I've lived on the Coast for 20 years. For the first time we are talking about moving. The Traffic is out of hand .......just awful....

Moss Beach

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I went south on 1, husband went north. Both of us turned around & are back home. Total gridlock & no way out

Montara

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I think addressing traffic issues at the same time as proposed buildings is a more useful approach than leaving it till after the developments have occurred.  The folks in Cupertino did not ask for traffic relief as businesses were approved and built. The result is gridlock for the whole of Silicon Valley on 280 at DeAnza Blvd....as well as a lack of parks and other amenities that would improve the quality of life there. To postpone discussing the projected increased traffic until later, leaves the issue as "no one's responsibility".

El Granada

 

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We tried to stop Big Wave and failed. It seems the only democratic way to make an impact is to unseat the supervisor, Don Horsey. 1000 signatures would make a difference in 49 of 50 California counties, but not in San Mateo county, where we have at large election. In other words, not only his district, the coastside, but the entire county votes. You can ask yourself, why it is so?

El Granada

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Does anyone know if the closure of 84 is the root of the traffic congestion heading into north HMB on 1? Since the beginning of the year, traffic has increased immensely and I cannot figure out why. Trying to get to work and coming home is worse than weekend traffic. ~ frustrated~

El Granada

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The wall of traffic south to our area starts at Paloma in Pacifica. It is a dead stop.

Moss Beach

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Connect the Coastside Traffic Projections Public Meeting will be held at the HMB Yacht Club in Princeton at 7:00 PM on Thursady night.

I suggest everyone who can, should go, because it is based on  PROJECTED "Total buildout" of the Coast so they can plan for future horrendous traffic when every vacant lot is fill-in to maximum density. 

Can we even try to preserve our sleepy little coastal village or are the Big Development powers in RWC and beyond forcing this?

Moss Beach

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I'm new to HMB, and was really taken aback by the traffic the last couple of days. I scanned my traffic apps for notices of special events, crashes, etc., but didn't see any explanation for the sudden bumper-to-bumper traffic. Are all these people simply headed for the beach? Does this happen on all sunny weekends, even in the winter? I can bike to town from my home, but it's kind of hard to avoid 92 and Hwy 1! Advice/suggestions please!

Half Moon Bay

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From my house, I can see the traffic sitting (not moving) past Cetrella on Main St. It's ridiculous.

Half Moon Bay

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Traffic does suck. And our infrastructure has been neglected for decades. That said... it's hard not to feel lucky to live in the place that thousands of people spend hours trying to get to every time it is marginally nice out. We enjoyed a walk down the bluffs last night and we're dumbfounded by the number of people on the beach below.

General Coastside

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Bad news is that we have a lot more development in the plans. Sharing a list of large scale developments at different planning / approval stages.

Montara: 

- 2 Hotels in Montara (31 plus 13 Units)

Moss Beach:

- Big Wave - Total of 8 buildings incl a Large Office Park (the 5 office buildings alone equate the size of 1.5 Walmarts) plus housing, boat storage, parking for approx 500 cars  

- MidPen - 71 Units across the Montara Lighthouse

El Granada:

- Multi unit complex(s) including 3-story “Mavericks” apartment building with 12 units

Half Moon Bay

- Pacific Ridge - Residential development next to HMB High School with 63 homes

- Best Western Hotel – 46 Rooms

- Hyatt Hotel - 148 Rooms with Conference Center plus 2,700 SF retail building and 195 parking spots

- Hundred plus units high density housing

Plus annual infill of homes and second units according to the LCP and on top a forecasted 2 Mio visitors to the Coastside per year.

HMB is already overburdened with the current traffic volume.  The combination of Big Wave, the MidPen development, and 2 plus traffic lights in Moss Beach (according to the Connect the Coastside report) will gridlock the Highway 1 section between Montara and El Granada.

Moss Beach

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You'd be surprised to learn that no one entity is looking at the cumulative effects of development on the coast. Certainly not Connect the Coastside Transportation Plan. This is not only tourist traffic that has worsened! There are many proposed projects that will continue to significantly affect traffic on the coast.

We have just one road in, through and out. We have no alternatives. As nice it may be to compare ourselves to other coastal communities, we have a fixed infrastructure. There will be no bypass roads developed - this was decided with the overwhelming citizen vote in San Mateo County to have a single-lane tunnel in favor of a multi-lane mountain bypass.

 

Moss Beach

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It is totally crazy the weekend traffic.  I left town at 4 pm Sat and had to go thru the tunnel because 92 was totally stopped. The traffic coming south to the coast was backed up from Grey Whale cove thru the to Pacifica. Sam Trans needs to get some buses that are convenient and easy to catch to work on this gridlock. Please raise your voices to the board of Supervisors, Connect the Coast, MCC, Half Moon Bay City Council. Take into consideration, if you don't let them know you are NOT OK with the way things are....

Moss Beach

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Traffic. They have done Nothing! When will they fix the traffic problem, instead of just proposing more projects!

Moss Beach

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The traffic studies are also totally outdated now so realistically they'll have to dump a lot of money into updating them.  And they can't really fix the traffic problem that we have now anyway, let alone make it acceptable for lots of new growth.  Our elected politicians clearly don't care about reality on the coast, they live in Atherton and Emerald Hills and don't have to commute everyday like the rest of us.  I feel so let down I can barely put it into words. 

Remember this is about MidPen making money, it's not about helping anyone.  Please consider taking your constructive comments (like you just posted) and send to the CCC, MCC, and Board of Supervisors to let them know your thoughts.

Montara

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Forgive me in advance for my naivete...but, Does Sir Horsley ever come to the Coastside?  Ever hold community forums of any sort? Provide office hours or some such where he meets with his District 3 constituents to hear our concerns regarding coastside development policy/trends?

What I'm getting at is perhaps it may be useful to organize a 'come-to-hey-zeus' conversation between he and (a couple of busloads?) of citizens...a show of force, if you will, to hold him accountable with the promise of an organized election-time resistance if his words (or a subsequent actions) are inconsistent with community will.

Otherwise, we make it too easy for him to hide behind the usual camouflage offered by the faux community input structure of Bored of Supervisor meetings, or to ignore individual protestations by community activists as being 'radical opinionistas' out of touch with reality.

Or, we can go on as we are and watch the coastside's current character die the death of a thousand cuts.

El Granada

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In summary: Our elect officials approved much needed housing for developmentally disabled adults on the Coastside (Big Wave). The problem is that the location is in a known high risk Tsunami Inundation Zone and is tied to an out of scale business park that lacks the infrastructure to support the incremental traffic.

The Hexagon Study estimates 1500 daily car trips going in and out of the development that will gridlock the Coastside especially when you add the planned MidPen High Density development across the Montara Lighthouse. The "Connect the Coastside" study outlines 2 traffic lights in Moss Beach on Cypress Ave / Highway 1 (to channel traffic to and from Big Wave) and California Street / Highway 1 in addition to a number of cross walks at street level. The MidPen development will likely result in another traffic light on Carlos Street / Highway 1 (#3 in Moss Beach!) to channel a couple of hundred daily car trips in / out of the MidPen development.

Moss Beach

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The concern is not about providing housing for developmentally disabled adults on the coast. That is the right thing to do.

The concern is about an out of scale business park, limited access, and the traffic volume that will further gridlock Highway 1 in combination with the proposed MidPen high density housing across the lighthouse in Moss Beach.

Moss Beach

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Mid Pen is moving with reckless abandon and with the county turning a blind eye there is no one to hold them accountable for there actions.

We have no form of government to do our bidding for us, no one speaks up for us on the issues we are talking about.

Very frustrating to say the least.

Moss Beach

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On top of all the noted objections / concerns, I'm still wondering how Big Wave was approved by our elect officials considering that the site is in a Tsunami Inundation Zone...

Moss Beach

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Think of the coast as a much larger version of the building in Oakland that caught fire and everyone died because they ignored zoning regulations and used it for housing when it wasn't equipped for housing.  No one could get out in time and then everyone finger-pointed about whose fault it was.  It would be nice to avoid that on a larger scale here.  But what are the chances that our BoS would care about that?

Moss Beach

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It doesn't endear Horsley to us when we say that Montara & the whole Coastside cannot handle all of the additional home, hotel & Big Wave building proposed for this area. The traffic has become FRIGHTENING! So, what is the use of talking to him. He thinks he knows what's best for us! If he does not listen to his constituents, we know who NOT to re-elect. If we felt he did wish the best for our quality of life, the reverse would be true. The ball is in his court. He could convince us that he truly represents our needs on a countywide scale, & we would bend over backwards to meet with him. Unless he does that, these meetings are empty and meaningless.

Montara

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Coastside residents are concerned about disaster preparedness (i.e. tsunami, fire, earthquake) in the context of development plans and infrastructure constraints. Who is responsible and is planning for it?

General Coastside

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This is a horrible idea! There's enough daily traffic just with all the people who live here, let alone the weekends when you can't run simple errands with all the tourists in town clogging the roads. There's already 60+ new homes going in at the end of Terrace. That's at LEAST 60+ more cars on our roads every day. This town has grown out of control, there are way too many people here than what the infrastructure can handle. I hear there may also be another 40 homes planned for development just north of sea horse ranch on the bluffs. The traffic heading north of town is horrendous enough already, now they want over 100 new homes which would most likely be at least 200 more people and well over 100 more cars. There's already a brand new hotel next to Cameron's, we don't need another one down there. You've got the HMB Lodge by golf course, the Ritz and that new Best Western at the south end of town. Keep that field for what it's always been used for, farming and P Fest parking.

Half Moon Bay

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It was horrible. My husband and I went one mile into town from our house, simply to drop off the rental car he had from Gino's autobody. We'd been out of town all weekend and he was due to leave if off today. The cars were lined up each and every direction. That included down mill street clear back to the church. We both passed along the side of cars in the (clear) oncoming lane and made a left down purrissima to get to Gino's. 3 cars (clearly out of towners/tourists) followed us like blind little sheep hoping to find a secret passage way that would get them to 92 quicker. Had to chuckle as they quickly saw they'd been lead down a dead end street only to have to turn around and get back in the line of cars, disappointed. Sorry, not sorry. It's getting way out of hand.

General Coastside