Ten days after being admonished by Gov. Gavin Newsom for twice delaying approval of 40 units of senior farmworker housing in downtown Half Moon Bay, the city’s Planning Commission reluctantly approved the project late Tuesday night, although board members made it clear they were unhappy with everything from development’s height to its design to its programming.
With midnight approaching, after five hours of questions and deliberation, the commission voted that the project should be exempt from a stringent environmental study and that it was consistent with the Local Coastal Land Use Plan. The project now moves to the City Council for final approvals.
For developers Mercy Housing and Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, known as ALAS, the vote was a victory, even if it didn’t feel like it: Rather than focus on how the development might best improve the lives of future residents, the majority of the commissioners were fixated on how it might be scaled back.
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