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San Francisco Chronicle
Call it ``undevelopment.'' In an astonishing turnabout, a controversial bed-and-breakfast inn nearing completion on three acres next to the isolated Pigeon Point Lighthouse south of Pescadero has been snapped up by a
land trust and will be removed. All in the interest of preserving open space. After years of persistence, the Peninsula Open Space Trust announced yesterday that it has bought the starkly beautiful beachfront
property, known as Whaler's Cove and the Lighthouse Inn at Pigeon Point LLC, for $2.65 million. The property is 21 miles south of Half Moon Bay and west of Highway 1. It includes four buildings -- three of them new and
expected to be part of the inn -- a new water purification system and sewage treatment facilities. All of it -- every bathroom, laundry room and cozy room with a view -- will be bulldozed if the they cannot be recycled for
charitable uses, said Audrey Rust, president of the Menlo Park land trust. ``This is called undevelopment,'' Rust said yesterday. ``It's getting rid of two sources of possible pollution to the tide pools below, the septic
system and the desalinization plant, and it also reopens access to Whaler's Cove, which has been closed since 1994.'' The inn would have been the first commercial development west of Highway 1 between Half Moon Bay and
Santa Cruz County. Pigeon Point Lighthouse, six miles north of Ano Nuevo Point, was established in 1872 at a spot on the California coast where ships need to make a small course change. Fog and gales, reefs and currents
brought many ships to disaster over the years. When the clipper ship Carrier Pigeon ran aground and sank on her maiden voyage from Boston to San Francisco on June 5, 1853, the point gained a legend and a new name.
Environmentalists have been fighting the bed-and-breakfast idea for years. Owner Kathleen McKenzie's buildings, they say, block views and are a worrisome symbol of creeping development pressures enveloping the southern San
Mateo coast, which has managed to remain largely wild and rural. Many were aghast when the San Mateo County Planning Commission and the California Coastal Commission gave McKenzie the permits needed to build so close to
the pristine lighthouse. When construction began late last year, the battle appeared to all to have been lost. The inn was scheduled to open late this spring or early summer. McKenzie's opponents were particularly upset
about the future of Whaler's Cove, a tiny beach hard against jutting rocks next to the 127-year-old lighthouse that was once used by Portuguese whalers and rumrunners. Unless another way was developed to get to the beach, access
would have been restricted to guests of the B&B. The project's three new buildings each contained three units, barely beyond the shadow of the lighthouse atop the cliff. They were nearly completed earlier this month
when the land trust apparently made an offer McKenzie could not refuse. McKenzie, of Bonny Doon, could not be reached for comment yesterday. However, she told The Chronicle earlier this year that the arduous process to win
approval was won out of sheer grit. ``Yes, it was a long battle, but I am a native Californian, fourth generation, and I am just tenacious,'' McKenzie said then. ``I think it will be a beautiful development and will be
much enjoyed by people.'' County planning officials expressed surprise yesterday at the turn of events. ``I've been here for seven years, and I've never seen anything like this before,'' said Jim Eggemeyer,
development review services manager in the county's planning and building division. ``I guess we will be dealing with demolition permits on this thing next. This is really unique.'' Rust said while the price was high for
the three-acre parcel, because of its prominence and symbolic value, the land trust felt it could not let it go without one last offer. ``Now we have to let people know that we need to raise money to pay for this,'' Rust
said. ``It certainly is the smallest piece of land we have ever paid money for and certainly the highest price we have ever paid per acre. But, I think, years ahead we will be very glad we did this when we could.'' One of
the environmentalists who fought the bed-and-breakfast idea for years, Lennie Roberts, was ecstatic yesterday. ``I'm just dancing on air,'' said Roberts, legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills.
``Usually POST's priority is large parcels, but because of its fantastic location historically and its setting adjacent to the lighthouse, they just did this great thing.'' |
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