The city of Half Moon Bay found itself in serious financial trouble last year after U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the city had to pay a local developer $37 million - $41 million with legal fees added. The judgment amounted to close to four times the city's annual budget, or more than $3,000 per resident in this city of fewer than 13,000. Bankruptcy loomed. Walker found that a city drain project inadvertently had created wetlands on developer Charles "Chop" Keenan's property. When Half Moon Bay later cited those same wetlands as grounds to stop Keenan from developing...
SACRAMENTO — A bill that would erase Half Moon Bay's lawsuit debt to a developer in return for the construction of a major subdivision on land containing wetlands overcame a major hurdle on Wednesday, narrowly winning approval from the Assembly's Local Government Committee. The panel, headed by Assemblywoman Anna Caballero D-Salinas, voted 4-2 to send the controversial proposal, AB1991, to the Appropriations Committee for cursory approval before it moves to the Assembly floor for a vote. A coalition of environmental groups has fought the bill at every turn, concerned about the precedent it could set. It fears that the bill,...
The Half Moon Bay City Council was poised late Tuesday to hire a team of appellate lawyers and a financial adviser to help it address a potentially ruinous federal court order that the city pay $36.8 million to a developer in a property dispute. The council planned to hire Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, a San Francisco law firm that specializes in public finance and corporate law, and Piper Jaffray, a financial firm that has worked with cities across the state. They will work with the council on what to do about a court judgment that is more than three times...
Half Moon Bay is wrestling with unpleasant options for responding to a court ruling that officials say threatens the "very existence of our city government" - a $36.8 million judgment against the city for turning a proposed housing development site into wetlands. Under the worst-case scenario, officials say, Half Moon Bay would become the first Bay Area city forced to dissolve, and the coastal town's land would become an unincorporated part of San Mateo County. Members of the City Council say that's unlikely, and they plan to vote at a public meeting tonight to retain an appellate law firm and...
The record was shattered today in the Half Moon Bay World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, with the winning gourd weighing in at 1,524 pounds. The grower, Thad Starr, takes home the first prize of $9,144 or $6 per pound. The 40-year-old from Pleasant Hill, Ore., beat more than 70 competitors, including three-time winner Joel Holland, who came in second with a 1,384-pound pumpkin.