A pending 1,300-acre open-space land acquisition involving four major properties will link Skyline Ridge open-space lands to the sea by mid-2009, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) has announced.
The contiguous properties rise to an elevation of about 1,200 feet just southeast of Purisima Creek Road. They provide "unparalleled views of the San Mateo County coast and the western Santa Cruz Mountains," according to a description by district staff.
The district Board of Directors has scheduled a special meeting for 2 p.m. Thursday (Jan. 22) at the Elkus 4-H Ranch Retreat Center at 1500 Purisima Creek Road, Half Moon Bay, to hear a staff description of the properties.
The meeting will be followed at 3:15 p.m. by public tours of the properties – providing people make reservations by Wednesday by calling Jean Chung, real property administrative assistant at the district, 650-691-1200.
The landscape of the properties, beginning at the western margin of the redwood/fir forest, "consists of grazed rolling grasslands, steep brushy canyons, productive crop land and lush creek corriders," the staff fact sheet states.
The properties lie due east of the Cowell Ranch State Beach. At the upper end they connect with MROSD's 3,361-acre Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve that touches Skyline Boulevard just north of Swett Road.
At the lower end they connect with properties over which the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has an easement, completing the link to the Pacific Ocean.
The combined value of the lands is estimated at between $10 million and $12 million, although precise costs are still being negotiated, according to Rudy Jurgensen, the district's public affairs manager.
The largest of the four parcels is a 450-acre upper portion of the Elkus Ranch property owned by the University of California, which would retain control of the Elkus Ranch facilities.
Two properties, the 340-acre Lobitos Ridge and the 260-acre Blue Brush Canyon, are owned by POST, which acquires lands and turns them over to public agencies.
The final property is 250-acres of the uplands, non-agricultural portion of the Guisti family's Purisima Farms.
The purchases are for the purpose of preserving agricultural uses, protecting the ecology of the site and adding public trails in addition to preserving open space, Jurgensen said.
The district board is scheduled to discuss the Elkus Ranch property either at its Feb. 25 or March 11 meeting, he said.
The POST properties are scheduled to be discussed by the MROSD board this summer, and the Purisima Farms property will be discussed later, pending word on a state grant, Jurgensen said. The properties will be purchased individually as the negotiations are concluded, he said.
Comments
Midtown
on Jan 20, 2009 at 5:38 pm
on Jan 20, 2009 at 5:38 pm
The title of this article is misleading. Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve is near Page Mill Road, but the area the article talks about is near Half Moon Bay.
I think it is great the the Half Moon Bay people will get some great new trails. I hope that we can get some similar trails near Palo Alto. I would love to be able to pedal my bicycle from Palo Alto to the ocean and back without having to worry about getting hit by cars.
Registered user
Midtown
on Jan 21, 2009 at 9:49 am
Registered user
on Jan 21, 2009 at 9:49 am
Great idea, Sally. Will you support a Bike Trails Tax on all bikes to support such a facility? That is how auto owners pay for their facilities.
Midtown
on Jan 21, 2009 at 11:43 am
on Jan 21, 2009 at 11:43 am
How would Walter Wallis' suggestion for a bike tax work? Most bikes are not licensed which would make it hard to implement such a tax. Unlike autos, this seems like a case where the public rather than the user should pay.
Woodside
on Jan 21, 2009 at 1:16 pm
on Jan 21, 2009 at 1:16 pm
When will someone finally build a trail going from Purisima Higgins Road all the way up to Skyline through Burleigh Murray Tanch State Park? The park already owns all of the land but there is only about 2 miles of trails. Together with this purchase, imagine the possibliites! Lots of volunteers would love to assist. We need to utilize what we have as well as protecting more open space.
Registered user
Midtown
on Jan 22, 2009 at 3:28 am
Registered user
on Jan 22, 2009 at 3:28 am
People who used the yacht harbor and who use the airport pay. Perhaps a ban on unlicensed bikes from trails? Perhaps confiscation of unlicensed bikes on public ways? Considering the price of a good trail bike, a 1% annual license fee would not be a burden and would allow planning not possible when bikes have to battle for general fund funding. Consider money that could not be spent except on bike facilities.
Charleston Gardens
on Jan 22, 2009 at 11:33 pm
on Jan 22, 2009 at 11:33 pm
The MPOpen Space District collects about $30,000,000 in property taxes each year.
This is spent allmost all on overhead costs such as salaries of probably 200,000$$ including benifits for life on over 6 high level exective vice presidents, etc and attorney fees and probably dozens of consultants.
Almost no money is spent on buying land.
They need at least 35 rangers living on their 35,000 acres to protect it from mainly fires and destructive hikers.
They have torn down houses that were on the lands instead of having rangers living there.
There is an obvious place in N.Palo Alto for a strip park with a "Bay to the Sea" bike path.
A 1000 ft wide strip of land along the SanFransquito Creek could be obtained by "Down Zoning" this land as was done in the '70s in the Western part of Palo Alto. The MPOpen Space District was the istigator of the down zoning and then acquired thousands of acres of land at a very low cost.
Since "Down Zoning" is considered a leagal and highly ethical procedure by past and current leaders in our city it should easily be a "Done Deal" for this land along the creek.
The Green Belt Alliance should be the backers of this move as this would be a "Green Belt" on the Northern border of the city.
The land can be down zoned by a factor of 10 as was done in the Western part of the city. This would result in a 7000 sq ft lot to become a 70,000 sq ft lot to be legal. It could be zoned Urban Open Space. The houses there now could remain in a as is condition, but any changes, etc would require variances.
Much of this area is flooded periodically and the people there are or can be held responsible for the flooding if they allow it on their property. The cities payed out many millions of $$ after the'98 flood as it occurred, the creek overflow, at city property at the bridge (Chaucer??st.).
This demonstrates the property owners can be held responsible if they allow the creek to overflow at their property.
I would think this would make their property almost worthless unless they build a "dike" along their property.
This perodic flooding of Palo Alto's "wet-lands" occurrs quite frequently looking back a 1000 years and houses were built on these lands.
The MPOpen Space District has and will have plenty of money to build a Bay-to-the-Sea trail/Park if they direct it away from admistration costs/overhead/retirement golden parachute costs.
A citizens ballot measure to Down-Zone the land along the creek is a first step to make the cost reasonable as was done in the Western 1000's of acres of Palo Alto.
There are 10's of thousands of Palo Altons who support Open Space and what better place that is easily accessable to everyone in the city by walking, biking or by bus. It can become a "Creek-Side Park" over a period of time.
another community
on Jan 23, 2009 at 7:13 am
on Jan 23, 2009 at 7:13 am
MROSD focuses on acquisition and not property management. I know because I'm a neighbor. If one was to check they would see that there is much "open space" behind locked gates with no definitive timeline for accessibility. The excuse is unsafe access, lack of facilities (bathrooms)or sensitive environment. The priority isn't to make the land accessible though, it's to keep acquiring it. Meetings are held for locals to provide input as to future use but the decisions are already made at the top. The employees closest to the land lack the basic equipment to maintain the land and are sorely understaffed. Until recently the district only owned one tractor, it rented the equipment it needed to work the land. All the land that's being acquired is coming off the property tax rolls. You and I will eventually be required to bridge the gap. POST, a private entity, is pretty much determining the direction of MROSD, a public entity, by acquiring land and then "handing" it over to MROSD who then has to manage it. The acquisitions are happening faster than the sluggish MROSD with all their consultants and lengthy planning processes can respond. In the meantime, prime open land and beautiful vistas are being choked by brush (example, Windy Hill, once clear is now a trail through brush). I know I'm rambling but there are lots of issues here to consider, some obvious, many not so obvious.