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By Julia Scott, Bay Area News Group reporter
PACIFICA—A plant slated to produce more than 3 million gallons per year of local refined biodiesel for Bay Area residents looks like it will never get built, and the city may get stuck with a bill for illegal construction by the company selected to build the plant.
Bear cubs, lion cubs, primates and most living things "wrassle" to increase their strength and hone survival skills for the wild. It's a mother nature thing.
No stress equals atrophy, ask any space man.
Posted by: mike bell | August 07, 2009 at 10:45 AM
Mike promised, "That's only because Dad is around. As soon as he leaves for work, it's headlocks, half nelsons, atomic melvins, nuggies, scissor locks, body slams, and general mayhem. Nyuk. Nyuk. Nyuk. I'm telling!"
Mike... brother... that's no way to treat yourself. It's self abuse my friend. Try treating yourself a little nicer, it will improve your overall feelings of cheer.
Posted by: todd bray | August 06, 2009 at 05:45 PM
"I just can't get no respect." (Rodney Dangerfield)
Posted by: John Maybury | August 06, 2009 at 03:54 PM
That's only because Dad is around. As soon as he leaves for work, it's headlocks, half nelsons, atomic melvins, nuggies, scissor locks, body slams, and general mayhem. Nyuk. Nyuk. Nyuk. I'm telling!
Posted by: mike bell | August 06, 2009 at 03:47 PM
Glad to see the boys playing nice together.
Posted by: John Maybury | August 06, 2009 at 02:39 PM
I used to have a Marklin train set when I was a kid and really enjoyed it.
Imagine being paid for picking out colors and then spending a portion of the profit in a Pacifica business establishment.
Posted by: mike bell | August 06, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Mike wrote: "We want to create a truly sustainable piece of coastal paradise able to generate the revenue needed to care for it long into the future."
Get a train set and build a model. You can get little figures dressed as successful urban dwellers these days, too! I'll help you pick out the paint colors--for free.
Posted by: todd bray | August 06, 2009 at 07:25 AM
"The Quarry is the black hole that sucks all conversations toward it."
This discussion will never go away. Forty-nine percent of Pacifica's stakeholders got a glimpse of a non-impoverished and non-dysfunctonal future and we want it.
We don't want to give our valuable resources away.
We don't want to beg for government assistance.
We want the joy of being responsible for our own destiny.
We want to create a truly sustainable piece of coastal paradise able to generate the revenue needed to care for it long into the future.
Posted by: mike bell | August 05, 2009 at 07:56 PM
SGT Maybury,
In regards to the Quarry, please see the following:
http://www.despair.com/planning.html
Posted by: Jeffrey Simons | August 05, 2009 at 04:49 PM
Announcing the next Riptide dysfunctional-family brunch, Saturday, August 15, 11 a.m., Portofino of Rockaway, upstairs, ocean view, round table, no-host, check weapons and attitudes at the door.
Posted by: John Maybury | August 05, 2009 at 04:44 PM
"Without dreams, all you have is nightmares." (Swami Sez)
Posted by: John Maybury | August 05, 2009 at 03:59 PM
The Quarry is the black hole that sucks all conversations toward it.
It would be terrible if the Quarry became part of the GGNRA. If that happens (and the golf course is turned into a frog & snake preserve), what can Pacifica possibly do to develop any kind of economy? Certainly not the failed "our environment is our economy" or "revitalize Palmetto" ideas that have been around for more than 25 years and haven't done a thing for the city's economy except tie it up in a straitjacket. The new "our history is our economy" is ridiculous, as if anyone outside of Pacifica actually cares about places like the Little Brown Church or Sanchez Adobe.
And while I've heard a few people say that they might approve a Quarry plan with 100 or fewer houses, there's nothing I've seen that indicates it's the view of most Pacificans.
Posted by: Steve Sinai | August 05, 2009 at 03:30 PM
The requirement to vote on any housing in our only redevelopment zone has certainly delivered (several times) on its "poison pill" promise.
The ability to continually move the goalposts almost certainly guarantees that the Quarry will remain the eyesore and huge loss of potential revenue that it is today.
Only two things will break this stalemate:
(1) Get rid of the required vote on housing and let our planning department and coastal regulatory bodies do their jobs.
(2) Pacifica gets sued out of existence by a harmed private property owner.
If the Quarry is given to GGNRA, we will need to give Pacifica to San Mateo County.
Our options are nearly depleted already.
Posted by: mike bell | August 05, 2009 at 03:28 PM
LOL. You can tell people that this Peebles/Quarry issue is moot till you are blue in the face (and I should know, I've been trying, too), but they will keep commenting about it. Nobody will let it go. It's like a dog with a bone. It's like the sinking of the USS Maine, the grassy knoll, and the inside job at the twin towers. Cynthia, we shall never be quit of this thing. It will always be with us, like a ghost hovering over our field of dreams and disappointments. My own dream for this vast wasteland in the heart of Pacifica is that it become part of GGNRA at Mori Point, but that is entirely up to Mister Peebles and The Man in Washington.
Posted by: John Maybury | August 05, 2009 at 02:13 PM
"Trammell Crow did in fact have a plan that the voters were actually voting on with Measure E. Peebles preferred to wait until after the election to submit a binding plan."
Mr. Butler, you are mistaken. Trammell Crow did not have a plan, nor did it spend the time, money, and effort to create an urban plan or any architectural plans for any of the buildings.
Not one developer would have submitted a binding plan that included housing without first getting voter approval. That would not have been financially responsible to their investors, shareholders, or other stakeholders.
Again, this issue is moot.
Posted by: Cynthia Montanez | August 05, 2009 at 01:28 PM
Trammell Crow did in fact have a plan that the voters were actually voting on with Measure E. Peebles preferred to wait until after the election to submit a binding plan.
The reason Trammell Crow's plan was voted down was because it had too many homes. The reason Peebles' non-plan was voted down was that it had even more homes.
Most Pacificans say they will support a development in the quarry that includes up to 100 homes. Maybe someday a developer will listen.
Posted by: Ian Butler | August 05, 2009 at 07:25 AM
Mr. Emde,
What did he have drawn up for the public town hall meetings?
Check out the apartments on the corner of Sharp Park Road and Skyline Drive (Highway 35). They have been sitting vacant, rotting away for the past four years or so. Why? Because the developer planned to put 750 units up there, and the City of San Bruno said that is too many. They want about the same number that is up there around 300. The developer said okay, let us put one condo tower in the middle and condos around the edges. So the city and developer are talking about the final number. That is how it is done.
The developer proposes a number of houses, the city planning department studies how many units should be built, and they haggle back and forth.
Mr. Emde, I will ask Mike today. I have to walk into planning to talk to him about something.
Posted by: jim alex | August 05, 2009 at 05:32 AM
Mr. Emde, no plans were submitted for approval because they had the housing element in them. Had Measure L been approved, the plans would have been submitted that following Wednesday morning. I believe Mr. Crabtree had a copy of what was developed during the charette, but not sure if he still has it. That plan was what would have been submitted.
Just a thought, but why would you spend the millions in plan check fees for a project that needed voter approval? If I use the San Francisco fee schedule of 3.5% multiplied by the anticipated cost of construction ($250 million)m that comes to $8.75 million just for plan check and city building permits. That figure would not include the value of the civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbin and sprinkler permits. Those would have to be calculated based on their own qualifiers, which I could do, but hey, this is just based on SF's fee schedules and this is a moot point.
Posted by: Cynthia Montanez | August 04, 2009 at 08:52 PM
No, Mike, there was no plan.
Your home is not the quarry; not in size, scope, or importance.
We voted on whether to grant an entitlement to the property owner to allow residential development in the quarry, all fantasies to the contrary.
Please post whatever plans that Mr. Peebles submitted to the planning department on Riptide, and we'll all have a look at what surely is new material.
To say that there was a plan for the quarry is akin to saying that Mr. Bush was elected in 2000, or that Mr. Obama is not a U.S. citizen. Get out the tinfoil hats!
Posted by: Lionel Emde | August 04, 2009 at 08:13 PM
"Of course he had a plan. It was a beautiful plan that would have transformed Pacifica's economy by turning our only "Redevelopment Zone" into a revenue producing engine and a center of Urban Coastal living."
None of the "beautiful plan" made it on to the ballot, except that the restrictions on that property would go away in favor of the number of housing units Mr. Peebles wanted to include. What Mr. Peebles might have done after being granted such carte blanche is what we have been debating about ever since, and I for one haven't a clue. Neither the planning commission nor the council put the kibosh on Mr. Peebles' plans. It was I and the voting public who objected to granting such free rein to Mr. Peebles or anyone else. If the proposal had delineated the "beautiful plan" in a legally binding way, it might have gotten different results, but of course it did not.
Posted by: Dan Underhill | August 04, 2009 at 07:38 PM
I talked to my neighbors, modified my drawings and weighed my options for 2 years before submitting my home plans to Michael Crabtree's department for review.
This is a fake argument. Of course he had a plan. It was a beautiful plan that would have transformed Pacifca's economy by turning our only "Redevelopment Zone" into a revenue producing engine and a center of Urban Coastal living. No urban sprawl, walk to work from your home, Platinum Leed project and world class design. He was trying to get public input and support in order to overcome the cabal that prefers Pacifica undeveloped, unknown and broke.
Let's hear someone else's plans for the Quarry?
Posted by: mike bell | August 04, 2009 at 08:09 AM
Jim,
He (Mr. Peebles) had no plan.
If you don't believe that, please ask Mr. Crabtree in the planning department about what plans were submitted for this "project".
None were.
So, if you think no plan is a plan, we'll have to disagree.
Posted by: Lionel Emde | August 03, 2009 at 09:52 PM
And Mr. Peebles had no plan--that also should be remembered. A "vision" of fabulous profits perhaps, but no plan.
We are very lucky in some important ways.
Posted by: Lionel Emde | August 02, 2009 at 09:38
He had a pretty good plan he brought forward, Mr. Emde. I have not seen anything come out of anyone else to bring in revenue to the town of Pacifica. The Pacifica Brain Trust all know how to try to chase the $$ out of town but I haven't seen them come forward with one plan to bring money into town.
When the town has to file for Bankruptcy, Insolvency, and/or gets taken over by San Mateo County, who will be to blame?
Maybe I will take blame for it, pin it on me. No one else will step up and admit they made a mistake.
They are doing the same thing with a local group nosing around a proposed development plan.
Another group with no money, no credit, no expertise, no nothing. And they are back!!!! Big ideas, no money. Like they say in Texas, Big Hat, no cattle!
Posted by: jim alex | August 03, 2009 at 06:25 AM
I wasn't trying to argue that the new law definitely had something to do with the failure of the plant. I was just speculating that WEF probably knew months ago that this law might eventually be passed, so it could have been one additional reason that work on the plant stopped months ago, with WEF going into wait-and-see mode. Plus, it was an article worth reading for anyone interested in the future of biodiesel.
I don't recall hearing WEF saying they were going to sell directly to municipalities or companies with above-ground storage tanks, but even if they were, if other biodiesel manufacturers and distributors lost the ability to sell to retail gas stations, that would have meant those biodiesel companies would have tried to sell their fuel to the same customers that WEF said it was going to focus on. That could have further discouraged WEF.
Posted by: Steve Sinai | August 03, 2009 at 02:43 AM
Steve, if it were the other way around, meaning petro-based fuels were the "new " thing looking to be sanctioned for commercial retail sale, it's likely petro fuels would never pass the EPA or CARB standards, and pumping by the general population of so highly flammable a material would be laughed at.
As WEF stated several times, its operation was to create biodiesel for wholesale to municipalities primarily, and companies that store their own fuel. This article and the laws it discusses would not have much, if any, impact on WEF product.
Posted by: todd bray | August 03, 2009 at 12:45 AM