Welcome to Coastside Community First!

Welcome to the website for Coastside Community First!

Welcome to the website for Coastside Community First. We are a group made up of a diverse range of people living here on the Coastside of San Mateo County. This is a community group, made up of Coastsiders to benefit and serve the needs of all people living here in our beloved home. To those who are interested in being informed on local issues affecting our lives, you are invited to look, learn, and participate in a wide range of topics which may be of interest to you...
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CCF Comments on LAFCO's Half Moon Bay/Midcoast Municipal Service Review

Honorable Commissioners:

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the March 18, 2008 Municipal Service Review Draft (?Draft?) for Half Moon Bay and the unincorporated Midcoast prepared by Matrix Consulting Group. Coastside Community First is a nonprofit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation founded in 2006 to promote the best overall long-term interests of our community. One of our emphases is to encourage the improvement of local public services and infrastructure...

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Yamagiwa Decision

Read the Yamagiwa Findings of Fact document. This document details the facts and conclusions for the Yamagiwa case.

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CCF Presents an Open Letter to the Half Moon Bay City Council Concerning the Beachwood Crisis

Honorable Councilmembers:

In May 2006, Coastside Community First submitted a document to the public and the City Council that on the subject of Beachwood stated: “Rather than defend against a $30,000,000 lawsuit in federal court, the City should consider seeking a settlement with the developer that preserves wetlands while permitting a tasteful housing development accessible to Highways 92 and 1 via Foothill/Bayview.” In December 2006, CCF provided the Council a “Road Map for the Pacific Ridge/Beachwood Area” with a section titled: “Settle the Beachwood Lawsuit.” Unfortunately, the road ahead is now steeper and rockier than it was a year ago, but the map is essentially the same. With the understanding that the City Council is presently considering all viable solutions to this crisis, CCF offers for your consideration an updated and expanded version of the Road Map, with six recommendations that are first listed then treated in turn: ...

Yamagiwa Decision

Read the Yamagiwa Findings of Fact document. This document details the facts and conclusions for the Yamagiwa case.

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Candidate List for Half Moon Bay City Council

You can view the candidate list for the Half Moon Bay City Council by clicking the "View Information" link below.

You can find more information at Smartvoter.org. View Information...

Coastside Community First To Host a Town Hall Meeting

Coastside Community First will be hosting a town hall meeting on June 23rd at 10am and at 7pm in the Canada Cove Meeting Room. Click here to see the full information.

We invite your participation and feedback. Together, we can make informed decisions and achieve "Consensus through Collaboration". Together, we can make our home a better place to live.

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Gray Burke presents a summary of the challenges facing the HMBFD

Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with an updated summary of the challenges facing the HMBFD. This is an important public policy issue that one way or another will affect all Coastside residents. The District is facing two closely-related problems...

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Firefighters' present their side of the HMBFD story

Hello Mr. Gardner, Thank you for the opportunity to tell our side of this story. I understand that this is a complicated issue. I do ...

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Coastside Community First Presents a Road Map for Pacific Ridge/Beachwood Area

Planning the development of these two properties has vexed Half Moon Bay for a generation. Without underestimating the obstacles, Coastside Community First sees great potential in an integrated resolution that employs a three-fold approach: ...

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Coastside Community First Sends Comments on Highway 1/Terrace Avenue DEIR to HMB City Manager

Coastside Community First is dedicated to educating ourselves and the community about important issues, and offers the following analysis in the spirit of furthering the City's best long-term interests. Our directors, none of whom has a personal interest in the proposed project, invite discussion of this subject with Councilmembers, Planning Commissioners, and Staff.

Please include CCF's comments on the project's DEIR within the public record. We will first examine the DEIR's treatment of the proposed project (pp. 1-8); second, the DEIR's treatment of project alternatives (pp. 8-18)...

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Coastside Community First Mails USGS Handbook to Help Residents Prepare for Earthquakes

In an effort to increase the awareness of personal and community earthquake preparedness responsibilities, Coastside Community First (CCF) mailed the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) handbook “Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country” to all local coastside residents on September 11, 2006. That date reminds us that we live in an increasingly dangerous world, and that there are many diverse threats to our safety and way of life. We must remain vigilant and prepared.

Being prepared for a major natural disaster will not only help us to face that eventuality, but will also better prepare us both physically and psychologically to meet other challenges that may be forced upon us.

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California Coastal Commission Response to the CCF Open Letter

This letter is in response to your inquiries about Coastal Act wetland protection policies and other topics related to the construction of Foothill Boulevard in Half Moon Bay contained in your letter of June 11, 2006.

First, as stated in our June 6, 2006 letter to the Half Moon Bay City Manager: "Commission staff is not aware of and has not reviewed any actual plans...

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Coastside Community First Presents an Open Letter to the CCC

Dear Mr. Kern:

Thank you for your same-day response to HMB City Manager Deborah Auker concerning Foothill/wetlands issues. Coastsiders have been asking a number of questions about these and related issues, which you've certainly demonstrated an alacrity in answering. Coastside Community First respectfully requests your response to the following Foothill-related questions...

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Charles Gardner announces the formation of CCF to the HMB City Council on May 2, 2006

"Honorable Councilmembers, my name is Charles Gardner, and I'm from Montara. I serve as a School Board Trustee, but tonight I'm speaking as a founding director and president of Coastside Community First, a newly-formed public benefit group.

Coastside Community First, founded by concerned Coastsiders committed to ensure that the best long-term interests of our community are always at the forefront of public decision making.

Coastside Community First stands for a high-quality infrastructure sensitive to the environment; with transparent and responsive local government; and with all-inclusive, moderate political solutions that balance the various interests of our diverse community.

Once again, our founding principle: that the Coastside community's long-term best interests should always be squarely at the forefront of public decision making. We hope to have a long and productive relationship with this Council, and with all other public bodies and officials whose decisions affect the Coastside... "
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Don Bacon's Speech to the Half Moon Bay City Council on May 2, 2006

"Honorable Councilmembers, my name is Don Bacon, from Montara.  I’m speaking as a director of Coastside Community First, and am instructed by CCF to express our acknowledgment that the city, including this council, is restricted by its settlement agreement with Ailanto from fully participating in a public discussion on Foothill/Bayview.  Now, the agreement with Ailanto was signed two years ago by the city and the coastal commission. It has provisions that benefit the city, but it also includes concessions that restrict the city’s ability..."
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Is the highway 92 traffic bottleneck solution Foothill Boulevard?

The Devil’s Slide road closure has underlined what every Coastsider (and many visitors) learned long ago: the Highway 92/Main Stree/Highway 1 Bottleneck is an inadequate roadway nexus, funneling commuter, school, commercial and visitor traffic into the same congestion. There is little doubt that the only lasting solution is to offer drivers a navigational choice around the Bottleneck. Future traffic volumes will obviously dwarf present-day levels. The earlier plans for Foothill/Bayview, customized to our long-term needs, appear to have the potential to relieve the overburdened Bottleneck for decades to come.

Q1. Is it in the Coastside’s best long-term interests for drivers to have a way around the highway 92 Bottleneck?
Q2. Is the Foothill Boulevard/Bayview Drive route a viable alternative to forcing all traffic through the Bottleneck?
Q3. If not Foothill/Bayview, are there other routes that could bypass the Bottleneck?

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