instructors, guides, fisherman, etc.) don t make much money. It certainly does not make any sense in regards to what a water-oriented business can financially substantiate. This additional requirement is so expensive that you out-price the project.
In fact, in Summer’s presence, SMCo Building Inspector, Miles Hancock actually said to me when I objected to the fire supression add-ons, I m sorry you don t have enough money to finish the project. I said to Miles, in front of Summer, “Oh, I do have enough money, Miles, I just don t want to give it to you . I have heard of this type of adversarial interaction over and over again. The SMCo planning department is not cooperative. They are not working for the citizens of San Mateo County, they are working for the self-sustaining bureaucracy that has been created as a human construct that we must suffer through.
In the 1600s, John Locke wrote Property and Man. When you make the building of something so expensive, that it is only a rich man’s opportunity, then you have taken away the most fundamental right of freedom ~ that is the possession of land and your ability to live and work on it.
Separation of Modular Building from Kayak Rack. Currently, the MODULAR AND RACK are four and a half feet part. image.png image.png The separation distance requirement is for 5 feet. Again, this is the same small niggling little requirement rules 
that are made in general, that make no sense when you apply them, specifically, to this project. Mark Mondragon agreed with me, that this was just too much detail.
Storage Under the Trailer. I would like to store a couple of KAYAKS UNDER THE TRAILER there is space.
Why not? Again, fire marshall Mark Mondragon did not see any public safety reason why the kayaks couldn’t be stored underneath there, other than there is a rule that you can’t.
SMCO also wanted me to put a skirt around the modular! That is an ill-informed idea. There are so many wild animals down in the harbor. I am backed right up against a whole bunch of wild space. There’s raccoons, feral cats, possums, skunks. I smell skunk almost every night. If I put a skirt around that modular, that is where the skunks would want to live. Again, the application of SMCo planning code makes no sense, in this case. I have been fighting this for a year and a half; to try to bring some common sense logic to this project.
ADA Ramp. Again, this is a requirement where the basic understanding of this project is not being understood. At present time, putting an ADA ramp to a building in which paddles and vests are stored would be a complete waste of time, because there is no ADA paddle or sail access to the water at the end of Vassar, or at the HMBYC.
- Painting Contractor for most of adult life.
- Remodeled from 1994 to 2000 in Santa Clara, SMCO and SLTahoe counties.
- Worked Mark and Jayne Battey training Developers on the land use process in early 90’s.
- Worked 2015 for water engineer Glenn Reynolds of Water Solutions preparing a 900 page water augmentation project for Milpitas, as the technical writer.
- Currently on the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee for City of HMB
Camper Permit DRAFT
We are in the midst of a housing emergency and a social crisis. If we don’t solve this problem fast, we will continue to lose service workers, and social service recipients will not be able to age in place on the Coastside.
The Challenged
- employed minimum wage workers
- seniors on social services
- businesses hampered by the “help wanted” epidemic
- the homeless
Here is a possible, quick and inexpensive solution.
The HMB Residential Camper/RV Permit
Background
I let two people park their campers for over 4 years on my front driveway (each for 2 years). I spoke to my neighbors and even the-“nasty”-neighbor-for-decades agreed when she met Jeff (college educated, veteran, State Park Ranger) and Lily (college educated, vet asst. and kayak instructor). They paid me $250/month to plug in. They took showers at work or friends. They were tidy and quiet.
This is what we are up against: Do the math on $11/hr minimum wage: $1,760 gross. “Rent generally should not be more than 25 percent of your gross monthly salary,” Quicken.com.
Some experts say 30%, but no one has ever had to pay 50% to 75% of their income for housing before. On the coastside $700 is really, really good for a single-bedroom. A master bedroom is $1,500. But that is where we are today for fully employed, full-time, minimum wage workers on the coast, as well as fixed income seniors.
Local seniors are not served by the local senior housing, but I know, working with Judy Macias and the Village of the Coastside,, that many seniors would be willing to live in a camper, rather than be banished from their community, family and friends. Campers are better than a room in a house, as they give a sense of privacy to young and old.
ADUs are slow to implement, expensive, and requires significant time for staff, but they will serve young professional, like teachers.
HMB has only 14 ADUs in the pipeline. The problems above are bigger than ADUs can solve. Even pre-approved ADUs are time consuming and expensive. Due to their expense, they will not be rented to minimum wage workers or seniors. ADUs will not solve the problem for minimum wage workers, but it is great intermediary housing for young professionals.
HMB Residential Camper/RV Permit Process
- Walk into City or go online to get one page permit form.
- Fill out form.
- Pay $150 (cost of admin labor to do the site visit ).
- Inspector comes out to property, takes pictures for file. They contact neighbors by phone, or email, or in person, to confirm their approvals.
- Renewed every year for $150, same process.
- If there are complaints for poor camper behavior, these will be investigated by the City /Sheriffs. If the complaints are valid, the privilege of the camper parking permit is pulled. The camper is moved within 48 hours. Enforced by sheriffs.
Note: Could consider adding a residential clean-out permit, or creating more public clean outs around town.
Permit Form Requirements
- Camper must be on wheels and can be moved at any time.
- Can be with engine, or an engineless trailer.
- Must be DOT approved.
- Physical area must be kept tidy and clean.
- Must fit on driveway without overhanging road or sidewalk, or it can be placed in the backyard.
- Neighbors on either side, and across the street, must sign off to approve the parking of the camper. (I think that if people explain and introduce the potential new camper neighbor, there will be less and less resistance to this idea.)
- Lastly, camper person must produce proof of employment in Half Moon Bay, like a pay stub, or local social service documentation.
Submitted by Michelle Dragony; Coastside Buzz.com, 650-740-4384, 111 Vassar St. HMB
Author: Coastside Buzz
Me
