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A dangerous bill will be heard this Wednesday, April 30 by the Assembly Local Government Committee – and the committee needs YOUR HELP!  Assembly Bill 1991 clears the way for development of a subdivision directly on top of sensitive wetlands – by blocking environmental laws.

AB 1991 would create a pathway for local government and rogue developers to bypass longstanding environmental review and planning laws. It would allow construction of 129 houses on wetlands (known as “Beachwood”) in Half Moon Bay and exempts the project from the state’s most sacred environmental laws – including the California Environmental Quality Act, the California Coastal Act and other safeguards protecting water quality, fish and animals.

Following an unusual lower court ruling against the city of Half Moon Bay, a slapdash legal settlement has the city seeking, on behalf of the developer, a complete rollback of environmental review – or the city must pay the developer $18 million. The settlement even bars environmental regulation for a separate subdivision (called “Glencree,” which is also on coastal wetlands) that was not even part of the original court ruling.

As the California Coastal Commission said in their recent letter blasting this dangerous bill, “The terms of the settlement appear to be excessively weighted in favor of the developer, and include additional property not currently owned by the plaintiff, not addressed by the court ruling and not proven to have man-made wetlands [Glencree], to the detriment of statewide coastal protection policies.”