Millwood Ranch: Valley of the Shadow of Death

On November 12, 2009, Pacifica Riptide received and posted this email from a Park Pacifica resident: "[I am] very concerned with the amount of work going on back at Millwood Ranch (formerly Picardo Ranch). It used to be a beautiful canyon with some rustic homes scattered about. It has now been cut and filled without permits. A large steel structure has been erected on fill, without engineering or permits! The city has issued five stop-work orders. Millwood has been cited by Fish & Game and the Army Corps of Engineers [Download Army Corps Letter to Tong 10-30-09]. Our city enforcement officer Jason Lo has been ignored for months, and he says he is handcuffed. I lived back here in 1982 when the hills came down. I live very near the location where the children were killed by a mudslide, all due to faulty hillside engineering. When I see Millwood Ranch, it gives me nightmares. They have people living and working below un-engineered cuts. They have filled creeks. When this floods, which it will, it will inflict major damage on Terra Nova's new football field, a disaster waiting to happen. City Council member Mary Ann Nihart has been up there and observed for herself the major changes to that valley. Before-and-after satellite pictures would be revealing. Old topographic maps are useless. The environmental damage may be irreversible."

Now reporter Julia Scott has done her homework, as usual. Her story just broke on Inside Bay Area/San Mateo County Times (see below). Anyone with further information about this issue may comment here on Riptide. Just scroll down and click Comments.

Comments

[your daddy]

Millwood is a beautiful ranch. What are you talking about? It hasn't had any of these problems this self-proclaimed "engineer" has complained about? Hello? It rained 21 of 30 days last month! Sounds to me like someone is jealous. How about that old beachfront sewage plant eyesore! Now that's a real problem. We should have turned that into something special a long time ago.

[Dan Underhill]

No offense to anyone hoping that we charge for parking at the pier, but the work going on back at Millwood Ranch is what this article was about and I, for one, am interested in anything anyone might know on this subject. Perhaps someone should start a thread about raising revenue by means of charging for parking at the pier.

[Amy Parkko]

I agree with the parking pass or a meter. There really is way too much trash at the pier. It's really disgusting and no one enforces the litter policy at the pier. Why don't they patrol it and start fining the people who litter. Now there is some revenue!!!

[Bruce Hotchkiss]

What the heck is the connection between the Millwood Ranch and the old WWTP?

[Bob Hutchinson]

The old sewer plant has been a blight on Sharp Park and a waste of prime oceanfront property for far too long. It is now used to store various junk and vehicles as well as our precious City Council.

I think the perfect use for this beautiful location would be an ocean-view restaurant. There are not that many prime locations along the coast offering fine ocean-view dining. This would create more of a reason for out-of-towners to come here and spend money as well as improving the neighborhood. A restaurant/microbrewery along the lines of The Beach Chalet or Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. or Moss Beach Distillery would draw visitors and locals and add much-needed tax revenues.

Any restaurant that leases the property would be responsible for remodeling and bringing it up to code just as when a restaurant leases any property. There's plenty of room for parking in the middle.

City Council can meet anywhere, such as the community center, city hall -- hell, put them in Ed Cordero or a tent, for all I care. But why waste such a great location any longer?

And speaking of increasing revenues, I think it's time that out-of-towners parking near the pier should be charged some kind of fee(s) for parking and/or use of the pier. Many of these fisherpeople come from over the hill and don't spend a dime in our city. Yet we have to pick up their litter and maintain the pier for them. I think Pacifica residents should get a parking pass for a low annual fee or free. Out-of-towners would have to pay $5 per day or a discount for a year pass.

What do you think?