Half Moon Bay downtown streetscape plan gains approval

It was designed with community stakeholders, including local businesses, in mind. Colleen Henney, the owner of two Main Street businesses — Jupiter and Main and Juno’s Little Mercantile — is particularly pleased with the proposed parking change.  

“The way parking is on Main Street, it’s really crowded and dangerous,” she said. “Last week alone, I fielded two requests for a postcard and pen because there was a car hit outside my shop.” 

The elimination of angled parking will cause a dearth of it in the direct downtown, design specialists acknowledged, but proposed plans to formalize angled parking on perpendicular streets to make up for it. 

Ultimately, a parking garage would be the most feasible way to create readily available parking for visitors and residents, Councilmember Debbie Ruddock said when weighing the concerns around space elimination, although it comes with funding challenges of its own. 

Another major element of the plan is sidewalk-widening within the four-block Heritage Main Street, which would take 10-foot sidewalks to 16 feet. The change would provide shop owners more space to display wares and incentivize customers while making downtown more inclusive, Krystlyn Giedt, Coastside Chamber of Commerce CEO, said. 

“There’s definitely, especially when it comes to sidewalk improvement, [changes] that can be made — mainly because most of this infrastructure was put in well before ADA requirements and mobility of different age groups were even in the main consciousness,” she said. 

Despite a generally positive reaction to both the sidewalk and parking proposals, some apprehensions were raised during public comment at the City Council meeting.  

“Sidewalk widening is good and necessary and restores Main Street to human pedestrian scale, however, leveling the streets might provide a problem with traffic calming,” Amber Stone, a representative for local business Paper Crane, said. “Unless parking is enforced, space available on Main Street could be halved by oversize vehicles.” 

Some councilmembers expressed concerns that a proposal to bump out sidewalk curbs could pose risks for younger members of the community. 

“I love the plaza idea, I love eliminating sidewalk curbs, but I am very fearful this will be dangerous for children,” Councilmember Deborah Penrose said. 

For North Main Street, the plan proposes a shared-use path for bicycles and pedestrians, as well as intersection treatments that would improve pedestrian and motorist safety. Another proposed addition to the area would be an archway sign marking the entrance to Half Moon Bay’s downtown area. 

“One of the things that businesses hear constantly is, ‘I’ve been coming to the beach for 20 years, I had no idea there was a downtown,’” Giedt said of the sign’s benefits. “Downtown merchants have been working for 20 years, trying to get some monument signage.” 

But some, including Vice Mayor Harvey Rarback, suggested that the sign would be more beneficial along State Route 92, where it could be seen by those coming over the hill. A small sign was installed along the highway, but it wasn’t sufficient, he said. 

“It’s clear to me, if you want to put a welcoming arch to direct people coming into town, it belongs on Highway 92. It’s not easy, but that would be my suggestion — to try to work with Caltrans to get that installed,” Rarback said. 

For the South Main Street quadrant, major proposed changes include green infrastructure to break up parking spaces and a renovation to Kitty Fernandez Plaza that would make the design more forward-facing and inviting. 

Change and renovation to the city has historically been met with some resistance from residents, who don’t want the town to be seen as a tourist hot spot. But Half Moon Bay is already being inundated by visitors, especially during the summer months, said Henney, the shop owner, and it’s time to adapt. 

“I understand that change is hard, but this is a necessary change,” she said. “People are coming every single weekend, from all over the place. Half Moon Bay is a destination to cool off from the crazy heat waves, and there’s no putting the toothpaste back in the tube. We have to make it safe and accessible for people who are here.”

Note to readers: A previous subheading for this story incorrectly stated that parallel parking would be removed in the new plan. The subheading has been changed to reflect that angled — not parallel — parking is proposed to be removed.