However Jeremy Levine, coverage supervisor for the native pro-housing group, Housing Management Council of San Mateo, stated that undertaking and 555 Kelly are very completely different. Stone Pine Cove is positioned on the east facet of town. It’s immediately throughout from the California Terra Backyard, the place the mass taking pictures occurred.
“555 Kelly is nearer to the industrial a part of Half Moon Bay,” he stated. “It’s extra walkable, it’s extra built-in into the neighborhood writ massive, reasonably than being form of to the facet, in a nook.”
Its location is intentional. The event will embrace a neighborhood useful resource middle, the place residents can obtain psychological well being care, case administration and different companies. Chidester stated the undertaking is centrally positioned in order that residents can reap the benefits of the truth that the event is on a predominant artery main into town’s downtown and is throughout from a well being clinic and a farmers market.
However throughout public conferences in regards to the undertaking, its location has proved controversial amongst some neighbors who fear that site visitors and parking may very well be impacted by further residents. And at 5 tales, it might be the tallest constructing in Half Moon Bay.
Chidester stated, as metropolis council members negotiate the land-lease settlement, which might be legitimate for 99 years, they need to ensure neighbors’ considerations don’t go unnoticed.
“The council desires to only ensure that the phrases of the agreements actually defend town in the long term,” he stated.
State officers are watching these negotiations play out and need to see a call quickly, however their arms are considerably tied as a result of the event is on city-owned land. Chris Elmendorf, a land use legislation professor on the College of California, Davis, stated he has seen cities delay approvals on initiatives constructed on personal land, however this case is completely different.
“State legislation doesn’t present practically as sturdy authorized hooks for controlling cities’ disapproval of initiatives on land that they personal than it does for controlling metropolis’s disapproval of initiatives on privately owned land,” he stated.
So, the state pulled the one lever it might pull: warning town that it may very well be violating state housing legislation by delaying motion on a undertaking it promised it might construct. In 2024, town adopted a state-mandated plan to permit for extra houses to compensate for rising demand. It included Stone Pine Cove and 555 Kelly Ave. as initiatives that might assist it obtain that purpose.
“They made some progress, however you don’t get to say that you simply’re getting an A-plus since you full half of the project,” Levine stated. “I believe we will have a good time [Stone Pine Cove] and town’s success, whereas nonetheless recognizing that there are farm employees who want housing, who’re dwelling in horrible situations, and it’s the metropolis’s accountability to satisfy these wants.”
