Council to Discuss Emergency Operations Center, Economic Development Tonight

Special Study Session on Emergency Operations Center

Prior to the City Council meeting, the council will hold a special study session of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) project. The 6 p.m. study session, open to the public, will be held at the located at 535 Kelly Ave. in Half Moon Bay. In 2009, the city received a $750,000 grant from the Office of Homeland Security as seed money for a Half Moon Bay-based EOC that would serve the San Mateo County Coastside area. The meeting will focus on considering next steps to take with the proposed project.

Economic Development Working Group Recommendations

Recommendations generated by a 6-month effort to develop revenue-generating strategies for the city of Half Moon Bay will be presented and discussed at tonight's City Council meeting starting at 7 p.m., among other agenda items (scroll down to bottom for agenda summary). The meeting will take place at the Ted Adcock Community/Senior Center.

Comprised of a mix of property owners, business owners, enterpreneurs and individuals active in the local community, the group of approximately 20 individuals honed in on three areas: social media, branding, and business retention and land use.

The social media subcommittee's recommendations focus is on raising the city's profile online through Facebook and other applications. A social media "team" made up of local community members would also help to implement goals. The branding subcommittee would like the city to spend $6,000 to develop a brand for Half Moon Bay that would include logo design and testing, and a toolkit for local businesses to utilize. City staff support this recommendation and wrote in their staff report for tonight's meeting (see PDF documents posted in the media box of this article) that the money should come from the city's unrestricted reserve funds.

The business retention and land use subcommittee is working to create greater revenue through strategizing how to best facilitate land use for economic development through streamlining the development process, educating developers and contractors about Half Moon Bay's planning and development process, and implementing rezoning strategies, among other actions.

The subcommittee has developed short and long-term actions that the city can take to move forward in this area.

One short-term action is working with "all potential development applicants to create as much of a transparent and streamlined development process as possible," according to the staff report for this agenda item (see PDF documents). Another is to take action on the development or sale of the Beachwood property, as well as the property (donated in October 2010) "when possible."

Long-term actions are working to update key parts of the city's Local Coastal Plan as relates to land use and circulation elements, along with establishing a committee made up of community members to examine the zoning code in accordance with staff. The commitee would make recommendations to the City Council on code changes. In their report for tonight's meeting (see PDF documents), city staff listed that a study needed to update a portion of this plan would cost about $200,000 alone and intimated that this update needed to be planned in phases.

Other topics on tonight's agenda (see PDF documents for staff reports associated with each item):

• Honor David Eblovi and Architectural Review Committee members Robin Jeffs, Steve Kikuchi, Ed Love (no staff report)

• Review and accept check disbursements
• Take action on a use permit issue pertaining to the proposed relocation of the to 990 N. Cabrillo Highway
• Take action on entering into one-year contract with Excellent Maintenance Pro, Inc. for janitorial services at a cost of $75,372