Half Moon Bay starts year with housing project logistics

That parcel map splits the original property into three parcels — one for the Stone Pine Cove development itself, one for the corporation yard and wildlife corridor and one for the Pilarcitos Creek riparian corridor. 

This will allow the county to purchase the development parcel from the city, part of a complicated financial transaction to make the 880 Stone Pine property eligible for affordable housing, City Manager Matthew Chidester said. 

“It would become county property within the city’s jurisdiction,” Councilmember Paul Nagengast said. “It still follows all the city rules, regulations and codes, and these 46-47 homes that are going in here count towards the city’s housing requirements.” 

A public hearing for the sale of the property was postponed to no later than Feb. 4, the City Council also decided. The homes are being constructed off-site, and are expected to be ready for occupancy by the spring.

An exclusive negotiations agreement for another farmworker housing project, 555 Kelly Ave., was also approved at the meeting Jan. 21. That development, which will be a 40-unit, five-story affordable housing complex for senior farmworkers, was unanimously approved by the City Council in June 2024 after they rejected three separate appeals against it. 

An exclusive negotiations agreement was originally approved between the city and the developer, Mercy Housing, in October 2022, Housing Programs Manager Mike Noce said. 

Now that agreement has expired, and Mercy Housing requires another one “so they can demonstrate they are in this active conversation with the city” as they continue to apply for federal and county funding, Noce said.

Despite fairly expansive public comment on the 555 Kelly Ave. development during the meeting, councilmembers emphasized that approval of the new exclusive negotiations agreement was par for the course and made no major changes to the development. There is not a clear timeline for construction or occupancy.

Vice Mayor Debbie Ruddock insisted that the city was taking proper steps with the development. 

“This is not taking a long time. … This was considered over 5-6 meetings between City Council and Planning Commission. We have to get it right. It’s a huge project,” she said. “This in no way commits the city to any particular version of a lease agreement. It’s only an agreement to continue.”