A Half Moon Bay tragedy exposed ‘deplorable’ living conditions. A plan to help is being stonewalled

For many Bay Area residents, last year’s mass shooting of eight farmworkers in Half Moon Bay served as a wake-up call to the terrible housing conditions that many coastal agriculture workers live under.

After meeting with farmworker families after the shooting, Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters, “You should see where these folks are living, the conditions they’re in. Living in shipping containers.” On social media, San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller posted photos of worker housing, describing the conditions as “deplorable” and “heartbreaking.” San Mateo District Attorney Stephe Wagstaffe said workers were “living in very poor conditions,” with some residing in “shacks without running water or electricity.”

But, just 16 months after the killing of workers at two coastal San Mateo mushroom farms, the first post-shooting proposal to build a senior farmworkers apartment complex in downtown Half Moon Bay seems to be running into the same wall of antidevelopment sentiment that has long fueled land-use battles in coastal San Mateo County.

Twice in the last two weeks, the Half Moon Bay Planning Commission has held marathon public hearings about a proposed five-story, 40-unit complex at 555 Kelly Ave. for senior farmworkers. Both times the public comment was overwhelmingly in support of the project being proposed by Mercy Housing and the nonprofit Ayudando Latinos a Soñar, or ALAS, with agriculture workers and housing advocates outlining the desperate need for housing options.

Yet, at both meetings, on April 23, and 30, the commissioners declined to take a position on the project, instead punting the question to a later date.

At the April 30, meeting, commissioners criticized the five-story building as too tall. They complained about its potential impact on traffic and parking. They said the design was out of character in downtown Half Moon Bay.

Several of the commissioners suggested that a floor could be shaved off the design if they got rid of the “office space,” a 841-square-foot management office for the building and a 2,794-square-foot farmworkers resource center, where residents will be able to socialize, take classes and be connected with a wide range of health care services.

Commissioner Rick Hernandez repeatedly questioned the project architect about how the building design “describes and informs our character as a community.”

“This design doesn’t say this is a gateway to a small town — help me understand how this is a gateway to a small town,” Hernandez said. “How does the building inform the character of Half Moon Bay? That is the fundamental issue the community is objecting to.”

Hernandez also questioned whether the development was consistent with Half Moon Bay’s Local Coastal Program and Land Use Plan, which was updated in 2020.

Commission Chair Margaret Gossett questioned whether the height of the building could be reduced “by eliminating the parking and the resource center.”

Vice Chair Hazel Joanes said she needed answers to a litany of questions: “Without having the staff respond to my question in writing, I am having a difficult time nodding my head and saying, ‘Oh, yeah, this is it.’ ”

Officials with ALAS and Mercy Housing said the commission’s unwillingness to take a vote on the project — and suggestions that the developers should explore redesigning the project, reducing the height or eliminating aspects of the programming — was concerning.

After two years of community meetings and collaboration with staff, the project has already received $5.2 million in state and local financing, including $1.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act and $2.7 million from the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

But the delays in the planning commission vote could have big ramifications, according to Mercy Housing. Applications for the vast majority of the money that will finance the project, affordable housing tax credits, are due in July. But the developers cannot apply for that funding until the project has won local approval. If the developer misses the July tax credit deadline, it could delay the project by a year.

At the conclusion of the four-hour hearing, Mercy Housing Real Estate Director Ramie Dare implored the planning commission to take a vote so that the project could either win approval or the “no” vote could be appealed to the Half Moon Bay City Council.

“We are in a place where we are trying to position ourselves to be eligible for funding rounds, and we need these approvals to be able to do so,” Dare said. “If the ask is for us to do more studies, I guarantee that will eat up 6-9 months at least, and we will lose a year while trying to get funding for this development. I know you don’t want that to happen — I’m pretty sure you don’t.”

Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, the founder and executive director of ALAS, a nonprofit that helps Latino families in coastal communities, said she has been surprised by the commission’s deliberations, given the amount of attention that was given to farmworker housing following the mushroom farm shootings.

“This is the first project to come forward since the mass shooting — to have it be received with so much pushback feels really complicated and painful,” she said. “We are trying to bring farmworkers out of hiding, out of isolated spaces and hidden ranches, to be visible, to live the remainder of their lives out in a thriving environment. They will be able to walk to stores, walk to church, walk with their grandchildren.”

ALAS Program Director Sandra Sencion said the reaction has been “very confusing.”

“It’s frustrating. They keep going back and forth about height and parking,” she said. “But the studies have been done. It’s not a new project, it’s been in the works for two years, and now they are questioning the design of the project? I don’t know why they are nitpicking.”

The debate comes at a time when a whole host of state laws have taken control away from local jurisdictions. In the case of 555 Kelly Ave., state density bonus laws mean that Mercy and ALAS could actually go as high as seven stories.

Jordan Grimes, a regional lead for the pro-housing group Peninsula for Everyone, said the 555 Kelly debate is “emblematic of why the state is curtailing local control.”

“A year ago everyone was aghast at the conditions farmworkers (were) living in. Now that things are being tested with an actual project, we are seeing where people really stand,” Grimes said. “We are talking about a five-story apartment building for senior farmworkers. It’s hard to think of a group that would be more sympathetic. Yet you still have the complaints you see with every other project: height and parking.”

He also objected to the fact that all the project opponents say they are in favor of farmworker housing but have objections with specific aspects of this project’s design.

“If you are unwilling to support the project that the farmworkers have brought to you, you don’t support farmworker housing,” he said. “You don’t get to condition your support. This is an instance where your support can’t be theoretical or hypothetical. It has to be real.”

Reach J.K. Dineen: jdineen@sfchronicle.com

Source: San Francisco Chronicle