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PRESS RELEASE. From San Mateo County’s Executive’s Office on January, 15th, 2025.
Half Moon Bay – Piece by piece, new homes that will provide local farmworkers with an affordable place to live on the Coastside are taking shape in a Central Valley factory.
Sparks fly at one end of an indoor complex larger than a football field northwest of Sacramento as welders forge steel bases. At the other end, past framing and plumbing and painting stations, nearly complete homes with full kitchens and bathrooms roll out for quality inspections.
A total of 47 manufactured homes will ultimately be trucked to and installed at Stone Pine Cove, a new neighborhood in Half Moon Bay that helps fulfill a pledge by local officials to provide a worthy place to live for some of the area’s lowest paid yet vital workers. Barring severe winter storms or unexpected delays, the new homes will be installed on foundations this spring.
“If we value locally grown, healthy food, we must equally value the hard workers who cultivate the fields and tend to crops in greenhouses. And that means providing them with safe and affordable housing options,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller, whose District 3 encompasses most of the county’s coastal growing areas.
The need for local affordable housing is acute. The cost of living in San Mateo County is so high the federal government considers a family of four earning $156,650 a year “low income.” A three-person household earning as much as $201,500 annually is listed as “moderate income.”
The statewide average annual earnings for farmworkers in 2022 was $24,871, according to a report by U.C. Merced. (Earnings estimates vary by location, type of work and other factors.)
That leaves market-rate housing far out of reach for most of the laborers who fuel San Mateo County’s $100 million agricultural industry.
The monthly median rent for a two-bedroom Half Moon Bay apartment stands at $4,150; the average home value tops $1.5 million, according to real estate firms.
Those high costs pose a challenge for local officials who want to provide affordable options farm workers who may be living in substandard, unpermitted housing to places like Stone Pine Cove, which is being paid for by the County along with its partners.
Two factors drive the push to create more affordable housing options.
A January 2023 mass shooting that left seven workers dead on two coastal farms put a spotlight on the substandard housing where many of the victims lived. Nineteen families displaced by the fatal shootings will be given priority for housing at Stone Pine Cove.
And while agricultural work has long been seen as seasonal, three quarters of farmworkers in the county live here year-round, according to surveys.
Stone Pine Cove is being developed on a site owned by the City of Half Moon Bay about a mile east of downtown, just south of Highway 92.
The one- to three-bedroom homes will be all-electric (no natural gas appliances) and Energy Star certified.
All of the homes will be available for purchase, with the assistance of a state program designed for low-income farmworkers.
To fast-track development, County officials turned to the Central Valley factory where “it never rains,” said Chris Roland, sales manager for Skyline Homes, which operates the indoor plant.
“The assembly-line process is in a controlled environment. It’s not in the elements so we don’t have to wait to finish a home because of rain,” Roland said. “That really helps with streamlining.”
That streamlining begins with forging the steel-beam framework that will eventually become a home’s floor. The framework moves to more than a dozen stations with specialized materials and crews at the ready, reducing the home-build time to four or five days, Roland said.
Unlike mobile homes, manufactured homes have wood-frame exterior walls filled with pink insulation. Windows, pipes and wiring meet federal Housing and Urban Development building codes.
On a recent visit, the first two homes destined for Stone Pine Cove were undergoing quality-control inspections behind the factory.
“We’ll have the homes built well ahead of time so we can have quality control done here,” said Chris Lippi, chief operating officer for Bigfoot Homes, which will place the homes on foundations at Stone Pine Cove. “Any issues that we have we’ll fix here before we bring them on site.”
Crews have completed about two-thirds of the site preparation work, which includes laying out new roads and placing utilities underground, according to Mike Wassermann, the project manager for Capital Program Management, the firm hired by the county to manage the project.
“Our mission,” Wassermann said, “is to get these families housed.”
Half Moon Bay City Council Meetings ~ 1st & 3rd Tuesdays @ 7:00pm
The City Council of Half Moon Bay is the City’s governing body, and consists of five elected members. The Council sets priorities and policies, makes final decisions on all major City matters, adopts ordinances and resolutions, appoints the City Manager and City Attorney, and approves the annual budget.
The Half Moon Bay City Council typically meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month starting at 7:00pm at the Ted Adcock Community Center, 535 Kelly Avenue.
HMB City Council Agendas and Zoom Links
Regular meeting agendas are posted 72 hours in advance.
Special meeting agendas are posted 24 hours in advance.
– Streamed live on Comcast Channel 27 and Pacific Coast TV website
– Facebook Live in English: City of Half Moon Bay FB Page
– Facebook Live in Spanish: City of Half Moon Bay Recreation FB Page
Comments in accordance with the three-minute per speaker limit. The City Clerk will read all comments into the record. Please visit our “Commenting at a City Council Meeting” information page.
– Email the City Clerk, Jessica Blair, at [email protected] prior to or during the meeting
– Facebook live during the meeting
– Phone during the meeting: (650) 477-4963 (English) and (650) 445-3090 (Spanish)
Archived HMB City Council meeting videos on PCTv
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You can also learn about City Council Procedures and Decorum.
The City Council develops Strategic Elements to help focus the City’s actions and work plans on its key priorities.
Do You Know How the 1953 Brown Act Guides Public Agencies Towards Transparency?
City Council Contact
Phone: (650) 726-8250 (leave message with Clerk’s office)
Mayor Robert Brownstone, District 1; Term ends 2026
[email protected]
Vice Mayor Debbie Ruddock, District 4; Term ends 2026
[email protected]
Councilmember Deborah Penrose, District 5, Term ends 2026
[email protected]
Councilmember Patric Bo Jonsson, District 2, Term Ends 2028
[email protected]
Councilmember Paul Nagengast, District 3; Term Ends 2028
[email protected]
The City of Half Moon Bay holds district-based elections for its five city council seats. Each Councilmember is elected to a 4 year term. There are no term limits in Half Moon Bay. The City Council selects one of its members to serve as Mayor and one to serve as Vice Mayor, on an annual basis.
- November 2024 Election – Districts 2 and 3 will elect a representative to a four-year term.
- November 2026 Election – Districts 1, 4, and 5 will elect a representative to a four-year term.
Click here to figure out which district you are in. Type your address into the interactive map and it will show you which district you are in.
More on the Half Moon Bay City Council on Coastside Buzz
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