The following article is about, eminent domain, taxes and the unbridled power of the
MidPeninsula Regional Open Space District(MROSD)
by Michael
Murphy
Preserve Our Coast
Top 10 Reasons
To Vote No On Measure F
San Mateo County has extremely protective zoning regulations in the rural coast. There is a 40 acre minimum for flat land, and average 70 acre minimum including the hills. Prime agricultural lands cannot be developed at all. No hotels or restaurants can be built because density credits cannot be transferred to a parcel than can be seen from a scenic road, which is any parcel tourists would drive by.
Prime agricultural lands cannot be lost to "speculation and development" under the current zoning laws. The LCP calls for 33 new dwelling units a year in the rural coast. The actual building rate: 4 per year.
The 852 acre Souza ranch, now for sale, has one house on it and three more density credits. What "developer" would buy that? Not a single rural property has sold to a developer in the 9 years I have lived on the Coast. The population of the rural coast is now at the lowest level in over 50 years!
The ballot rebuttal to the argument against Measure F starts: "Threats to coastal farmlands and open space are real and immediate." I challenge FOCOS to name one real and immediate threat that MROSD could counteract.
The Coast will be annexed to Woodside, Atherton and Portola Valley, where the "empty spacers" live.
An annexed Coastside would have about 28% of all the acreage of MROSD and about 90% of all the acquirable acreage. The current Board has seven seats. How many seat would it be "fair" for the Coast to get? Eight, because we will have the vast bulk of the acquirable acreage? Three, because we will have 28% of all the acreage? How about two, so at least we only had to persuade three other Board members to vote with us to stop any future changes to the eminent domain policy or future attempts to attack Russian nuns? Well, then, should we at least have ONE SEAT to express Coastside views?
Here is MROSD's final offer: zero seats. None. Nada. Too bad for us. We can be annexed to Ward #6, which includes Olive Mayer of the Sierra Club, Lennie Roberts of the Committee for Green Foothills and all their Bayside supporters working so hard to tell us how to live our lives, strangle agriculture and create vast tracts of empty space that will destroy our endangered farming community.
Annexation makes no sense without a property tax. This vote opens the door for a tax. Later, there can be another vote, which will be held on a district-wide basis, to equalize the rate between Bayside and Coastside. There will be no reason for the Baysiders to oppose it, because it won't raise their taxes. It will be promoted on "fairness" – all parcels in MROSD should be assessed equally. We will be completely outvoted.
Incidentally, farmland pays property taxes – heavy taxes, considering the small number of people that live on them and consume very few services. MROSD lands don't pay taxes.
They tried to take the Russian nuns' property by eminent domain. They are heavily in debt and spend more than 50% of their budget on interest expense. They are spending more than $125,000 of taxpayer money that was supposed to go for land acquisition on Measure F. They are now SELLING open space land in Woodside to pay their operating costs!
MROSD is just a bureaucracy trying to expand their domain. They want to add thousand of acres to their control.
They don't live on the Coastside. They aren't even headquartered in San Mateo County. Who wants another Bayside bureaucracy telling us what to do?
We need our own Open Space District, not these carpetbaggers with little understanding and less sympathy for our unique needs. A Coastal Open Space District would keep $400,000 in taxes on our side of the hill. COSD could operate with a board of Coastsiders, forswear eminent domain (like Marin and Sonoma OSDs) and operate in the urban area. COSD could acquire Mirada Surf! COSD also could manage lands for POST, or pass funding through to POST to support a management capability. COSD could get residents' trust and perhaps raise an average of $50 per parcel per year, like the Bayside, which would generate $1.2 million a year.
Save Mirada Surf – Vote No On F
MROSD refused to change their eminent domain policy before the advisory vote. Why? The proper process would have been to consult with Coastside stakeholders, hammer out a reasonable policy and let us vote on something solid instead of promises they will "look at it" after the vote.
When MROSD floated the idea of reviewing their eminent domain policy, three people offered comments. I urged them to change the policy before the vote, so we knew what we were voting on. They refused. A FOCUS member and Coastside resident urged them not to change their policy in any way. A Baysider said it would be unfair to give the Coast a special deal, and also urged them not to change their policy in any way. What do you think the chances are they will make any meaningful change to their policy? Why did they refuse to work out the changes before the vote? What guarantee do we have that a future Board won't change the eminent policy back again, on a 4 to 3 vote with no Coastside representation?
Most governments and special districts that have the power of eminent domain use it to acquire very small parcels of land, often just right-of-ways for underground utilities. MROSD uses it to acquire hundreds, potentially thousands, of acres at a clip.
Under the current eminent domain policy, MROSD can take any property that is subdividable, even if it has someone's house on it. They can also take any property that is not subdividable if it is owned by a corporation or partnership. Most farms and ranches fit these definitions.
Eminent domain means the landowner must move out immediately. The only issue that can go to court is the amount of compensation. The landowner has to have the legal fees ($50,000 to $200,000) to fight MROSD. Almost everyone knuckles under with this club hanging over them. It is amazing to me that 15 people had the gumption to fight hard enough to force MROSD to start formal eminent domain proceedings. Many more were forced to sell because they could not afford the legal fees.
I lived in Mill Valley on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais for 20 years. We protected most of West Marin, including the historic dairy farms, through a combination of ag easements and purchases. The Marin Open Space District elected NEVER to use eminent domain. Today, the Sonoma Open Space District has the same policy. Why won't MROSD give up the power of eminent domain? Because they intend to exercise it!
Eminent domain pays "market value". It gives NO value to the fact a family has held land for four generations, NO value to the incredible physical effort it takes to manage and improve a farm, NO value to the specialness of each farm that ties a family to that land. I would be heartbroken if MROSD took my place away from me for "market value". If I wanted to sell it for "market value", I would have done so already.
Eminent domain lowers the value of our farms and ranches, makes it harder to attract long-term investors (we have put a tree farm project on hold pending the outcome of this vote) and becomes a disclosable item in any real estate transaction because it is a meaningful threat to property values.
Eminent domain should be used to acquire small, critical pieces of land such as sewer right of ways, blind corners endangering traffic safety, or edges of roads for expansion. It should not be used to acquire thousands of acres because MROSD thinks they make a nice scenic backdrop, or because a property happens to adjoin existing open space.
This is the Hotel California Measure – you can check in, but you can never leave. If the Coast is annexed to MROSD it can never be undone. If 5 or 10 or 20 years in the future a group of radicals take control of MROSD, they can change the eminent domain policy by a 4 ot 3 vote. Then they can achieve their ultimate objective: empty space. It will be expropriation without representation.
FOCOS says eminent domain is only used "in the interest of the greater good of the community." Shades of 1984!
We can do agricultural easements with POST, the American Farmland Trust or the Trust for Public Lands.
Nor do we need MROSD to manage our lands. We are managing our own land quite nicely, thank you. If POST, Sempervirens, TPL, AFT or other organizations need management help in the future, they can contract with MROSD – as POST does right now. Longer term, the Coast needs to have its own Open Space District.
In the new Sierra Club newsletter, Betsy Crowder says MROSD is almost up to its debt limit (can't do any more acquisitions) and is thinking about a tax increase. I know they were recently offered a very strategic piece of property for a conservation easement and turned it down because they didn't have any money.
Question for FOCUS: If MROSD is out of money, what purpose do they have in coming to the Coast other than to collect our $400,000 (their estimate) and take it over the hill to pay down their current debt?
In MROSD's own poll, 80% of the rural residents said they did not want to be annexed. (FOCUS says this is "solid support for District expansion"). MROSD said they would not go into an area where they are not welcome. So why are they having this vote? They are hoping to cram down annexation by having Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada and Half Moon Bay turn on their rural neighbors and outvote them. Otherwise they would have limited the vote to the area north of Half Moon Bay, where there appears to be local support for local reasons.
We asked them to limit the vote to the urban Midcoast, or at least split it into two votes, one for the urban Midcoast and one for the rural coast. They refused. Why?
The future of farming on the Coast is in high-value crops, on-farm processing, value-added outlets like roadside stands, pick-your-own, community sponsored ag, small bed and breakfasts and on-farm restaurants. How do MROSD's policies support and enable a strong, functioning farming community? They don't.
...many of them descendants of the original settlers.
We are neither "open space" nor a "scenic backdrop". We are a COMMUNITY of farmers and ranchers that existed before San Mateo County (or MROSD) was founded. We live where we do because we love it, in spite of the marginal roads and erratic power.
How strongly do we feel? Threatening farmers and ranchers with eminent domain and trying to turn our community into empty space feels like ethnic cleansing. It is that evil.
Ask yourself this. If someone showed up at your house and said they were taking your property under eminent domain, HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? If they said you had to clear out immediately and would be offered a value calculated by their appraiser, HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? If they said the work you put into your garden, the do-it-yourself weekend projects, the neighbors you like, the view and location you love all counted for nothing, HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? If they said you could contest their appraisal in court if you were ready to pay $50,000 to $200,000 in legal fees, HOW WOULD YOU FEEL?
WELL, THAT'S HOW WE FEEL!
Do the right thing. Don't vote for Measure F. "F" always stands for "Failure". The whole Coast needs to come together for LOCAL CONTROL to preserve our lifestyles. We can form our own Open Space District that will not use eminent domain against our friends. Don't jam a Bayside bureaucracy down your neighbors' throats, when that bureaucracy won't even tell us in advance what their policies will be and won't even give us one voting seat on their board. It's dishonest and dishonorable, and you shouldn't be a part of it.
Michael Murphy WE NEED DONATIONS
Preserve Our Coast WE NEED VOLUNTEERS
P.O. Box 308 CALL 726-8495 TO HELP
Half Moon Bay