News Subscribe  to Our Newsletter Sign  up for Email Updates CGF  In the News Press  Inquiries Past  Articles Calendar			The SF Chronicle January 31, 2003   The elephants Coastside  won't forget By Mark Simon They're trying to run the elephants off the farms near Half Moon Bay. Last fall, when thousands of people flocked to the Coastside to buy pumpkins  and soak up the agricultural ambience of family farms, one of the local  farmers, the Cozzolino family, which owns and operates the 4Cs Farm, brought  in a couple of elephants and sold rides to kids. It was a sensation - customers crowded into the 4Cs site, and left behind  thousands of their dollars. It also caused traffic to back up dramatically on Highway 92, prompting  some merchants to complain that their businesses were suffering. The arrival of the two Asian elephants, Rosie and Dixie - combined weight  14,600 pounds - was the latest escalation in a continuing competition  among local farmers for tourism money. For two decades, farmers along Highway 92 have been transforming their  farms into carnival-like pumpkin patches - selling not only pumpkins,  but offering pony rides, train rides, hay rides, haunted houses, giant  slides, face-painting and inflatable jumps. They expanded into the tourism business as the flower business grew more  difficult and unprofitable. Now, some local farmers say they rely on pumpkin  patches and Christmas tree farms - and all the things that go with them  - for as much as 70 percent of their income. But residents of Half Moon Bay thought the Cozzolinos went too far when  they brought in the elephants. So, they're protesting the renewal of the Cozzolino permit for this year's  pumpkin season. Because the farm is outside the city limits, Half Moon Bay can only offer  its view on the renewal of a permit that is under the jurisdiction of  the county. To that end, Half Moon Bay Planning Director Marjorie Macris, at the direction  of the City Council, has fired off a strongly worded letter to county  planning officials protesting the issuance of a new permit and detailing  a laundry list of reasons. In short, the letter touches every environmental base, and with the kind  of practiced hand one would expect from Half Moon Bay, where every argument  is about the future of the planet. The elephants and the crowds they draw create traffic problems, cause  potential damage to nearby Pilarcitos Creek, create dust, odors and noise  and represent a nonagricultural use for a parcel of land zoned for agricultural,  wrote Macris. There is even a public safety hazard. San Mateo County sheriff's deputies  had to respond to the site last year when animal rights demonstrators  showed up to protest the use of the elephants as amusement rides. Where it might lead is anybody's guess. The matter has yet to be set for  the county Planning Commission agenda. On the Coastside, these days, calm and reasoned discussion that gives  credit to both sides of an issue is as endangered as an Asian elephant.  So, a debate on the merits alone would seem unlikely. But it would seem prudent for the Cozzolinos to rethink the return of  the elephants, rather than risk a public outcry that threatens the farm's  pumpkin patch business. Page last updated February 20, 2003 .